To the Beautiful You

To the Beautiful You

5.5/10

To the Beautiful You 

Genre:                                   Episodes: 16                                   Year: 2012

Romance

Comedy

School

Synopsis:

Gold medallist high-jumper, Kang Tae Joon, has entered a slump in his sporting career after an injury. Rumours start to spread about his inability to continue with the sport, and his company begins to contemplate pushing forward his retirement. Koo Jae Hee is an avid fan of Tae Joon. In order to encourage him and help him get over his slump, she disguises herself as a boy and enters the all-boys high school that Tae Joon attends.

Cast:

Sulli (Koo Jae Hee)

Choi Minho (Kang Tae Joon)

Lee Hyun Woo (Cha Eun Gyeol)

Kim Ji Won (Seol Ha Na)

Kang Ha Neul (Min Hyun Jae)

Ki Tae Young (Dr Jang Min Woo)

General Thoughts:

The drama starts off fairly well- a sparkly cast and cross-dressing hijinks set the scene pretty well, but all too soon it becomes evident that that’s all the drama really has going for it. Which isn’t even close to enough substance to stretch over 16 episodes.

The star-studded cast

Sigh, yet another drama doomed to gradual decline after the mid-way point. I’ve seen enough idols acting to know that many of them can act well enough. Unfortunately, I just don’t believe that Sulli and Minho fall into this group.

I adore you- but I wasn't buyin' it

While I wouldn’t go as far as saying Minho was straight up bad- he was just drastically outshone by the two professional actors playing support characters. It’s hard to blame Sulli for the weak performance as Koo Jae Hee, as the character herself is just so bland and poorly constructed. Would a more experienced actress have been able to breathe more life into our leading lady? Maybe. Or maybe the boring Jae Hee was going to be a flop no matter what poor, innocent actress took her on. The plot was equally as weak as the acting. There is no sufficient reason given (until halfway) to why this young girl has gone through all the trouble of entering an all-boys high school- except that she’s a massive fan. Even when we’re given a snippet of the motivation behind our leading lady’s actions- the reasoning feels weak, forced, and totally unrealistic. While the whole drama seems to want to centre around Jae Hee reigniting Tae Joon’s passion for high jump…it doesn’t actually crop up that often, except whenever Jae Hee needs to formulate a reason to stay in Korea.

We'll just ignore that it's glaringly obvious that she's got a V where there
should be a P

Instead, the drama chooses to focus on the budding relationship between the two main leads, and our second main lead’s homosexuality crisis (which is actually hilarious and endearing). This shift in focus may not have been as boring as it was, had there been continuous development. Alas, once Tae Joon discovers Jae Hee is a girl all development screeches to a halt and we spend a substantial amount of episodes rehashing old information, and begging someone to tell poor Eun Gyeol that his crush is indeed a lady. At the end of the series, I was relieved it was over, as the second half seemed to serve no purpose other than to infuriate its viewers. The whole drama reeked of wasted potential and ‘if only’s’.

If only this muppet got the girl

What Was Great:

Pretty People:

It was like playing 'Where's Waldo Woo Bin'

I don’t doubt that the point of the star line-up was to jag the attention of fans. I, myself, fell victim to this ploy. Being rather new to K-Drama and the K-pop culture scene, I was pretty excited to see a cast line-up where I knew not only the two main leads, but a handful of the supporting cast as well. I was surprised however, to see that Kim Woo Bin did not play a large role, but merely an extended cameo, considering that when you Google (yes I Google K-drama casts, don’t judge) this drama- Kim Woo Bin is one of the first cast-members noted. For the first half or so of the drama, the writers successfully manage to cover the rather lacking plot by simply dragging its stars into the spot-light and saying “Ooo! Look who it is!” We were all fooled.

Bromance:

The bromance turned out to be a bit of a double-edged sword for this poor drama. I’ll tell you right now, it’s not the very minimal bromance between lead character Kang Tae Joon and Cha Eun Gyeol that won hearts- but the sweet, heart-melting friendship between Cha Eun Gyeol and Min Hyun Jae. It was truly a wondrous thing to behold. While it may have taken a while to kick into gear, it’s definitely one of the highlights of the drama. From the moment Hyun Jae so easily accepted the potentially gay inclinations of his roommie, we all knew we were in for a treat.

I could watch a whole drama about these two

The two boys absolutely shone in whatever scenes they were in, so it came as no surprise to anyone that the scenes with the two together were shiny, sparkly gold. Unfortunately, this did lead to the unintentional downside of Tae Joon looking like even more of a bland, emotionless robot. While we’re on the subject, both Lee Hyun Woo and Kang Ha Neul rocked my socks off in this drama.

