‘My ID is Gangnam Beauty’…Under the guise of a frothy rom-com lies a tactful look at the pressures of becoming and staying beautiful.

Spoilers Ahead…

When speaking in a broad scheme of things, South Korean and Indian culture — as in with many Asian cultures — are quite similar. Of course, there are variations with regard to the different cultural nuances, but the beats are similar — respect your elders, study and work hard, remove your shoes outside, eat rice, and so on and so forth. And this is what made it easy for me to watch and enjoy content from a different country. But there was one cultural barrier I found difficult to cross over — beauty.

Now, in India, we are obsessed with fairness, which for us is what constituents being beautiful. If you are fair, you are considered beautiful. The same goes for South Korea as well. Being fair or pale is desirable but there is an added pressure to have or hone the ‘ideal’ face, like having a small face with big eyes and double eyelids and a high bridge nose. So, it isn’t unusual to watch South Koreans discuss and compliment distinguishable features of your face, even going as far as to ask if you got ‘work done’ or it’s all ‘natural’. Hence, the strain to look and maintain an idealized face and figure has led to a booming plastic surgery industry in the country, and while it is common to go under the knife, it isn’t so common to talk about it, because as much as people are shamed, bullied or harassed for not conforming to the set beauty standards, they are also shamed, bullied or harassed for not being ‘naturally beautiful’. My ID is Gangnam Beauty exposes and unravels this hypocrisy in a subtle yet effective manner.

(Note: The phrase Gangnam Beauty is a derogatory term used to describe people who are good-looking but evident that they have gotten plastic surgery done, denoting that they look artificial or like a plastic beauty. Gangnam refers to the rich upscale district in Seoul which houses a number of cosmetic clinics.)

The drama follows Kang Mi Rae (a wonderful Im Soo Hyang) post-surgery, through her first year of college, as a student of chemistry at Hankook University. Mi Rae is bullied throughout her adolescent years, first through primary school for being overweight and later in middle school — even after losing weight and having a slim figure — for her face. We never see Mi Rae’s face prior to her surgery, which was a very thoughtful decision on the creators’ part, as it is not only respectful towards the actor playing (the younger) Mi Rae but just as beauty cannot be defined by one person alone, neither can ‘not being conventionally beautiful’ be defined by one person alone. This is just one of the many aspects of this topic that writer Choi Soo Young broaches with sensitivity and this plot point is also later used to emphasize some of Mi Rae’s classmate’s morbid obsession to find out how she looked pre-surgery. This is a very relevant issue, as it is quite common to find people going through actors’ and idols’ pre-debut photos to check if they got work done or are ‘naturally beautiful’, and thereby worthy of being famous.

So, it isn’t surprising that Mi Rae places utter importance on appearance, rating people’s faces whenever she sees them. The constant harassment has led her to believe that if you aren’t pretty, you have no value in this society. And so she decides to get plastic surgery done in hopes of finally being accepted by the very society that has harassed her till now.

I liked that Mi Rae’s mother (Kim Sun Hwa) was supportive of this decision of hers, and while the show doesn’t indicate anything as such, I presume her father’s reaction — one of disappointment and anger — towards Mi Rae’s decision was maybe because she resembled him (her mother once refers to herself as 미인, meaning beautiful or belle) and my guess is that it hurt him that she wanted to change herself because she looked like him. Yet again, a seemingly insignificant addition brings forth another interesting viewpoint, as some people do consider getting plastic surgery as a form of disrespect towards your parents, whom you are said to resemble.

Im Soo Hyang plays Mi Rae’s confusion and skepticism, amidst some excitement, during the early parts of the show really well. Based on her new face, she is reborn as a new person (her new ID card is proof of that change being permanent) but on the inside, she is still the same Mi Rae, one who just seeks acceptance. This particular characteristic is brought out wonderfully in the first episode when Mi Rae is astonished when a boy asks for her number, and she mutters to herself, oh right, I forgot that I am pretty now.
But soon enough Mi Rae learns that with beauty, comes attention, lots of it, and most of them are unfortunately unsolicited.

Through various gatherings, we see how much looks and appearances are the centre of most conversations. In another drama, all this would be just banter, but in a show spotlighting beauty, you notice how male students rank female students on their looks or tell them to lose weight or to dress more girly. Girls point out each other insecurities under the guise of giving a compliment. Even employers only want to hire good looking part-timers. This obsession extends to people who are ‘naturally beautiful’ as well, like Do Kyung Seok and Hyun Soo A.
Soo A (played by a fantastic Jo Woo Ri) is one of the best villains in a rom-com since School 2015. She isn’t cartoonishly evil nor is she extremely cold and calculative. Soo A is a bit of both, and Jo Woo Ri plays her so well that while you hate her guts, she also keeps you guessing as to why she is, the way she is.

Soo A reminded me a lot of Yoo Jung from Cheese in the Trap, where she, just like him, nonchalantly uses her beauty (beauty here, money there) and the attention it garners to her advantage, and just like Yoo Jung, there’s a reason behind it all. But what makes all this even more exciting is that Kyung Seok sees right through her, similar to how Seol is the first one to notice Jung’s true nature. This one characteristic of Kyung Seok (played by a very handsome but very stoic Cha Eun Woo of Astro) saves him from being another cold-on-the-outside-but-warm-on-the-inside-hero. He is just so sweet to Mi Rae and is fully supportive towards her (while it is debatable that would Kyung Seok have asked Mi Rae out if she hadn’t gotten plastic surgery done) that I forgave Cha Eun Woo’s lack of expressions.

I loved Mi Rae’s relationship with Kyung Seok’s mother Na Hye Sung (Park Joo Mi). Mi Rae gains a mentor and a friend in her, and it is just so delightful to see how Mi Rae can let her guard down and talk freely about anything that is bothering her. The conversation between them set in the ice cream parlour right after Mi Rae’s outburst at Young Cheol (Ha Kyung) was one of my favourites, where Mi Rae learns that being beautiful can come with its own set of downsides. Another conversation pushes Mi Rae to empathize with Soo A, and in an important scene later on, when Mi Rae finally stands up to Soo A, it is not because she is no longer afraid of her, but because she now understands how similar they are.

This balance is precisely what I loved about this drama. It never takes sides but rather presents to us all the different ways the pressure to be and being beautiful takes a toll on a woman’s physical and mental health. We all are in the end, victims of a system that places too high a demand to fulfill.

My ID is Gangnam Beauty is steadily paced, placing importance on Mi Rae’s journey to self-acceptance and grasping that every girl is under pressure to look beautiful and be accepted. As she asks Soo A, ‘I got plastic surgery to be pretty and you are naturally pretty, but are we both happy?’
The only hurdles were the middle portion of the drama which goes into a lull, suddenly shifting focus onto Kyung Seok’s family, and the product placement, particularly the one promoting a weight loss drink, which felt a bit distasteful considering the show also broaches the topic of bulimia.

But what I really do love is how K-dramas use a set template (of rom-coms) to tell different stories. Take Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo, which tells the love story of a weightlifter, or Extraordinary You, which is set inside a comic book, or Her Private Life, which is about the life of a fangirl. They all unabashedly utilize all the tropes we adore, but at the same time, they still present something different to us every time. Comparing this to the recently watched Mismatched, I wished they could have also wallowed in these tropes as they were clearly present there. And while they are subplots pertaining to homosexuality, disability, bullying, alcopiea, and online dating/matchmaking, they are used as tools to amp up the drama, not to tell a story.