“The Beauty Inside” (2015) Makes us Question the Topic of Love ⭐⭐⭐⭐
We are living in a very self-conscious society where people are willing to go through plastic surgery in order to please others. But how does it make you feel to wake up every day and magically transform into a different person, as if you had a major operation done overnight? The Beauty Inside, is a South Korean movie that touches the controversial theme of physical appearance. More specifically, this movie touches on the subject of beauty and how does that impact the meaning of love. When I saw this movie listed on Netflix, I was drawn by its unique, but relatable storyline. This movie is not like the typical cliché Korean drama. Instead, The Beauty Inside touched on the subject that many people, especially Korean, would be uncomfortable to talk about: the true meaning of unconditional love. Korea is known to be the number one plastic surgery capital of the world. Parents save up money for their children to get surgery as their graduation present. Koreans usually have their jaw and eyelids fixed because Koreans find it very attractive to have a sharp jawline, and double eyelid. Not to mention, good hair and fair skin is a must if you want to be called pretty. Why? Like I said, Koreans always want to look flawless in front of other people. In The Beauty Inside, director Baik wanted to highlight this issue by bringing a point that what matters most is what’s on the inside, not your appearance. With the help of twenty-one major Korean actors, Baik successfully presented this movie with the intention to teach all people about the real meaning of unconditional love, especially the Koreans.
The Beauty Inside was originally a web series, directed by Drake Doremus. The original web series was uploaded to the internet under Toshiba. This type of system is very similar to BMW Films series directed by Ang Lee and Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu, where the big company is secretly adding their name in movie production as a way to advertise their product. Jump forward to the present, Korea’s advertisement director, Baik, stepped in and remade the web series The Beauty Inside into a beautiful film full of meanings with the help of Yong Film Production. The Beauty Inside is Baik first time directing a movie, since his past film experiences are only on commercials and visuals. However, Baik took his expertise in creating perfect and flawless visual into this movie: The Beauty Inside, thus, creating a flawless filmography and acting.
Kim Woo Jin, one of the main character in the movie was played by over twenty-one different Korean actors. With the limited ability to cast other famous foreign actors, Baik reaches out to his famous Korean friends and include some of the Korean senior actors into The Beauty Inside. Such as Lee Dong Wook and Park Shin Hye, who’d been acting ever since they were young and overtime has earned many respect from the Koreans. Which brings me to another point to why this film was very popular in Asia. Baik was smart and uses the power of famous celebrities as a way to advertise his movie. In return, more viewers are starting to watch The Beauty Inside because of the large fan base these actors have.
The main character, Kim Woo Jin sometimes transform into a man, woman, foreigner, even a child. With these changes, he must constantly adjust to his new body. Such as his eyesight, voice, size of clothing, etc.
“Yesterday my hand is bigger than my face, today my hand is smaller than my face”.
Kim Woo Jin can’t have a normal work life, so the only thing he can do without making people question his rare condition is to make customized furniture for a living. Although Kim Woo Jin changes everyday, the people that stays by his side all his life are his soft-hearted mother, long-time best friend Sang Beak (Lee Dong Hwi), and his new lover Yi Soo (Han Hyo Joo). Yi Soo is a typical character that many Koreans (especially men) defines as beautiful. Her long hair, shy smile, soft-spoken, elegant-looking, fair skin, and skinny body, makes her the perfect/dream girl many guys would want. No wonder, as soon as Kim Woo Jin saw Yi Soo for the first time at a furniture store where she works, he was in awe of her appearance and soft personality. Just like a scene from Romeo + Juliet when Romeo (Leonardo Dicaprio) and Juliet (Claire Danes) met eyes for the first time between a giant aquarium. Romeo was captivated by Juliet’s beauty and there’s a moment of silence when they looked at each other. That is exactly what happened when Kim Woo Jin and Yi Soo saw each other. From then on, he kept coming back to the furniture store, just to talk to Yi Soo. Yi Soo was never suspicious of him because he came to the store every day looking like a different person.
The idea of love at first sight has never been something I believe in, until I saw The Beauty Inside. Kim Woo Jin was attracted to Yi Soo because of her appearance, and Yi Soo was attracted to Kim Woo Jin because (at the time) he was handsome. The point is, after watching this movie, I realized that unconditional love needs time to develop and won’t show up spontaneously. The most impactful strategy in a relationship is the level of attractiveness one felt towards one another. When someone says, “I don’t believe in love at first sight, what’s important is on the inside,” that is just another way to make themselves look good. The truth is, physical appearance brings out attractiveness when it comes to love. I mean, who wants to wake up to someone ugly every day? The level of attractiveness, however, is different for everyone and it can only be measured by personal judgment.
