REVIEW: Romantic Comedy Kdrama She Was Pretty
| Title | She Was Pretty, She Was Beautiful |
| Male Lead | Park Seo-Joon as Ji Sung-Joon |
| Female Lead | Hwang Jung-Eum as Kim Hye-Jin |
| Writer | Jo Sung-Hee |
| Episodes | 16 Episodes | 70 Minutes per Episode |
| Release | September 16 to November 11, 2015 |
| Genre | Romantic Comedy, Office Romance |
| Language | Korean |
| Country of Origin | South Korea |
Plot Summary
She Was Pretty is the story of two childhood friends and classmates in elementary school who lost touch and found their way back to each other when they were already adults. It is a romantic comedy-drama set in an office that publishes what used to be South Korea’s number-one lifestyle and fashion magazine.
The group has failed to bring in the numbers. Their content has been declining and as a result, the quality of the previously top magazine, The Most, has suffered. The whole team is unaware that they are placed on a probationary period of three months.
With the help of the Deputy Chief Director from their New York office, they aim to reclaim the top magazine spot in the country once again. Or otherwise face closure.
An Unconventional Female Lead
Kim Hye-Jin played by Hwang Jung-Eum is an awkward girl with a bubbly personality and an unusual appearance. Hye-Jin was born with a wild blob of frizzy curly hair that she treated to become more manageable back when she was in elementary school. As she grew up and life happened, her looks became unconventional. She had clear skin and was very pretty when she was younger. During her teenage years, freckles appeared across her nose and she had patchy red cheeks that she inherited from her father.
When the time comes to reveal the truth, we lack the courage so we hesitate. The extended hesitation can end up taking away our opportunity to tell the truth.
Kim Hye-Jin
Hye-Jin shares an apartment with her beautiful best friend, Min Ha-Ri who works in a hotel. After being unsuccessful in applying to hundreds of ads for job posts, Hye-Jin finally succeeded in securing an intern job in Most magazine.
She was initially assigned to the Management Support Group. Hye-Jin was mistakenly identified as the temporary proofreading freelancer while on an errand. Members of the Editing Team assigned her to do some rush proofreading not knowing that she was an intern from another team. Since she used to help her father in his printing press business, she did an efficient job with the tasks assigned. Hye-Jin was requested to transfer for three months to The Most’s Editing Department.
The Deputy Chief Director From New York
Hye-Jin’s first love from childhood, Sung-Joon, just got back from the US and asked her to meet up. She went to the meet-up place but was shocked to find how handsome Sung-Joon has become. Her childhood friend who used to be fat and nerdy is now a good-looking young man. She did not want him to see her looking the way she did at present so she got cold feet. Instead of going herself, she asked her beautiful best friend Ha-Ri to pretend to be her and go to the meeting instead.
During the meeting, Hye-Jin instructed Ha-Ri to say she will be studying abroad so she will not be able to meet up with Sung-Joon again. She thought she was able to get out of that sticky situation until Sung-Joon showed up in Most as the new deputy chief director from New York.
Go Back to One
Unbeknownst to all the staff at The Most, Sung-Joon had the difficult task of guiding the Editing Team to get back to the number one magazine ranking in South Korea. They need to do this in three months or the head office will shut down their operations and transfer the staff to other divisions within the company.
SPOILER ALERT: Please be warned that this article may contain some spoilers. Kindly consider this before you continue reading. Thank you for dropping by!!!!
My Personal Comments and Observations About the Series
She Was Pretty is a well-written romantic comedy-drama. All the actors did justice to the characters they portray but the three lead roles stand out the most. Hwang Jeung-Eum, Park Seo-Joon, and Choi Si-Won delivered captivating performances.
They have done very well in capturing what personalities their characters needed to be in order to provide top-quality acting. It is a really funny rom-com that will make you laugh out loud in some instances but will also tug at your heartstrings on occasions when the characters play out emotionally charged scenarios.
The Romantic Love Angle
The story is about romantic love that goes beyond what is physical. The male lead, Sung-Joon, was portrayed as a handsome and successful young man who falls in love with the female lead, Hye-Jin, with her unconventional almost unsightly appearance.
Hye-Jin and Sung-Joon share a mutual bond that they experience beyond physical attraction. It stems from a connection of their minds and an understanding of their personalities and experiences.
It is a refreshing take on a concept that has not always been depicted as flawlessly as this drama in mainstream media.
A Tale of One Beautiful Friendship
She Was Pretty is not just a love story about romance. It also tells a beautiful tale about friendship. Hye-Jin and Ha-Ri have been friends since birth. Their mothers are best friends so it is inevitable that they too develop a close relationship. They are shown at the start of the series living together and calling each other husband and wife.
