The Beauty Inside: Short Review

Is the inner beauty the only kind of beauty that matter? That's basically what The Beauty Inside ask us. Could you go beyond the physique criteria? Would you grab the chance to be happy? The physique is important but would you dare to go beyond the image and dig deeper?  

Between us, if like Hong Yi-Soo (Han Hyo-joo), I had to wake up every morning with someone different by my side, I’m not sure I’ll manage. Life is already full of surprises (good and bad) just don’t come with more. But when you stop and give yourself some time, you end up facing an evident truth: the person in front of you might have thousand faces, it’s the one you need, the one you want. It only takes some courage to accept it. Kim Wo-Jin and Hong Yi-Soo are soulmates. They connected right away. It was so quick it was like an evidence. Sometimes you don’t have to question the universe for too long, it’s him, it’s her. That’s all. But how to live a normal love story when you can’t predict what you’ll like look the next morning? How to manage you’re a tall black guy one day but a grandpa the following day? How to make the one you love (or anyone) accept that inexplicable reality?

 

Kim Woo-Jin started to change at the age of 18. The student he was, back then, woke up one day in the body of an ahjussi (Bae Sung-woo). His mind was still the one of a teenager but he was “trapped” in a mid-30 man’s body. He went to his mother in tears to figure out what was happening. But her mother stayed calm. She wasn’t surprised but more resigned. It’s like she was waiting for that day to arrive. And it was inevitable, Woo-jin’s father had the same abnormality. He abandoned his wife and kid to give them a chance to live a normal life. But 18 years later, Woo-jin like his father before him, is going through the same phenomena:  he’s destined to face a different him every day! The only person to be in the loop is his unique friend, Sang-baek (Lee Dong-hwi). 

One day Sang-baek went to Woo-jin’s house. A bit tipsy, he started to chat with Woo-jin’s mother. Fore sure she was a bit older than usual, but with soju in the blood, I’m not sur I’d have noticed. But the real Kim Woo-jin’s mother entered few minutes later. Sang-baek got sober in a second and instantly became Woo-jin’s secret guardian. Our peculiar hero grew up being a furniture designer. He’s passionate, talented, creative and quite successful with his business. But no way for him to expose himself to the world. No one would probably understand. He’s in charge of the creative part while Sang-baek’s the manager and the company’s face. Life could have passed like that but like any growing normal man, Kim Woo-jin will fall in love. 

Hong Yi-Soo works in a furniture shop. She’s as passionate, perhaps as much as Kim Woo-jin. It’s love at first time for the latter. He will take his courage in both hands and will ask her out. The thing when you have a different face day is that you can wait to look like an attractive man to seduce the girl you’re after. Convenient! You better put all the chances on your side, right? And Woo-jin will be rewarded for his patience. The day he woke up with Park Seo-joon’s face is the day he asked Yi-soo out. She said yes (how to say the contrary to that cutie pie?) To keep the face that seduced Yi-soo, Woo-jin won’t sleep for days. But no matter how strong-minded you’re are, you can’t win over your body. Park Seo-joon will inevitably sleep in the metro and will wake up as Kim Sang-ho, a dozen stops after. We’re not really dealing with the same physique here. 

But Woo-jin can’t just forget Yi-soo. So despite his fears and apprehensions, he has to tell her the truth. “No I never left you, because that old man who walked in the shop for hours, that guy who kept asking you questions about furniture’s or that new part-time girl were all the same person: the guy you fell in love with.” Well, Kim Woo-jin, despite all your courage, I can’t swear I wouldn’t have run very far after that kind of confession. But Hong Yi-Soo didn’t run (well in the facts, she ran then came back). Their story was funny, intriguing and unique. But slowly many questions arose: What about the marriage? How to tell her family, friends and colleagues? How to deal with society’s judgment? Would she have shoulders wide enough to cope with all that? 

