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[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Birth of a Beauty" Episode 8

Tae-hee and Geum-ran realize something awkward at the beginning of this episode. Their romantic chemistry is so perfect, it's actually kind of difficult to justify them messing around with the revenge thriller plot. Seriously- everything that happens right up until they get involved in the story again is just pure comedy gold. I have no idea what point they were trying to make- I just know that Joo Sang-wook and Han Ye-seul have great chemistry together.

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Alas, eventually the story has to get back on track. And end, weirdly enough. The plan's actually done. The cliffhanger takes on this weird lack of urgency as a result. It's just, all right, so Chae-yeon knows that Sara is actually Geum-ran. So what? Who's going to believe her? And even if someone did believe Chae-yeon, there's not a whole lot she can do with the information. Revealing that Geum-ran is still alive will put Kang-joon in jail just as surely as Tae-hee's plan well.

"Birth of a Beauty" is once again at an impasse. It's not actually all that clear where the story will go from year. My best guess- Sara's adventures as a star of eating food in a cute attractive manner will dovetail with the greater storyline of Tae-hee's estrangement from his mother. From this point on, Chae-yeon and Kang-joon will mostly be limited to suffering as their lives completely implode, and will attempt to strike back at Tae-hee and Sara somehow in order to compensate.

I don't exactly have much faith in the ability of these villains to actually do anything. Frankly, it's dumb luck that Kang-joon didn't get exposed right this episode for his role in the disappearance of Geum-ran's mother. Honestly, theat phone call really should have gone to a different person entirely. I'm still not sure why that was her first reaction to the message. It seemed contrived, although not annoying so. That could change.

That's my main fear about the drama right now- that it's going to contrive to turn the villains into a serious threat when the real draw here is Tae-hee and Geum-ran drawing up and successfully following through on zany schemes. Personally, I could do without Kang-joon and Chae-yeon altogether. Just make it a running story of the Tae-hoo and Geum-ran trying to solve mysteries or something. Fortunately the writing's broad enough that this remains a very real possibility- goodness knows the potential conflicts are coming up fast enough.

Review by William Schwartz

"Birth of a Beauty" is directed by Lee Chang-min-I, written by Yoon Yeong-mi and features Joo Sang-wook, Han Ye-seul, Jung Gyu-woon and Wang Ji-hye.

 

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