Hye-Jin asks Ha-Ri to pretend to be her when she meets her first love and childhood friend, Sung-Joon. At first, she was just caught up in a situation born out of make-believe. As they keep on meeting up, Ha-Ri begins to fall for Sung-Joon. Her feelings developed and she was caught in an internal conflict. Wanting to just follow where her feelings might lead her and at the same time not want to hurt her best friend.
The story then proceeds to showcase how a close friend can betray you without meaning to and how it is possible to overcome painful obstacles within your friendship and still come out with it intact and stronger than before.
The Female Lead, Kim Hye-jin
To be candidly honest, the heroine Kim Hye-Jin as portrayed by Hwang Jung-eum was really painful to watch. There, I said it. Don’t get me wrong, the artist did a wonderful portrayal of the character. Her awkward, jolly personality was both comical and endearing.
She learned to adapt to a world where she is always seen as the lesser person because of how she looked. At times she did not even think of standing up for herself. She just went with it. Whatever was given to her, she made the best out of it. Her bubbly animated personality on top of her loyalty and willingness to sacrifice for the people she cared about, even to the point that she is already hurting, says a lot about her as a person.
While I sometimes cringe at the awkward displays of her eccentric personality, Hwang Jung-Eum’s representation of Kim Hye-Jin’s character was done beautifully well. Her timing is perfect. How she interpreted every scene shows her capability as an artist. Winning the Top Excellence Award for an Actress in a Miniseries from the MBC Drama Awards and Best Actress from the 43rd Korea Broadcasting Awards are truly well-deserved recognitions.
The Lead Male Protagonist, Ji Sung-Joon
Park Seo-Joon as the male lead in this drama adds to its marketability. The series ran a couple of years ago in 2015 (it is now March 2022 as of this writing) and this is one of Seo-Joon’s breakout roles since he debuted in 2011. Sung-Joon is portrayed to be young, handsome, and successful. He is exceptionally focused on his work to the point that he sometimes absentmindedly drinks flower vase water instead of his coffee without realizing it.
What stands out about his character is despite the glamour that goes along with being the young and handsome deputy chief of a lifestyle and fashion magazine, he was still grounded. He stayed true to his feelings for an eccentric co-worker even though the feelings puzzle him. He was prepared to man up to his emotions. Though he could not understand it at first, his intuition was pointing him in one direction and he had to make a decision. So he chose to follow the lead wherever that takes him.
Kim Shin-Hyuk, The Second Male Lead
The Second Lead syndrome is a truly heartbreaking phenomenon to ever occur in K-Drama land. It allows the viewer to feel an involuntary heartache that leaves a bittersweet lingering unsettled emotion. While we of course (especially me) always want the leads to end up together, having second leads makes you think that of course, the girl can end up with him as well. But then you question yourself. Will she be as happy? Is that also a happy ending?
This is the case with Kim Shin-Hyuk as portrayed by Choi Si-Won in this drama. His amusing, equally eccentric personality is the perfect foil for Hye-Jin’s unique brand of peculiarity. They make a good comical pair together. The scenes where they interact with each other are the funniest. It is often lighthearted until later on as the series progresses when it leaves a poignant air that will again be cleared by their antics.
Shin-Hyuk was there for Hye-Jin from the very beginning. He was hiding behind his constant bullying and making up excuses to spend more and more time with her. They developed a constant friendship until Hye-Jin finally realizes that the joke was on her. Shin-Hyuk wanted something more than just friendship from Hye-Jin. And it is something that they both knew she cannot provide.
Unfounded Stereotypes
Pretty Girl Privilege
Pretty girls always get a special pass just because they are pretty. In contrast to the awkward, almost unsightly Hye-Jin, Lee Seul-Bi played by Jin Hye-Won represents what happens quite naturally. The pretty girl stereotype is very common and deemed almost acceptable in our society.
The pretty privilege is quite common. So common that we barely even notice it happening amidst us. In the case of this drama, there is a stark contrast between the two personas you will immediately think about how unfair our cultural biases are. Also, how it is second nature to us to act that way without even giving it a second thought.
The pretty girl always gets ahead in a queue. She always gets the nicer piece of cake at the cafeteria. Discounts and freebies are readily given without even being asked. More often than not, she will always get better grades in school. Even better opportunities in life will always crop up.
While on the other hand, plain-looking humans will most likely get frowned upon. They will almost always be the subject of wrong judgments. Opportunities will not miraculously come knocking on their doors. They will have to work twice as hard for it.
