Series / True Beauty (2020)

"I'm Jugyeong. A goddess... that is only until I remove my makeup."

— Jugeyeong's Opening Monologue

True Beauty (original Korean title: 여신강림, literally "The Advent of a Goddess") is a tvN Korean Drama, based on the Webtoon of the same name. It premiered on December 09, 2020.

Im Jugyeong has had it pretty rough; born as the ugly middle daughter of her family, she's been ridiculed for her appearance her whole life and has become an easy target of Attractiveness Discrimination. After a rather harsh rejection, she decides to make herself prettier with makeup via online tutorials. When her father's debt problem forces the family to move back into their old hometown, she decides to start over socially as well; with her now-perfected makeup, her ugliness disappears and suddenly, she goes from being ostracized to being admired as one of the prettiest girls in the school. All the while terrified that her bare ugly face could accidentally be revealed to everyone.

But what would a Korean Drama be without two male love interests? Jugyeong finds herself in a Love Triangle between two of her classmates, Lee Suho; the cold but handsome top student and Han Seojun; the bad boy and the school's wild horse as described by one of the students. The two boys seem to have it out for each other and no one knows why. But as they all bond together, will Jugyeong ever get the confidence she needs to go out without makeup?

Not to be confused with the 2009 American reality tv show True Beauty (2009) produced by Tyra Banks and Ashton Kutcher.

---

This series provides examples of the following tropes:

• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: The adaptation seems to go out of its way to make Jugyeong's life pre-makeup miserable; her whole family ridicules her for being the ugly one of the family, she's bullied by the popular kids in her old high school to the point of nearly committing suicide and even gets rejected rather harshly by a senior she liked (granted, he too was manipulated by the popular crowd but still). And even after transferring, her bullies continue to play a role in the story.
  • In the webtoon, Suho missed Seyeon's phone call due to an argument with his father and the consequent mental stress-induced early sleep. Here, he deliberately let Seyeon's phone call go due to being in a bad mood that day. He finds out about Seyeon's suicide later that same night, and collapses in shock and grief.
• Adaptational Backstory Change: There is a few
  • Suho's backstory in the series includes him witnessing his dad sleeping with another woman on the day his mom died which is not shown in the webtoon. They also make Jugyeong and Suho meet during their childhood which also does not happen in the webtoon.
  • Seyeon's backstory is slightly altered and given more details that were not there in the adapted work.
• Adaptational Badass: Even though TV-Suho does jujitsu too, he's still tougher than webtoon Suho, who despite a good heart was physically a wimp until meeting Seyeon and Seojun made him toughen up. There's also his basketball skills and musicianship; webtoon Suho was mostly a cheerleader/moral support for Seyeon and Seojun making it big in the music industry.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Kang Sujin. In the webtoon she was narcissistic and an attention seeker, she only pretended to befriend Jugyeong to try and keep her apart from Suho (whom they both had feelings for), and would silently belittle Jugyeong. In the drama, she appears to be far more modest and humble, is a model student, and is genuinely friendly with Jugyeong, even going out of her way to defend her from bullies and troublemakers. When she learns of Jugyeong's secret, she also very understanding of the reasons she hides her true face and helps her keep it a secret.
  • Adaptational Villainy: However, once Sujin figures out that Jugyeong and Suho are dating, she starts going to far more aggressive lengths to undermine their relationship than she ever did in the webtoon. She first tries to shake Jugyeong's and Su-Ho's trust in one another, and Sujin takes actions that make Jugyeong worried about the possibility of having to choose between her love for Suho and her friendship with Sujin. When that ends up going nowhere after both Suho and Jugyeong decide to simply tell Sujin they are dating, and when Sujin learns that Suho never returned her attraction to him, Su-Jin decides to simply destroy Jugyeong's reputation purely out of spite... which involves collaborating with Jugyeong's old bullies to reveal to everyone what Jugyeong looks like without makeup.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Soo-ah is just as boy crazy as Jugyeong and Sujin in the webtoon. Here she has a boyfriend (their class clown and b-boy), and in the second episode states she doesn't find either Suho or Seojun attractive; due to their tendency to tense the atmosphere whenever they're together in the same room.
