Warning- there are spoilers for the first ten episodes of ‘To the Beautiful You‘ ahead!
Due to what is either poor planning or unfortunate timing, the idol-laden KBS drama ‘To the Beautiful You’
has been struggling to gain viewers, consistently coming last in
broadcast ratings for its Wednesday and Thursday night slots. This may
be due to premiering during the final episodes of the wildly-popular ‘Bridal Mask‘ (KBS2), and now running at the same time as another popular drama, ‘Arang and the Magistrate‘ (MBC).
In addition, this drama runs late at night, even though it is targeted
at a younger demographic of viewers and should probably be playing a
little earlier in the evening.
That said, the show isn’t bad, and if you like the whole
girl-disguises-herself-as-a-boy storyline and can deal with blatant
product placement, big gaps in logic (the scene where Daniel
conveniently forgets he can speak Korean just baffles me), a couple of
massive plot holes (Jae Hee walking away untraumatized from an attempted
rape being one if not the worst), and an overbearing soundtrack
(seriously, the music almost never stops!) you’ll probably enjoy this
story. The idols are surprisingly good actors- much better than I
expected, and the way everything is filmed is very colorful and nice to
look at. Here’s a recap of the first ten episodes.
Our main character is Jae Hee, played by f(x)‘s Sulli.
Her father died when she was young. When she was five, her mom
remarried, and the family relocated to the US. She suffered a lot of
bullying in school and came to hate herself, until she saw Korean
high-jump gold medalist Kang Tae Joon (SHINee‘s Minho) on TV. He states that, “‘Miracle’ is just another word for hard work.”
She attached herself to that advice and worked very hard to become a
fast runner, becoming the second-best female runner in the LA region.
When it looked like an ankle injury might take Tae Joon out of the
game for good, Jae Hee chopped off all her hair, and secretly
transferred to Genie High School for Boys, the same school Tae Joon
attends. Her family believes she’s studying at the nearby girls’
school. She ends up as Tae Joon’s roommate, despite his protests and
attempts to throw her out. Her first day of classes starts out poorly,
but she manages to win everyone’s respect, becoming especially close to Eun Gyeol (Lee Hyun Woo), the school’s soccer star.
In the second episode, the school doctor finds out she’s a girl after
she gets badly injured in a soccer game. He threatens to rat her out,
but she explains that she’s there to help Tae Joon, which gets his
attention- Tae Joon is one of his patients, and he’ll take all the help
he can get. Meanwhile, we find out that Tae Joon is completely healthy,
but he has “the yips”, a kind of mental block that makes him unable to
jump well. He’s already considering retirement. However, he overhears
Jae Hee pleading with her brother, who has just learned what she’s been
up to, to let her stay at the school. Tae Joon learns that Jae Hee is a
girl and how he helped her. This gives him the motivation to keep
trying and gets him over his initial dislike of Jae Hee.
As time goes
on, we learn that his mom died while he was busy making his gold medal
jump, and he’s never gotten over it. In the most recent episodes, Tae
Joon and Jae Hee start to realize that they aren’t just friends who are
highly protective of each other- they’ve started to develop romantic
feelings. However, thinking that the feelings aren’t reciprocated and
knowing that the news of a relationship between the two would cause a
lot of harm for them both, they keep it to themselves.
Now that we’ve got the basic plot covered, here’s a quick take on
each of the important characters in the show (other than Jae Hee, who
I’ve pretty much covered):
Tae Joon – Aside from what I’ve already said, it’s
worth noting that Tae Joon is a hobbyist photographer and is pretty good
at it. He also wears a necklace with his mother’s ring on it all the
time.
Eun Gyeol – The first person Jae Hee connects with
at Genie. Even though he thinks she’s a boy, he starts to develop
feelings for her, which freaks him out.
He ends up dating a childhood
friend, Da Hae (Nam Ji Hyun), for a
few episodes, and he ends things with her when he realizes that he still
can’t shake his strong feelings for Jae Hee (as in, he’s daydreaming
about marrying and raising a family with her). He decides that he’ll
confess to Jae Hee once he gets picked for the national soccer team, but
he doesn’t end up making the team, which ruins his plans. He’s very
jealous of Jae Hee and Tae Joon’s friendship, even though he tries to
remind himself that they’re just roommates and probably aren’t into each
other. Jae Hee is completely oblivious to Eun Gyeol’s feelings, but
she values their friendship greatly.
Ha Na (Kim Ji Won)-
An Olympic gymnast, considered one of the nation’s fairies. She’s got a
bratty, childish attitude- always turning up late, throwing a fit when
she doesn’t get her way- but she has her nice moments as well. She and
Tae Joon grew up together, and she’s close with his family.