Because of the theme of the story, this predicament is very obviously portrayed in contrasting instances. We can all agree that it is unfair. But we cannot deny that we are all guilty of this prejudice in our daily lives.
The Gold Digger Mentality
Han Sul as played by Shin Hae-sun is basically a gold digger who wants to hit the jackpot. Rumors have been going around that the son of the owner of their company was an undercover employee in the Editing Department. She proceeds to second-guess everybody from her team and makes a wild guess about who this person most likely is.
Upon doing deductive reasoning, she chooses one of her teammates and sticks herself to him like glue. Her objective is to make the son fall in love with her so she can gain the benefits of being the girlfriend of the owner with the potential to become the wife.
While the premise is problematic, this mini subplot provides added texture to the story that eventually smooths out in the end. When Han Sul finds out that she had the wrong guy, it was already too late. She had already fallen in love and chose to follow her heart instead of her scheming ways. It was all good in the end.
Junior-Senior Relationships in the Office
I noticed this behavior in quite a few Korean dramas where the newbies will automatically be the juniors of the team or organization. The ones who have been in the company longer will be the seniors. Seniority level will mostly depend on the number of years the person has been with the organization. Sometimes, seniority will depend on connections within the management.
In theory, this is supposed to be close to a student-teacher relationship. The seniors will guide and teach the juniors about the company’s best practices and basically help the juniors wet their feet and find their way until they grow into their assigned roles. From what I have noticed, it is very seldom that this happens. What normally happens is that the juniors will be bullied by their seniors. Depending on the senior’s level of meanness, they will resort to doing menial jobs that are not necessarily part of their job description.
They all willingly play a part in this behavior and that just rubs me the wrong way. The premise is meant to be good, but the application in real life albeit this being a drama, for me is really quite problematic.
Final Thoughts About the Drama Series She Was Pretty
In many ways, the series has its faults. Some minor inconsistencies in the story like when Hye-Jin was mistaken to be the proofreading freelancer but she was also made to run errands for the editing team which is supposedly the job of an intern and not the proofreading freelancer. This is barely noticeable. I may have interpreted it incorrectly.
I don’t feel the chemistry of the leads too much. I have grown to like both Sung-Joon and Hye-Jin. They are both well-rounded and have undergone character development separately. I am happy they ended up together. But in truth, I felt that if Hye-Jin ended up with Shin-Hyuk it would have been okay with me as well. Truth be told, in my opinion, I think Hye-Jin had better chemistry with Shin-Hyuk than Sung-Joon.
With all that said, I think the story about love beyond physical attraction and a friendship that withstands the test of fate is beautifully written and depicted in the series. This is one romantic comedy-drama that will tug at your heartstrings. What makes it stand out is not just the story but also the portrayals of the artists who played roles in the series.
Binge Star Rating – 8 Stars
Re-watch Value
She Was Pretty is perfect to watch before retiring for the night. It is good to watch it at least once. Is it binge-worthy? I can watch it in installments. Maybe 2 or 3 episodes a night max. While it is good, I can actually bear waiting it out to watch the entire series spaced out in a couple of weeks without any problem. It would not be on top of my rewatch list but it has definitely secured a spot in my Must-Watch.
Where to Watch
Watch all sixteen episodes of She Was Pretty on Netflix with complete English subtitles. What do you think about the series? Did you like it too? Drop your comments in the comments section below. I’d love to know your views, please let me know what you think!
She Was Pretty Adaptations
Two adaptations are made of the drama. Hunan Television of China broadcasted Pretty Li Huizhen in 2017 starring popular actors Dilraba Dilmurat and Sheng Yilun. Japan released its own condensed version in 2021 Kanojo wa Kirei datta by Fuji TV starring actors Nakajima Kento and Koshiba Fuka.
Pretty Li Huizhen
The Chinese adaptation of She Was Pretty was broadcast in 2017 on Hunan Television. Dilraba Dilmurat stars as the female lead Li Huizhen and Sheng Yilun as the male lead Bai Haoyu. It has 46 episodes with 45 minutes each.
Binge-watch the full episodes with English subtitles on the link below.
Kanojo wa Kirei datta
In July of 2021, Fuji TV of Japan released their version of She Was Pretty with 10 episodes and 1 hour each. The series stars Nakajima Kento as Hasebe Sosuke, the male lead, and Koshiba Fuka as Sato Ai, the female lead.
Binge-watch the full episodes with English subtitles on the link below.
Read more reviews on Drama Library
Images from promotional materials from MBC may be subject to copyright. [Last Update 04252024]