  • Juyeong never had any feelings for Goeun in the webtoon.
  • Mr. Han originally liked Heegyeong first rather than the other way around in the webtoon. Unfortunately, it never went anywhere due to his less-than-stellar table manners. Here, his dinner mishaps are completely accidental on his end, and Heegyeong forgives him for it.
  • Seyeon wasn't under the employment of Lee Juheon, who himself wasn't an entertainment agency CEO.
  • Selena is not Suho's older sister in the drama.
• Adaptational Villainy: In addition to Sujin above, Lee Juheon (Suho's dad and the CEO of Move Entertainment) gets a good dose; part of the reason Seyeon killed himself, aside from all the online hate, the fake bullying controversy and Suho's critical decision to not pick up his friend's phone call, was that Juheon fired him without hearing his side of the story. And in episode 10, Juheon gives the song Starlight (written by Suho and Seyeon and performed by the latter) to a different boy band's album. In the same episode, it's implied Juheon conjured up the bullying rumor and threw Seyeon under the bus to get the press off his back after he was spotted with his girlfriend/younger female co-star. Subverted when it's revealed that his right-hand-man simply took Juheon's orders of "cover it up with something else, no matter what" and spread the false rumors that Seyeon was a bully at school (the actual bullies simply framed the poor guy for it), but Suho still considers Juheon at fault considering the scandal is what caused the whole mishap to begin in the first place. Even beyond that, previously he saw his dad in bed with a different woman; on the same night Suho's mom aka Juheon's now-deceased wife died.
• Alpha Bitch: Park Semi, the leader of the group of girls who bullied Jugyeong at her old school.
• Always Second Best: Quite literally Sujin, as the 2nd best academic student in Sebom High just can't beat Suho when it comes to academics. Her parents are furious over her losing all the time, and despite her own feelings for Suho, Sujin is very sore about constantly losing.
• Angry Collar Grab: Seojun and Suho are ''quite'' ''obsessed'' with doing this to each other.
• Being Ugly Sucks: The root of all Jugyeong's problems and the sole reason why she made herself go through all that trouble is her appearance angst and the Attractiveness Discrimination she had to endure at her old school. Thus, she has to wake up early before everyone just to apply her "full" makeup and curl her hair and goes to extreme lengths to hide her real face from her friends.
• Berserk Button:
  • Insulting or causing any kind of harm to Jugyeong appears to be this for Sujin at least for the first half of the series, who will become fiercely protective of Jugyeong... up to and including giving the offender a roundhouse kick!
  • Bullying others is this for Seojun, because of what happened to Seyeon. Seojun becomes absolutely furious towards Jugyeong's old bullies when he confronts them near the end of episode 12 and learns how they mistreated her in the past.
• Beta Couple: Mr. Han and Heegyoung, despite their own ups and downs, are clearly more stable than Jugyeong's Love Triangle with Suho and Seojun, as well as Juyeong's back and forth with Goeun.
• Betty and Veronica: Suho is the Archie to Jugyeong's Betty and Sujin's Veronica.
• Black Sheep: As stated above, Jugyeong is somehow the only ugly and academically inept one of her family while the rest are good looking and smart.
• Book Dumb: Most of the characters in the show are notorious for having bad grades save for Sujin and Suho.
• Break-Up/Make-Up Scenario: Suho and Jugyeong break up in episode 14 just to make up again in the final episode.
• Bridal Carry: Seojun does this to Jugyeong in episode 8 during the school trip, but it isn't clear how much of it was genuine and how much of it was just to piss Suho off and win against him.