Eun Gyeol > Tae Joon

I felt more connection to these two side characters than I ever did with our two main leads, and I can’t help but wonder if it really was poor construction of the main couple, or simply an obvious difference in acting ability. Cha Eun Gyeol was an easily likeable character, and his character arc was enjoyable enough even if it did become a tad repetitive. He bore a striking similarity to Gong Yoo in ‘Coffee Prince’- willing to switch up his sexual preferences for the ‘man’ he loves. But unlike Gong Yoo, poor Cha Eun Gyeol reaps none of the rewards for his bravery and unshakable heart. Sadly, this also makes Koo Jae Hee come across as a bit of a selfish, heartless b*tch. Yet another unintended drawback of making a side character far too loveable. And Kang Ha Neul- I was already predisposed to love Kang Ha Neul’s character because (surprise) I love Kang Ha Neul. He displays his brilliant acting chops as an angry high jump rival to Kang Tae Joon, while also carrying problems of his own. Despite his few scenes in the spotlight, Kang Ha Neul grabs whatever chance he’s given on screen to completely own his character. Through his excellent displays of emotion, we always knew there was more beneath the surface of the disgruntled, hard-working rival, and it was easy to sympathise with his situation and understand his actions. And these actions just opened the gateway for so much boy-bonding, whether it’s between himself and Eun Gyeol, or himself and Tae Joon. Surprisingly, Min Hyun Jae was the driving force behind a lot of the quality moments in this drama. Poor Minho, Lee Hyun Woo and Kang Ha Neul really left him in their dust.

We totally watched for the 'plotline'

No Dramatic Flip-out:

While there is a lot this drama didn’t do well, this is one moment that really must be applauded. I was unbelievably happy when Tae Joon didn’t lose his sh*t upon discovering that Jae Hee was a girl. Instead, he set out to watch over her and protect her secret- a much more pleasing relationship turn than getting irrationally angry at this ‘betrayal’.

Way more fun than fights

Granted, we did have this moment with Eun Gyeol- but unlike Tae Joon, he had fallen for Jae Hee thinking she was a guy and not a girl, and literally so many people already knew her secret that it was drastically unfair not to tell him. Oh well, Tae Joon handled it well. Snaps for Tae Joon.

Minho’s Dedication:

Personally, I didn’t find Minho to be the most convincing actor, but I have nothing but respect for his complete dedication to the role. It would be easy enough to let a stunt-double do all the high jumping scenes, but Minho put in a huge deal of effort to do much of the jumping himself, and worked hard to be physically fit for the drama. Who wasn’t amazed by the 105 camera spin-shot of Minho high jumping in Episode 1?

It was top-notch

What Wasn’t:

Zero Chemistry:

Awkwaaardddd

There was NO believable chemistry going on between Koo Jae Hee and Kang Tae Joon. None. This is surprising seeing how Sulli and Minho seem to get along extremely well off screen. While there were plenty of cute moments- it was all in the set up, and not much oomph came from the execution. And yet there seemed to be so many sparks with Lee Hyun Woo. Granted, he was playing a much more open character, but I felt much more connection between Jae Hee and Eun Gyeol than I ever did with her and Tae Joon. Perhaps the awkwardness between two stars from the same agency was too much to squash completely. Perhaps the acting experience of Lee Hyun Woo made Sulli feel more comfortable. Who knows? All that’s obvious is there wasn’t a whole heap of zing between Minho and Sulli on our screens.

Plot Disintegration:

Boy did that storyline slow to a crawl. There wasn’t much going on plot-wise to begin with, and with no new conflict introduced, the series was heading for disaster. For a few episodes the writers seemed to think they could ride on the dramatic lead-up heading towards Jae Hee’s discovery with a bit of pitiful, gay (or so he thought) Eun Gyeol thrown in. But no, this is not enough to sustain several episodes of drama.

"Is that our plot? But...where's it going?"

As loveable as Eun Gyeol was, his constant whining and depression did start to grate on nerves. Also, whatever happened to Woo Bin? Talk about an abandoned plot-point.

America:

What. Is. This. Rubbish.

Okay, why the hell was it necessary for Jae Hee to return to America? Was it that inconceivable an idea that she attend a girl’s school or a co-ed school in South Korea? Apparently so. K-Drama’s just love their long separations and what-not, so though it was massively infuriating and a wildly bad end to a drama that wasn’t all bad- off to America she goes. Oy.

Re-watch?

Absolutely bloody not. I still maintain a lot of love for the stars of this drama, and there were definitely points that were enjoyable to watch. But the second half was excruciating and more than slightly maddening, and I just don’t think I could ever do it again.

What is lacked in substance, it (almost) made up for with pretty