Beautiful Man

Do you hear that? That is the sound of my heart being cut into bite sized pieces and then placed gently on a pillow. My heart, of course, is crushed because I fell hard for David even though I knew that he was ultimately going to loose since he was the second male lead. The pillow is there because he did find a pretty girl who also likes glamping at the end.

Even though the tone of the drama changed quite a bit in the second half, I generally liked it. It didn't make me want to throw things and I never had the thought to stop watching it. I think that right now I am just very easy to please since my last few drama choices have been huge letdowns.

The Plot

DokGo Ma Te (Jang Geun Suk) is a pretty boy who uses his looks to charm successful women. Side note: I really wish that Jang Geun Suk would surprise me with his choice in characters. He is always playing this same character and while he is good at it, he isn't really going anywhere.

While Ma Te is going around and seducing the rich and powerful women of Korea, he meets a woman named Hong Yoo Ra (Han Chae Young) who is the ex-daughter-in-law of a very powerful company. She tells Ma Te that he is the illegitimate child of the Chairman of this company and that she wants his help in bringing the company down. She gives him the task or seducing ten of Korea's top women to gain the knowledge that they have.

This was the plot line that was followed through the first half of the drama, but by the second half, it changed a little. The ten women that Ma Te had to meet became less of a driving factor after the fifth one. They just popped up for a short while and then they left without leaving the same kind of mark that the previous five did.

Women Six and Seven were also a little odd. Number six did help with the court case but woman seven left me a little confused. What did Ma Te learn from her? She also just generally confused me as she floated around and seemed to know everything that was going on. Especially at the end when she called David to save Bo Tong.

Speaking of which, that was the weirdest kidnapping/threatening message ever. What was the point of putting Bo Tong in that room/box thing? Hong Ran couldn't have done anything aside from that? It just seemed so messy, kind of like the writing out of Myo Mi. She just all of a sudden wasn't there any more.  

Plot holes aside, there was a lot of posing done by Jang Geun Suk, but then again, would we expect anything less from him? Look at those skinny legs.

The Characters

Jang Geun Suk as DokGo Ma Te  

Is it wrong to say that I am not on the Jang Geun Suk Express? He's a talented guy and he is very pretty, especially when he smiles, but I feel like he might be a jerk in real life. I can't really make that assumption because I don't know him, but that's how I feel. Maybe it's because he always plays the same character so that's how I see him.

The character of Ma Te was a good one though, it was interesting to see him change throughout the drama from a gigantic useless jerk to a person who understood the need of hard work and how the world actually works.

IU as Kim Bo Tong

I fully enjoyed Kim Bo Tong. Yes, she was desperate in the beginning and at the end as well, but she also grew as a person. At the end of the drama she was only stumbling every once in a while instead of falling all over herself when it came to Ma Te.

She was also able to give some good advice to Ma Te as well and I liked that she knew that he was lying and that Hong Ran had something to do with his noble idiocy at the end. I am always for the female leads knowing that they are not useless and that some outside force is the driving factor of the guys angst and not just themselves. 

Lee Jang Woo as David Choi

Why did you have to be the second male lead, why? He was like a male Bo Tong and was everything that Ma Te wasn't. You don't need Kim Bo Tong, come to me, I will love you. But only if you change your hair back to the way it was in the beginning instead of that frizzy look you were rocking at the end.

Han Chae Young as Hong Yoo Ra 

I was a little confused about her character. I liked her, she was a large driving factor of everything that happened, but she also wasn't very consistent at the end. I guess that just plays into what I was saying about the last half of the drama being different from the first.

The reason she wanted to destroy MG was because of what they did to her in separating her from her daughter. I forgot about the daughter though, and when I did remember it confused me because no one seemed to remember her either. Then at the end, she picked up and left. She did come back, but it just seemed weird.

Final Thoughts

Weird plot issues aside, I really liked this drama. It was very quirky and that was probably because it was based off a manwha and things are always weirder in comics than they are in "real life". It was something that didn't require any brain power really which is something that you just need sometimes.

This drama also brought the reign of Jang Geun Suk's hair to an end, and may I say, I am okay with that.

~ Alora 

Beautiful Man Episodes 7 and 8

Scandal! Lies! Socks! Park Ji Yoon! Sink noodles! This drama doesn't have an incredible amount of depth to it, but it is doing it's job and that is okay with me. I wonder if I would like it as much had I read the manwha before I watched this.

Episode 7

In this episode there are quite a few awkward meetings two of which are uncomfortable and one that makes you take pause and say, "What?" A new woman also came into Ma Te's life, but it's not woman number four, but he will probably be able to learn something from her since that is the dramas theme.

I will become your lover

Ma Te has finally met his match and he isn't aware of it yet. He thinks that In Joong is just another woman who he can drag about on a string, but what he doesn't realize is that he is actually tangled in her strings. She kind of reminds me of an Aes Sedai from the Wheel of Time series. I think that if In Joong were an Aes Sedai, she would be in the Blue Ajah, maybe even a secret Black sister, she sucks enough for that.