• Canon Foreigner:
  • Mr. Im, aka Jugyeong's father. The guy, despite a couple of mentions, never once actually appeared in the webtoon.
  • Chaenee, the insufferable singer under the same label as Seojun.
  • Seojun's mother's whole personality, purpose and role in the story change so much, that it is almost safe to say that she is an original character at this point.
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys: Which is a given and kind of the point considering that it is based on a webtoon. Seriously, even some of the background characters got attention for how attractive they are. [1] [2].
• Chekhov's Gun: In the pilot episode alone, there are memorials present for Seyeon as well as a whole billboard dedicated to him.
• Cheer Up Episode: Episode 13 is partially this, as Suho tries to lift Jugyeong's spirits after what happened in various ways.
• Class Trip: Episode 8 takes place on a school trip in the countryside.
• Class Reunion: Class 2-5 have a reunion post-time skip where Taehoon gathers them to announce his decision to enlist in the military. It shows how the characters have matured and changed style-wise and their current relationships with each other after graduation.
• Cock Fight: Literally most of Suho and Seojun's physical fights are over Jugeyeong.
  • This is what the dumpling battle in episode 10 boils down to.
• Coming of Age Story: A necessary element of a typical school rom-com. The story deals with the characters growing up from awkward teenagers with insecurities and troubles to more mature and less clumsy adults who are able to handle life on their own.
• Cosmetic Catastrophe: Jugyeong's first attempt at makeup before transferring schools has... less than optimal results.
  Hyunsook: Makeup my butt! That is ghost makeup! Did you just come out of filming for "Korean Ghost Stories?"
  • Goeun has a similar one in episode 5 before Jugyeong helps her fix it.
• Death Glare: Suho and Seojun exchange so many of these glares with each other at the start you would think laser is about to come out from their eyes from how intense the glares were..
  • Sujin gives them a lot, usually behind everyone's back, mainly starting from the last part of episode 9, and the episode 11 trailer might as well function a compilation video of them.
• Daydream Surprise: True Beauty is just so [3] fond [4] of having these.
• Disappeared Dad: Due to his father being a famous actor, Suho rarely sees him.
• Disapproving Look: Suho is clearly not happy to see Seojun back at school when the latter comes back, and Seojun seems to be itching for an excuse to beat him up.
• Downer Beginning: The drama starts with Jugyeong being taunted by everyone around her, including her family and relatives, because of her ugly face, is made to buy dumplings for one of her bullies, gets brutally rejected by her crush at school, is filmed while being degraded by the same bullies from before then snaps and contemplates committing suicide.
• Dramatic Unmask: Thanks to Sujin, episode 12 ends with the whole school aware of Jugyeong's past at Yongpa High and her real face sans makeup. Almost everyone seems to turn their backs on Jugyeong; who can only run out of the school in terror and sadness; pushing aside even Suho when he tries to help her.
• Empathic Environment: It starts raining coincidently as Jugyeong snaps at Suho and tells him off for playing around with her own trauma regarding her appearance and Suho apologizes in return and runs off to buy her bandaid for her bleeding knees with Seojun silently watching all of this from afar.
• Establishing Series Moment: Has at least two major ones
  • When Jugyeong goes to her new school after her well-done makeover and realizes that she is no longer a victim of Attractiveness Discrimination but that she is now a beauty goddess in everyone's eyes, this is considered vital to the plot and its overall message.
  • Jugyeong's entire class discussing the love triangle that she suddenly entered in episode 4 after Seojun and Suho fought mostly because of her in the school's cafeteria and her classmates bombarding her with endless questions about who will be her choice between the two have made what will be the focus of the story pretty clear for the audience.
• Everyone Must Be Paired: Almost everyone in True Beauty becomes or is already a couple, Suho and Jugyeong, Taehoon and Sooah, Chorong and Hyemin, Heegyeong and Teacher Han, and even the Will They or Won't They? Goeun and Juyeong, and the list goes on... save for only Seojun and Sujin.