She’s
convinced that Tae Joon is “The One” and is heartbroken that he doesn’t
feel the same, but persistent. She’s furious at Tae Joon and Jae Hee’s
friendship, and her anger gets even worse when, in episode ten, she
realizes that Jae Hee is a girl. She tries to confront Tae Joon about
it, and gets madder when it turns out he’s known for a while. In a fit
of rage, she agrees that she will keep the secret under one condition-
if he will be in a public relationship with her. Before he can answer,
and before he can fill Jae Hee in on the situation, she announces the
relationship in an interview. It’s also worth noting that she and Eun
Gyeol have an ongoing hatred of each other.
Director Jang (Lee Ah Hyun)- Tae
Joon and Ha Na’s manager. She’s a hard worker and takes excellent care
of the two of them, doing her best to shield them from reporters and
handling their moodiness expertly. Since the death of Tae Joon’s
mother, she’s become a strong, motherly figure in his life.
Mr. Kang (Seon Woo Jae Deok)- Tae
Joon’s father. Tae Joon isn’t on good terms with him, and at first it
seems like it’s just because his father pushes him so hard to be a good
athlete, but we find out later that Tae Joon sort of blames his father
for his mother’s death. While that’s not at all fair, he feels this way
because his father kept his mom’s death a secret from him until they
got back to Korea, knowing that Tae Joon wouldn’t have been able to
compete if he had known.
Jong Min (ZE:A‘s Kwanghee)-
Eun Gyeol’s very possessive friend. He’s incredibly jealous of how
much attention Eun Gyeol pays to Jae Hee, to the point where he’s
intentionally pranked her, tripped her, and gotten her injured to try to
scare her off. He’s whiny, entitled, and rarely seen without his lip
balm.
Dr. Jang (Ki Tae Young)- The school
doctor. He discovers Jae Hee’s secret early on, but lets her stick
around because he thinks she can actually help Jae Hee. He harbors a
secret obsession with fashion.
Coach Byeon (Sometimes Coach Baek, depending on the translation) (Kang Kyung Joon)-
The gym teacher and track team coach. He’s very strict with his
students, but ultimately wants what’s best for them. He was once a
silver medalist in the high jump, but retired after an injury. He has a
massive crush on Teacher Lee (Lee Young Eun).
Hyeonjae (Kang Ha Neul)- Eun
Gyeol’s roommate. A high jumper who falls just short of Tae Joon’s
skill level. In an effort to take Tae Joon down, he leaks a photo of
Tae Joon drunkenly kissing Jae Hee (this was long before anyone’s
feelings were involved), as well as the contents of Tae Joon’s medical
records, which include the information that he’s got the yips. Coach
Byeon eventually forces them to become training buddies.
Daniel Dawson (Julien Kang)
– Jae Hee’s older step-brother. An ivy league grad and a world-renowned
neuropsychiatrist- in fact, he’s the world’s foremost expert on the
yips. After meeting him at a conference, Dr. Jang brings him in to talk
to Tae Joon, asking Jae Hee if she’ll serve as a translator. When
Daniel sees her, the jig is up and he nearly sends her back to the US,
but once he realizes how important this is to her, he tells her she can
stay.
Coach Holten – The world’s foremost high jump coach.
Tae Joon’s been dreaming of working with him forever, but blows his
chances when he fails a jump that Holten witnessed. Jae Hee, not one to
let Tae Joon give up, makes a slideshow of reasons why Holten should
take Tae Joon on, which is where we learn her story, and Holten
eventually agrees. Tae Joon initially accepts the offer (which requires
him to move to Canada), but then rejects it when he realizes he’ll have
to go without Jae Hee. This upsets Jae Hee greatly- she doesn’t
understand and thinks he’s giving up his dream for no reason. At the
end of episode ten, he had still decided he wasn’t going, but that
decision is still up in the air.
Reporter Yang (Ahn Hye Kyung)- the
main reporter constantly looking for dirt on Tae Joon. She gets
Hyeonjae to help her for a while (she’s the one he leaked information
to), but he gets tired of it after a while- she’s always curious about
Tae Joon, and never about Hyeonjae, and he’s tired of that game.
John Kim/Johnny (Kim Woo Bin)-
Jae Hee’s “favorite oppa” from the US. He helps her transfer to Genie,
which makes him one of only two people who were in on her secret from
the start (the other being her best female friend, who isn’t named and
doesn’t have a lot of screen time). Johnny comes to visit Jae Hee in
Korea, where he confesses that he’s fallen for her. She’s not so
thrilled about this. He realizes he isn’t going to win Jae Hee’s heart
with Tae Joon in the picture and gives up.
Seung Ri (Seo Joon Young)- The head of the dorm that Jae Hee, Tae Joon, Hyeongjae, and Eun Gyeol live in.
Obviously, we couldn’t cover ten episodes of material in one article,
but if you’re jumping in late, this will get you up to speed enough to
start watching. For those of you who have been watching, what are your
favorite parts of the drama so far? Let us know in the comments!
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