Nerd alert! I'm sorry you had to see that. Anyways, he tells her that he will become her lover if she helps him sell 300,000 KRW worth of socks so that Hong Ran doesn't crush them later on. Too bad In Joong got that promise on tape and is going to crush you instead.

How does David know Yoo Ra?

 

It is no secret that I love the character of David, but as I am getting farther into this drama I realize that he has quite a few secrets. The one that is revealed in this episode is that he and Hong Yoo Ra seem to have had a thing. I don't know what that thing is yet, but he was very surprised to see her, and even more surprised to see that Ma Te has some connection to her.

Knitting clothes for you grandchildren, eh?

Someone had a secret baby in New York! And guess who speaks English because he spent a lot of time in New York? David. Is he this secret child, or are the writers making it so obvious so they can slap us with something later? I don't know anything about the story so I can't say, but I'm thinking that David and Ma Te are going to be step siblings somehow. Unless David is illegitimate child and that adds a whole other layer of scandal frosting to this cake.

Renew, Reuse, Recycle

 

So gross!! Why would you think that this is a good idea? I know that you guys are all about re-purposing, but there is a fine line between being creative and just being incredibly strange. I did like the phone idea though, that is kind of brilliant. 

Episode 8 

It's confession time in the land of Beautiful Man. By the time the episode is over we are left with two and a half confessions and a collective "omo"! 

Shocking, I never saw that coming. 

Oh, Bo Tong, you sweet, sweet simpleton, everyone knows that you are desperately in love with Ma Te. The only consolation that I have is that the first confession is a big deal in Asian culture and she technically, I assume, has never outright told Ma Te that she loves him. I kind of wonder what Ma Te will do when she finally tells him, because it is one thing to know some one likes you and another thing entirely to have them tell you. 

Another secret baby?

 

Surprise! Myo Mi isn't actually a lesbian! She just uses that as a front to hide the fact that she had a secret child ten years ago. What? I'm not sure how that makes sense, but whatever. I'm just glad that she was brave enough to say it herself before In Joong used it against her. Side note, In Joong is a sucky human being. 

Get it, David!

I'm going to continue to live in my own personal delusion that Bo Tong will accept David's confession if he actually gets the words out before something happens. Side note, his jacket is fantastic. I love everything that he has worn in the drama. Ever since I watched Dream High last year, I have noticed that I drool over men's outerwear more than women's.

Is that the sound of frenemies I hear? Maybe even a bromance?

I don't know if I would go so far as to say bromance, David is too grumpy that all Bo Tong sees in Ma Te to truly like him. I feel you David, I feel you. If David and Ma Te really are somehow half siblings though, it will be interesting to see what that new conflict does to their potentially budding relationship. 

Final thoughts

Well, the drama is halfway over at this point and thus far I am really enjoyed it. The story is light and it isn't trying to be anything that it isn't. It's about socks and pretty boys for Pete's sake! Ever with this though, there is a nice amount of drama with Yoo Ra's revenge plot and the conflict that is brewing within MG. 

Then we also have the woman of the moment, In Joong messing with Myo Mi and Ma Te's life. she is the longest standing woman thus far and she is doing really well. I kind of wonder though if there are really going to be ten women though since we have only met three out of the ten and we're now half way through the drama. 

Keep doing what you do drama! I am thoroughly enjoying myself.  

~ Alora

Beautiful Man Episodes 5 and 6

I am still enjoying this drama which is good because I am still a little traumatized about the time that I put into Mi-Rae's Choice and the realization that it had no point. Why do you do these things to me dramas? This one continues to be cute though and I am suffering from Second Male Lead Love right now, which seems to be a trend in the dramas that I am picking this year. I don't know how much more my poor heart can take!

In this weeks episodes, there were misunderstandings, hidden agendas, and a whole lot of socks. I love a good sock, but it is getting a little ridiculous, but I love it. This drama is based off a manwha so it is going to be a little crazier than your usual drama and it is doing just that. Now all I can do is cross my fingers and hope that it doesn't crash and burn.

Episode 5

Does Hong Yoo Ra have a heart somewhere under that facade of beautiful vengeance? 

This episode begins with Hong Yoo Ra crying to Ma Te because her ex-mother-in-law has told Yoo Ra that she is going to send Yoo Ra's six year old daughter abroad. This, of course, makes Yoo Ra cry which is totally understandable. She misses her daughter and wants her back, but now there is no way that is going to ever happen because she won't even be in the same country. She asks Ma Te to help her take down MG so that she and her daughter can be reunited. Special moment.....kind of.....

As soon as she is out of Ma Te's house though her scary poker face is back and all she's concerned about is her smudged mascara. So, do you actually care about your daughter or not?