• Failure-to-Save Murder: This is also the main reason behind Seojun and Suho's fallout, as Seojun relentlessly blames Seyeon's death on Suho's failure at answering his call before he attempts suicide, which further deteriorates Suho's mental state. Later, Suho is seen having a Heroic BSoD after he hears Seyeon's song, Starlight, for the first time since the incident.
• Fire and Ice Love Triangle: Quite literally the plot of True Beauty. Jugyeong is liked by two guys, one is Suho, who is an icy and closed-off person, and the other is Seojun, who is passionate and warmhearted.
• Foreshadowing: Sujin always seems to take a strong interest in the interactions between Jugyeong and Suho which is a foreshadowing for how she'll fall in love with Suho and will become jealous of their relationship.
• Forgotten First Meeting: Jugeyong doesn't recognize Suho after their meeting on the rooftop as her glasses fell off when he saved her. She realizes his identity in episode 5 when she discovers his jacket is the same one her savior has.
• Freudian Excuse: Sujin's feelings for Suho is derived from how she received little to no love from her own parents, and how he always saved her from more of her father's berating, insults and injuries.
• Girl Posse: Jugyeong's bullies. When she runs into them again in episode 6, they waste no time in trying to figure out where she transferred to, and the bullies' leader even blames her for giving her a reputation as a bully.
• Good-Times Montage:
  • Seojun has one where he reminisces all of his heartwarming moments with Jugyeong as an indication of him trying to move on.
  • Another one happens in episode 14 between Jugyeong and Soojin where they both look back at their past good times together for the last time.
• Injured Limb Episode: The entirety of episode 11 is a prime example of this where Seojun has hurt his right arm and Suho his left leg. And considering the nature of the show, Hilarity Ensues.
• In Memoriam: An in-universe example where various characters, including Seojun, perform the song Starlight, which is the late Seyeon's song, to honor his memory.
• Internal Reveeal: Jugyeong realizes Suho is the one from the roof when she stumbles upon his jacket, which had a pin that her savior wore.
• Irony: At first, Sujin told Seojun off for pretending to be all thug-like and intimidating at school and even threatened to tell the school on him if she sees him bully other kids, which he completely disregards. But Love Makes You Evil happens to Sujin and she is not above getting involved with bullies anymore and even intentionally ignores the fact that her best friend was viciously tormented (which used to be a Berserk Button for her!) at her old school out of envy. And now, it is Seojun's turn to call her out for trying to harm Jugyeong. It is like they switched personalities or something...
• Ladykiller in Love: Being smart, good-looking, and popular with girls; Juyeong can't understand the fact that Goeun isn't interested in him. And his interest in her is definitely not romantic at all, no sir.
• Love Letter Lunacy: At first, Seojun and his squad think that Jugyeong put a love letter in Seojun's pocket to which they start cheering and tease him about his still-growing popularity... just for it to turn out to be a letter explaining what happened to his helmet and telling him to be patient while she works on getting it back to him.
• Moment Killer: This show is FULL with them. Whenever the main characters get some serious action going on someone always interrupts and ruins the mood.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Because of her relationship with Suho is initially kept secret most people mistake Jugyeong to be dating Seojun, with or without Ship Tease moments. From Chapter 69 to 128 in the webtoon, Jugyeong and Seojun were indeed in a relationship; he even sees her without makeup, and touchingly assures her he loves her regardless of her looks.
  • When he returns in the last two episodes, Suho doesn't seem too shocked when Seojun lies to him that he and Jugyeong are dating. When Suho returned from Japan and met up with Seojun in the webtoon, the latter told him the same thing (though the two actually were dating at the time); Suho didn't seem to mind and essentially turned into a Shipper on Deck for the two.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Sijun alludes to this when Seojun confronts her about her having feelings for Suho even though she knows that he is dating Jugyeong, to which she replies that he also has a crush on someone who is already taken just like her, and thus, should not demonize her for something he himself does. Naturally, this leaves him at loss for words.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten:
  • Seojun hasn't forgiven Juheon for caring more about his image (and by extension, his agency) than doing anything that could have prevented Seyeon's suicide. And family issues aside, it is clear that Suho feels the same way.