Baik took the time to perfect the peaceful and soft tone during The Beauty Inside. At the same time, those techniques weirdly make me more drawn into the movie. Instead of making a loud and expensive movie, Baik pushes toward an effortless film that will leave the viewer in their peace of mind. For instance, superhero movies like Iron man and The Avengers are a very extravagant movie that have very few peaceful/calm moments. Baik pushes the element of peace in his movie because he wants the audience to think about the message of the story. It seems like Baik wanted the audience to think during the showing of the movie, instead of after, because the memories tend to be a bit fuzzy after the movie ends. To specify, during the majority of the movie, classical music is always playing whenever there is a serious conversation, making it easier for the audience to process the serious dialogue into a message. Then again, during the sex scene. Instead of showing a typical loud sex scene, Baik push towards a soft and calm scene. The camera only shows detailed images of Kim Woo Jin and Yi Soo. The zoomed-in image of their skin, hair, and facial expression makes it easier for the audience to analyze their relationship. We can analyze and ask questions on Yi Soo’s real feeling towards Kim Woo Jin. Is Yi Soo terrified of this relationship because she is with someone that doesn’t have a constant appearance? Or is she having sexual interaction with Kim Woo Jin because she doesn’t want to lose him by pushing him away?
It is not right to talk about The Beauty Inside without talking about the female character, Yi Soo. The audience never thinks about this movie from a girl’s perspective because in The Beauty Inside, Kim Woo Jin is more of a dynamic character, compared to Yi Soo who is more stagnant. The audience also never realizes how important Yi Soo’s character is to the theme and the message of the movie. Think about it, would you want to date someone if you knew that you’re going to see different faces everyday of your relationship? To be perfectly honest, It would be like having a relationship with a stranger. She must keep this relationship private because other people will either think she is a player or think she is crazy. Over time, the high level of stress builds up in her system, making her everyday life dependent on anxiety pills. This is where Kim Woo Jin decided to end the relationship in order to make Yi Soo’s mental health better. Towards the end of the movie, Yi Soo sees a therapist and showed her vulnerability to the audience.
“He said he would find me. He would hold my hand when he sees me. But Doctor, when I look at him holding my hand, there’s a stranger smiling at me. Then I smiled back. When he touches me, I kept telling myself, it’s him this is the man I love”.
This dialogue is so powerful because it shows that love can’t control everything. Yi Soo realizes that Kim Woo Jin is the love of her life, but her emotional state rejects this statement. The stress from not knowing the real face of her boyfriend increases her stress level, but she never wants to make a big deal about this because she realizes if she broke up with him, he wouldn’t survive without her. She couldn’t bear hurting him, so she stays strong and carries on.
What makes The Beauty Inside valuable compared to a more well-known romantic movie like The Longest Ride, or Dear John is the level of creativity. The plot in The Beauty Inside shows the viewer a lot more diverse topic that many of us never think of before. For instance, the character of Kim Woo Jin, who wakes up every day looking like a different person and then falling in love with a girl who loves him unconditionally. Also, the simplicity of The Beauty Inside makes it more valuable due to the rawness of the theme and message. That type of storyline is not something most Americans are used to. Americans are used to love stories like Nicholas Sparks novel that involved a lot of skinship, frolicking in the water, and the overall boring storyline that is very predictable. The Beauty Inside leave the audience with many questions during the movie regarding the future of Kim Woo Jin and Yi Soo’s relationship. Although many of us want to see Yi Soo and Woo Jin have their happy ending, the real question is, will they have their happy ending, given their circumstances?
If you want to watch a movie with a powerful theme of love, The Beauty Inside is highly suggested. The simplicity and the rawness of the movie make it very captivating to watch. Although The Beauty Inside is unlike the high-quality movie we are used to watching in the US, Baik’s touch of perfections showed in his previous advertisement and visual work is enough to make The Beauty Inside comparable to other American romantic movies. At the end, Baik successfully showed the world that it is possible to love someone from the inside, instead of the outside. But it is also important to point out that you can never get used to the uncertainty of unconditional love. Love is so powerful, but it’s never strong enough to control fate. You can love someone deeply, but when reality kicked in, you have to decide: do you love them unconditionally?