- Colleagues and social environment: What to answer when your colleagues asked you to be careful cause you know hang out with a different man every night isn’t exactly a good lifestyle? Hong Yi-Soo could take the time to explain herself and clear the misunderstandings but she’s not even guaranteed to be believed. She constantly delays the day she’ll introduced the man she’s dating to her colleagues. But trust me that only produces more curiosity. Human nature. When the company will organize an after-work party, Yi-Soo is left with no choice: she has to bring her boyfriend. But Woo-jin’s secret isn’t precisely the one you can control at your convenience. And that’s only also part of the pressure Yi-Soo has to live with. Luckily for them, Kim Woo-jin will show up at the party in Lee Jin-Wook’s body. It could have been worse! A child or a grandma maybe. Go and try to explain that your boyfriend can be super sexy but today he just looks like a grey haired grandma. You swear you’re not lying. If someone understand that just call me!

- Marriage: Naturally Yi-Soo wants to marry the man she loves but again the same questions occur: in which body will Woo-Jin be appear the D-Day? An ahjumma, a woman, a foreigner? Will they understand that even if the shell is different, the inner is still the same? Hard to guess.  

- Someone to talk to: Yi-Soo is close to her sister but she can’t even confess to her. Obviously Kim Woo-jin isn’t the only one trapped by this phenomena. Hong Yi-Soo consented to this strange love story but ended up being trapped in some many questions and worries she got herself sick. Can you possibly live that way without sharing your happiness or your fears with anyone?  Admittedly Woo-jin’s deeply in love and tries his hardest to reunite with Yi-Soo every day despite how he looks, but all his efforts can’t bring answers to Yi-Soo. She has millions of interrogations and no one who could help her. Naturally her mind will lose it and she will eventually break up. She can’t really be blamed and Woo-jin won’t ever do so. She needs certainties and he has none to offer. 

But love is stronger than doubts (most of the time at least). Kim Woo-jin will move to Europe to forget. Yi-Soo will also enter into the ‘forgetting’ process. But how to forget that peculiar love and erase all the memories? Can the fragility of their future annihilate their present? Yi-Soo needs time but as time will pass, one thing will become certain for her: she loves Woo-jin beyond her doubts, fears and anyone’s judgment. They will think about the rest later, they will find solutions together but for the moment she just needs him. As she fought her own doubts, Yi-Soo’ll fight Woo-jin’s doubts and worries in order to give us a happy end insofar as that kind of plot can have happy endings. But I definitely believe it’s the best ending the movie could gave us.  

What a crazy casting and what a brilliant idea to have dramas and cinema’s celebrities to play Kim Woo-jin. I’m not saying anonymous wouldn’t have made it but seeing those famous actors and actresses appearing for few minutes (or even seconds) brought an even heavier significance to Kim Woo-jin’s difficult reality. It’s purely terrifying to wake up with Lee Dong-wook’s features on Monday, Juri Ueno’s on Tuesday and Seo Kang-joon’s the third day; to have a drink with your friend looking like Park Shin-hye; to go on a date with the look of Yoo Yeon-seok; to visit your mother with Go Ah-sung’s face when at your last visit it was Lee Boom-soo or Do Ji-Han’s one! We’ve never seen the “real” Kim Woo-jin if I can put it like that. Not saying his face before the transformation is a way to say no matter how Woo-jin used to look like, that time is gone. His life isn’t common, he has to accept it and live with his manifold him.

My feelings:

The movie moved me in a way I can’t hardly explain. One of the reasons would probably be that the movie was more dramatic and emotional than expecting. But if I have to point one strong reason that make The Beauty Inside a beautiful movie and a worth watch it’s undeniably the fact that it’s human. Simply human. And the precision with which the camera captured actor’s emotions and frustrations brought more depth.

The Beauty Inside is an ode to the inner beauty. Looking at that inner beauty it’s easily said than done, that’s for sure, but not trying is taking the risk of missing out on love or even friendship. Dare to go beyond your first impressions and preconceive ideas. Love without any etiquette, without following world’s concept of normality. Who cares if everyone says you’re a freak? Kim Woo-jin dared to make a step forward. Hong Yi-soo took his hand and heart to love him just the way he was.