  • On a smaller scale, Juheon shows up at Sebom High School for the parent-teacher conference in episode 6. Unfortunately, given his international fame and good looks, it makes news around the school and his closely guarded secret (the fact that Suho's his son) is now out in the open. Suho, already on bad terms with his dad, is livid when this happens.
• Overdramatic Dating Commotion: After Jugyeong and Seojun do a photo shoot in some compromising positions the photos are later printed across their classroom and on the shirts of Seojun's dimwitted but well-meaning friends. The entire class create a commotion over it and demand answers to whether they're together or not, with some students hanging balloons and carrying banners shipping the two. Jugyeong is actually dating Suho.
  Jugyeong: [claps to calm down the commotion] Okay, guys! We're just friends. Nothing more, nothing less. So please stop spreading rumors based on speculation.
  [everyone makes noises of disagreement and disappointment]
  Seojun: [to Jugyeong] Is this a press conference?
  [...]
  Seojun: [slams table] Guys! If I hear you talk nonsense, you're dead. [turns to Jugyeong] Happy?
• Parental Abandonment: Both Seojun's dad and Suho's mom are dead. It is briefly mentioned that Seojun's dad died in a traffic accident.
• Parental Neglect: Mrs. Im is completely oblivious and unsympathetic to her middle daughter's troubles. And in episode 6 she's more concerned with looking good to Juheon and Suho than the fact that she got Juheon's autograph on Jugyeong's report card (which states she got Fs in EVERY subject) and hangs it on her salon wall, or Jugyeong's clear not-being-comfortable with Suho around.
• Plaster Cast Doodling: After Seojun gets in a car accident along with Suho, one of his arms ends up covered with a cast. When Jugyeong sees him at the hospital she decides to add on to the writings on his cast, and wrote, "Tiger energy boost. Roar!" in reference to her "Roar!", which became a thing between them.
• Poor Communication Kills: This is what caused Suho and Seojun's friendship to fall apart from the start, Seojun jumped to conclusions and blamed Suho for Seyeon's death without hearing Suho's side and Suho giving up on telling him what actually happened. (Though, he was about to tell Seojun but got interrupted by him and didn't get to finish telling him why he didn't pick up Seyeon's call).
• Potty Emergency: Due to the drama's Toilet Humour nature expect to see a couple of those scenes.
  • Heegyeong is introduced while having one of these.
  Heegyeong (through the locked bathroom door to Juyeong): Do you want me to feed you my poop?!
  • Jugyeong has one while trapped in an elevator with Suho and Seojun. Hilarity ensues.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Suho receives one from Jugyeong near the end of episode 3.
  • Sujin receives a brutal one from Soo-ah in episode 14.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: When Jugyeong sees Suho at the bookstore and he recognizes her without her makeup, she thinks he knows her from before. He does, but not from school: he recognizes her from the rooftop.
• Romantic Ride Sharing: When Jugyeong forgets her bag at the Karaoke, leaving her with no money to go home, she asks Seojun to lend her money. He initially refuses but then he gives her an extra helmet and tells her to ride his motorbike instead. They share a bike all the way home and this is the first gesture that shows that Seojun cares for Jugyeong.
  Seojun: Hey. (Touches the extra helmet) Hop on before I change my mind.
  Jugyeong: Really? Thank you.
• Running Gag: Seojun's tiger print underwear and him and Jugyeong's "roar!" thing.
• School Festival: Towards the end of episode 5.
• School Idol: Again Seojun and Suho are prime examples of this, even referred to as "Sebom High School's gods".
