Claiming self-love is especially hard for the focal character of True Beauty. Finding a way to boost her self-confidence through wearing make-up, will it ultimately make her happy?
School-set youth drama is synonymous to stories about growing pains and so is True Beauty. Shedding light specifically to the awkward age of building self-esteem, the series vibrantly sprinted its first chapters with ample hijinks.
Charting 3.5 and 3.6 national viewership ratings, the latest jTBC series flounders in some scenes, but it got better as it intertwines the lives of the main love pairing on its early onset.
Opening Week Rating: 
abbyinhallyuland watches True Beauty on Viu
Episode Recaps: 01 & 02 | 03 & 04 | 05 & 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 & 10 | 11 & 12 | 13 & 14 | Review |
True Beauty Opening Week Story
Living as a school outcast and a favorite minion of school bullies in her class, Im Ju-kyung (Moon Ga Young) blames her pimpled face for what she thinks to be an inescapable fate.
When her first love confession goes down to the drain, she suffered extreme humiliation. Deciding to end her life while standing on a building rooftop ledge, she notices a billboard bearing words of love for a celebrity who passed away.
Waking up from her crazy suicide idea, she halts her plan just as a man who thought she will be jumping rushes to stop her. With her broken eyeglasses, the man gave her a piggyback ride.
At home, she meets a chaotic living room and learns that they will soon move back to their old house. Elated at the news, she plans to start a new life armed with make-up confidence that she recently learned to be an effective mask to hide her facial flaws.
Brand New Ju-kyung
Moving to a new school with make-up fortified face, Ju-kyung transforms to a goddess and easily wins the hearts of her new classmates. Bumping on her class’ handsome top student Lee Su-ho (Cha Eun Woo), she left some make-up mark on his jacket. Thus she promised to clean it up for him.
Winning new friends Soo-ah (Kang Min Ah) and Su-jin (Park Yoo Na), she also encounters Han Seo-jun (Hwang In Yeop) with whom she helped after getting trapped and bullied one time by a gang.
Back in the neighborhood where she grew up, she reconnects with a manhwa store owner. A fan of comic book horror stories, the manhwa store cradled her early days of fascination in the genre.
Just when she was about to pick up something to read, someone beat her to it and discovers it to be Su-ho. The latter knows of her suicide attempt, but she does not know that it was Su-ho she met that day.
Ju-kyung’s Secret
Having an estranged relationship with his celebrity father, Su-ho lives a recluse life. He goes to the manhwa store as he also likes creepy-themed manhwa stories. Upon learning that Ju-kyung has the limited edition manhwa he has been dying to read, he agrees to Ju-kyung’s non-disclosure agreement of her secret.
Thinking it to be her “suicide secret”, Su-ho obliged while Ju-kyung is baffled if he knows she is his classmate Ju-kyung. Getting a chance to know which identity Su-ho knows, they meet outside, and she prepared both the comic book and his jacket.
At the meeting place, Su-ho asks for the manhwa book making her think that Su-ho knows her from the manhwa place. The next day, Soo-ah sulks about her boyfriend’s cold treatment only to be greeted with a surprise prepared in the classroom.
Unfortunately, their classmate can’t hold any longer on his bitterness and motions to slam the cake on the lovers who duck on the approaching cake disaster. It then hit directly on Ju-kyung’s face to everyone’s surprise.
Panicking on revealing her true face without make-up she runs to the rest room that are all preoccupied. Her classmates approach and surround her. Trapped in a situation, Su-ho takes off his jacket, covers her and takes her away from the crowd.
True Beauty Opening Week Takeaway Quotes
– Suho –
“What could be so hard in your life that you want to die? How could you give up on your life like that? You should try to overcome the difficulties instead.”
“
“Have you even considered how devastated your loved ones would be? Someone might forever live in guilt for not saving you. There’s nothing you can do for a dead person.”
– Ju-kyung –
“Being pretty made a difference regarding how the kids look at me. All except one person.”
“I know I’m not in the position to say this, but cheer up. The one who died won’t want those left behind to suffer for too long. That’s why you should be happy. You must! Okay?”
True Beauty Opening Week Musings
I promise to catch up on the manhwa version of True Beauty in case there’s something we can align to the live adaptation. But as a rule, stories that are adapted have typically free reign to utilize materials from the original story or tweak it to fit the remake.
I’ll be honest though that roughly half of the first episode did not appeal to me. It picked up along the way and I love the scattered humor every now and then.
School dramas is a challenging genre for me. Aside from its usual ingredient of school bullying, school impossible policies and circling tackled adolescent pains; the stories are mostly predictable and shallow. To put it bluntly, sometimes I just watch for the cute boys and doses of nostalgia.
Thankfully, I don’t think True Beauty will be just a feel-good story. Su-ho and Ju-kyung’s inner problems were vaguely discussed. The quotes I mentioned above pushes contemplation on the agonizing peer pressure that some young people can’t take on their own.
That people who might stumble on this drama might be needing at the moment in case they are in the same situation. Additionally, it also highlights the challenges youth faces while confronting life realities amidst growing up as an adult.
An overview of the character connections were also highlighted like the friendship fallout between the two male leads. Accordingly, the narrative looks apparently ready to show Ju-kyung savoring the moment of being accepted by her peers. But under her make-up disguise and possible blossoming romance, will her true beauty shine on?
True Beauty airs on jTBC every Wednesday and Thursday.
Photos: tvN | Viu
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