Be careful Ma Te, your button is showing

Even though Ma Te isn't aware of it yet, Bo Tong is his button, it will be interesting to see what he does when he realizes that. When he misunderstood when Bo Tong and David said that they were living together and talking about beds was amazing. Like with all the other women that we have seen him come in contact with, you can see that he does care for Bo Tong even if he doesn't love her.....yet.

So much second hand embarrassment

   

I am making the same face as that nail artist. This scene was gloriously painful. 

I'm sorry that you are the second male lead

"I am so, so sorry." - The Doctor 

Episode 6

Connections 

 

In the last episode we were introduced to woman number three, Kim In Joong, and Ma Te is suppose to learn about connections and how to deal with people from her. Something that you always see in dramas is that the nice girls are always poor and sometimes quite dumb and it can be infuriating; on the other hand, the rich girls are beautiful and have a horrible personality. This drama is giving us successful women that are good people and even though they may fall for Ma Te's charms, they are also smart enough to step back. I hope that all these woman will continue to be portrayed this way because it is a nice breath of fresh air. 

Socks, socks everywhere

 

I thought that this sock thing would die out after Jaek Hee left, but it is still going strong and I am actually liking it. It wasn't a plot that was awkwardly dropped, instead, it is forging onward hysterically. David and Bo Tong go to a sock club in hopes to get someone to pick up and sell their cleaning socks. Enter this piece of work and his independent sock company. 

No words

 

Jang Geun Suk loves a good pose. After Bo Tong and David almost ruin everything with the sock man, with his newly acquired information about making connections from In Joong, Ma Te comes to the sock company flaunting some seriously skinny legs to show off his socks. They are able to get help from sock man, and, thus, able to sell their socks on MG's home shopping channel. Now it is up to them to be able to sell enough to knock Na Hong Ran off her high horse. Knowing her though, she'll have something else up her sleeve, she is a high up, scorned, dragon mom, a dangerous combination. 

Stop being so perfect!!

 

Just stop! All you are doing is causing my heart to break because you aren't going to get the girl. I can already see your heartbroken face in my head and I don't like it. 

~ Alora

Beautiful Man Episode 3 and 4

Lesson One: People are stupid

Wait.......wrong lesson

Lesson One: Money is a living being. Money, if brought up carefully, will grow, but if it grows too big, it will eat you up. That's deep man.

With this lesson though, I am even more confused about the relationship that Yoo Ra has, or wants, from Ma Te. Aside from this couple, there are a lot more couples that should be, are, and were destroyed in the two episodes that were aired this week.

David Choi and Kim Bo Tong - The couple that will never be

These two are peas in the same crazy pod and I love them. Bo Tong we already know is quirky and acts like a love sick 12 year old, but that isn't something that I expected from David. I thought that he was playing into her crazy when he bought the hat/wig, but no, he is also a piece of work. He was actually wearing that thing and then when he was talking about his "vintage dust", I was so done. I'm a little sad that he doesn't stand a chance in Hell of getting her with her obsession with Ma Te. Can you imagine what their life together would be like?

Dokgo Ma Te and Kim Bo Tong - The OTP 

 

Even though this relationship is about as one sided as you can get, I feel that it is only a matter of time before Ma Te's toast can't handle all the jelly that he will have to put on. That was incredibly lame, but I really wanted to say that so I am not ashamed. Once Ma Te realizes he is suppose to be with Bo Tong I have a feeling that it is going to be one of the cutest relationships ever.

Electric Fairy and Hong Yoo Ra - One is probably going to kill the other

I really have nothing more to say about them other than I really feel like one is going to kill the other. There is so much opinionated estrogen in the room I am surprised that it didn't just explode. It will be interesting to see what happens with these two.

The Break ups 

Dokgo Ma Te and Jaek Hee - You're too good for him!!!!!!!!!!!

I think that Ma Te really did like this woman in his own way, but I am glad that she broke up with him. It does make me sad though that she feels that without her money she doesn't amount to anything. It is too bad that that is the way our society works. She was plain and poor and with her money she gained friends and made herself pretty and she knows that. She knows that without her money all of her "friends" will eave her which is why she kept throwing her money at Ma Te to keep him. I hope that she can find a man that can see beyond her money as see the lovely person that she is underneath.

Dokgo Ma Te and his hair - ...........

As long as his hair was in a ponytail and swept aside, I thought that he looked really good. I didn't like it when it was down because it looked like he had a mop on his head. All of this hair falling in his face though isn't cute. I think that he is the type of person that shouldn't have bangs, he has a nice forehead and it should be out and about. I'm going to say that he and his hair are in the awkward "getting to know you" phase.  

Even though a lot of the Viki commenters are saying that they don't like the storyline, I think that it is interesting even if it is a little weird. Nothing has happened that makes me want to flip my table yet either and that is always a plus. Another plus is Jang Geun Suk's obsession with posing. Oh, Jang Geun Suk, you love yourself so much.

~ Alora