When I was still a newbie to Korean dramas checking out for recommendations, my former colleague Anna strongly suggested that I watch She Was Pretty. She was confident that it was one show that I will enjoy watching. A month into the enhanced community quarantine, the show was one of the titles I would patiently download but would take me two more months to watch. While it was another show that starred Park Seo Joon (the same guy from my second favorite Kdrama, What's Wrong With Secretary Kim), I was a bit unfamiliar with this one despite it has been aired in Philippine TV back in 2015. I was more familiar with his other hit, Fight for My Way.
She Was Pretty is the story of childhood friends Kim Hye-jin (Hwang Jung-eum) and Ji Sung-joon (Park Seo-joon). Hye-jin, was once a beautiful teenager from a rich family while Sung-joon used to be a boy with low self-esteem due to his chubby physique. After 15 years of separation, and a reversal of physical attributes and fortune they would meet again as adults. But this time, Hye jin's family had gone bankrupt, her dad runs a home-based printing business and the physical changes of puberty had taken its toll on her. On the other hand, Sung joon returns, no longer as the shy, chubby boy but as a handsome and successful editor. Hye-jin ends up working with Sung-joon for a fictional magazine, The Most. And while Hye jin is aware that the good-looking deputy editor, Sung-joon was the chubby boy she was friends with since childhood, he, on the other hand, has no idea that the clumsy intern he often berates and mistreats was the same beautiful girl he was searching for.
Anna convinced me to watch this drama and even said that this is better than Fight for My Way. And now that I've seen it, I can say that she was right. There's the right balance of romance, drama, and comedy in the series. My tummy was already aching from laughing out loud from the second episode onwards. There are no blood-curdling villain characters in the story. The only "conflict" I found was Go Joon-hee's character as Min Ha-ri, the best friend who pretended to be Hye-jin just because the latter was embarrassed to reveal her present identity to the guy who is also her first love.
Another thing I loved about She Was Pretty was there were elements of surprise in it. All the while, I was fond of Choi Si-won's persona as Kim Shin-hyuk (including his silly antics) only to find out that there was more to his "Idiot Reporter/Editor" character. And who can forget Kim Poong-ho? I've always noted his character to be the back-scratching, laidback editor only to find out that he was the vice-president of the company who owns the magazine. It was a surprising revelation and made me recall one of my favorite shows back then, Undercover Boss.
And by transformation, it was not just limited to the physical attributes. The other thing that made She Was Pretty a show worth watching was that it expounds beauty from a different perspective. It tells the audience that pursuing one's dreams is an integral part of their inner beauty. I loved how Hye jin said that when someone is doing something that they really want to do, that is when they look beautiful. And that's a fact; because if you aren't happy in the pursuit of any endeavor, it radiates in your whole being. But if you are doing something that you truly love and enjoy, taking into consideration your happiness as your main priority (rather than doing it for anyone else), such fulfillment will reflect in you.
I recommend this Kdrama to those who are after a feel-good romantic comedy to binge watch and to those who wish to find some motivation and inspiration when they are faced with their own career-related dilemmas. You will surely enjoy and find some meaningful pieces of wisdom from this show.
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