Official Synopsis:
This drama draws on Hisaya Nakajo‘s manga series “Hana Kimi“ that was
published by Hakusensha from 1996 to 2004. The Korean interpretation
centers on Goo Jae Hee (Sulli), a Korean girl who live in the States, but transfers to an all-boys school in Korea.
Jae Hee decides on the transfer after watching a track and field
competition on TV, and becomes inspired by high-jump athlete, Kang Tae
Joon (Minho). She begins to idolize the young athlete
and eventually transfers to Korea to go to the same school after he
experiences an injury that may potentially end his athletic career.
However, as Tae Joon attends an all-boys high school, Jae Hee must disguise herself as a boy to enter.
Ratings:
Episode 15 of MBC‘s ‘Arang and the Magistrate‘ (starring Lee Jun Ki and Shin Min Ah) rose nearly a full point in viewer ratings from 12.5% to 13.3%, while episode 16 dropped back a little to 12.9%.
Meanwhile, episode 7 of KBS‘s ‘Nice Guy‘ (starring Song Joong Ki, Moon Chae Won, and Park Si Yeon) rose more than a whole point, but episode 8 saw a dramatic drop of over two points to 15.1%.
Episode 15 of SBS‘s ‘To the Beautiful You‘ (starring SHINee‘s Minho and f(x)‘s Sulli)
dropped to its lowest rating ever, from 4.8% to 4.1%. Episode 16 rose
one point to 5.2%. The premiere episode remains the highest rated for
the series at 7.3%, and the show received an average of 5.1% throughout
the series, consistently ranking last.
Recap of Eps. 15-16:
It’s the final two episodes of ‘To the Beautiful You‘. How did everyone end up, and did the show manage to redeem itself?
Seung Ri outright confesses to Han Na.
He says that if she doesn’t return his feelings, he’ll leave her
alone, but he can’t stand by and let her quit rehabilitation. She
continues to mock him, but seems to be warming up to him. A year later,
Eun Gyeol describes Seung Ri as Han Na’s “slave”, and says that they might be in a secret relationship.
Teacher Lee gets jealous of Coach Baek when she sees him carrying an armload of things for Reporter Yang. She tries to make him jealous with Dr. Jang,
and it works. Before he leaves for the big competition, she brings him
a bunch of food and warns him to eat something other than ramen for
once. A year later, they’re engaged.
We don’t learn much about Dr. Jang – he left the school and went into
fashion design, and no one’s heard from him since. Absolutely no word
on what Jong Min‘s up to.
Hyeon Jae is everybody’s friend now. He clears his jump at the competition, beating Lee Yun Ho (this new high jumper who we never see, but we’re told we’re supposed to be scared of him) and tying Tae Joon‘s old record. No word on if he made the Olympic team or not, whether he gets a sponsor or not, or what’s up with his family.
Eun Gyeol asks Jae Hee to give him a chance – he
knows how she feels about Tae Joon, but asks her to really think about
it. After spending an entire day together, she officially rejects his
confession, apologizing. It takes him a few days, but they eventually
go back to being friends.
Tae Joon falls completely head-over-heels for Jae Hee, to the point
where he tells her to stay at least a meter away from him at all times
in the dorm, because he can’t control himself around her.
Jae Hee passes out after practice because her binding is too tight,
and while her teammates loosen her tie and unbutton her shirt, they
realize that she’s a girl. Seung Ri convinces everyone to keep it
quiet, but she decides to leave anyway. Eun Gyeol pleads with her to
stay, but she’s made up her mind. As she’s on her way to the airport,
Eun Gyeol calls Tae Joon to let him know that Jae Hee’s leaving, and Tae
Joon almost leaves the competition. However, he finds a a drawing Jae
Hee did of him winning the competition and decides to stay. He clears
his 231cm jump, breaking his own record, before being accosted by
cameras. “Jae Hee, did you see it?” he shouts. “Wait, I’m coming for
you!” Jae Hee watches on a cell phone during her bus ride to the
airport, crying tears of joy. Quite the contrast to her emotionless
single tear from the first time we saw her watch him jump, back before
she came to S. Korea.
We catch up with Jae Hee a year later, back in California. She gets a
video message from Eun Gyeol, who’s been busy all year with national
soccer team stuff. He updates her on everyone’s lives, ending by saying
that Tae Joon is on vacation on Jeju Island. Just as she’s mumbling
that she wishes he’d said more about Tae Joon, she looks up to see Tae
Joon standing over her. “I told you I’d come see you, right?” he says.
They smile and hug, and the show ends.
_________________
contagion’s Thoughts:
[ Note : This post reflects the opinions of the author, not necessarily those of allkpop ]
Well that was… anticlimactic. And it leaves me with a lot of
questions – did Tae Joon’s dad go to the competition now that they’re on
good terms? Did Tae Joon have any thoughts or residual feelings about
his mom’s death since this is the first big competition he’s jumped in
since she died? Did Tae Joon and Hyeon Jae make the Olympic team? Did
Hyeon Jae get a sponsor? How is his family? What did Jae Hee’s blonde
friend, Daniel, and Johnny have to say
about Jae Hee returning just a few weeks into the school year? Did her
parents ever find out what she was up to? What was the point of
Reporter Yang bullying Tae Joon into that exclusive interview? Why did
Seung Ri put his neck on the line for Jae Hee when they don’t even seem
to have much of a friendship? Why does Hyeon Jae act like he knows that
Tae Joon and Jae Hee like each other when he doesn’t even know that
she’s a girl? Why does Sangchu suddenly not hate Eun
Gyeol? Did Jae Hee ever actually visit Han Na in the hospital? Did
Jong Min just vanish into thin air (he’s not even there when the entire
athletic team says goodbye to Jae Hee)?
I was really disappointed with how little weight was given to the
final high jump competition. This was the big event that the whole show
has been leading up to, and it went by in a blink. Hyeon Jae was
little more than Tae Joon’s cheerleader. Tae Joon’s relationship with
his father was a complete non-issue by the final episode, even though it
was one of the major plot points of the series. Everything that’s been
important in this series was swept under the rug to get our main
characters together.
Speaking of disappointing things, I have a real problem with a show
that is perfectly fine with showing an attempted rape (episode 3), a
violent fight scene (also episode 3), and attempted murder (episode 13,
with the flower pot- it may have only been an attempt to injure, but
it’s obvious that if the plant had actually landed on him his neck and
skull would have been crushed), but refuses to show believable hugs and
kisses between people who actually want to hug and kiss each other.
What exactly are they telling their young audience by giving assault
and violence the green light (don’t forget- the guy who tried to rape
Jae Hee got away, and everyone immediately forgave Hyeon Jae for what he
did), while treating totally normal, innocent things like hugging and
kissing the person you’re dating like mature content?
As I’ve said before, this show is only concerned with Tae Joon and
Jae Hee ending up together- which they do, but then what? She goes back
to the States, and he visits her a year later, but he’s going to have
to go right back to S. Korea for training. Unless she transfers to
Serin or something, they’re not going to get to see much of each other
for the next three years – and even then, they’ll mostly see each other
in class and in the dorms, so they’ll still have little time to be
together. The ending was supposed to be cute and happy, but left me on a
downer note over the fact that there’s no way it’s going to work out
for the two of them.
I stand by what I said in my first review – Sulli, Minho, Lee Hyun Woo,
and the rest of the cast are pretty good actors, but I feel that the
material failed them. You might be be the best actor in the world, but
there’s only so much you can do with so-so writing. Goodbye, ‘To the
Beautiful You’- I can’t say I’m sorry to see you go.
(3.6 / 5)
(139 votes, average: 4.76 out of 5)