• Secret Relationship: Jugyeong asks Suho to keep their relationship a secret from everyone and goes the extra mile to hide whenever she is seen with him alone. Suho does not get the purpose of all of this but complies anyway.
• Shared Family Quirks: Both Seojun and Goeun are good singers and have great musicianship skills.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: Taehoon and Soo-ah are this throughout most of the show.
• Small Role, Big Impact:
  • Joo Hyemin. Jugyeong's former classmate at Yongpa High School, and a meek, weak-willed tiny girl who was forced into bullying Jugeyong too. She also transfers to Sebom High in episode 11 (due to being bullied by the same girls as Jugyeong). Upon discovery, the bullies force her to figure out if Jugyeong is dating Seojun, due to their own beef with him; on the condition that they'll stop tormenting her if she does. Unfortunately, Sujin stumbling upon this (and discovering an old photo with Jugyeong without makeup) makes the envious girl put two and two together.
  • Jung Seyeon, Suho and Seojun's best friend.
• Stock Shoujo Bullying Tactics: Semi and her gang of bullies film Jugyeong while she gets rejected in the worse way by getting her crush to humiliate her and they push her down to the ground then throw a box on her head.
• Stunned Silence:
  • The reaction everyone in Jugyeong's family has when they see her in make-up for the first time.
  • Also the immediate reaction of Jugyeong's classmates after she is accidentally hit in the face with a cake during Sooah's and Taehoon's anniversary celebration.
• Surprise Car Crash: Distraught and hurt over his father more or less being responsible for Seyeon's suicide, Suho runs out of the Move Entertainment building with Seojun not far behind (the latter too pissed at Starlight's theft). The two are then hit by a car. A slight deviation from the webtoon where only Suho was hit, and even then by a bus.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Suho follows a gang of Delinquents who are originally after Seojun, and at first, he beats them all alone using the jiujutsu techniques he learned, but in the end, they still outnumber him, and the gang leader manages to land a punch on his face for challenging them before the police arrive.
• Time Skip: The end of episode 14 shows half of the teenage characters drinking at what looks like a high school reunion now all grown-up with their outfits unlike their youthful school days indicating a 2 year time skip taking place.
• Title Drop: Taehoon's very first line after seeing Jugyeong for the first time is the show's Korean title.
• Tragic Keepsake: Suho's residence contains a music room where he, Seojun and Seyeon used to jam. One guitar is even signed with the former two wishing Seyeon luck in his music career.. He, alongside Seojun and Seyeon also each have a chain bracelet with a key that served as their Friendship Trinket prior to becoming this trope.
• Trauma Button: Given how much she was bullied by them, Jugyeong freezes up and panics whenever she sees her bullies even after her family moved. They don't recognize her (until episode 12) due to the makeover but that hardly matters.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Downplayed, Seojun clearly has feelings for Jugyeong but doesn't get in the way of her and Suho, instead, he does nice things for her in the shadows. Meanwhile, Sujin has a crush on Suho as well. When she confesses to him after he and Jugyeong started dating, and asks if he would have dated Sujin if she had gotten to him first, Suho flat out tells her that he never liked her romantically. Sujin....doesn't take it well.
• Unrequited Love Lasts Forever: Even though Seojun decides to move on many times, he terribly fails to do so, and continues harboring feelings for Jugyeong for 2 years, and is very patient with her despite her obliviousness and does not act based on them -even after Suho breaks up with her and her being single again- till way later.
• Wacky Homeroom: An Idol Singer that goes to school every day on a motorcycle and pretends to be a member of a thug. A lonely poker-faced Straight-A student who is described as a "psychopath" by his classmates. A Class Clown that tends to break into a dance out of nowhere in the classroom and has the mental age of a child. A girl who is always running away and tripping on air and is constantly putting herself in embarrassing situations. All of them in one class and you'll end up with a wacky classroom.
• We Used to Be Friends: Played straight then subverted. They used to be close friends along with Seyeon but after what happened and a series of misunderstandings their friendship falls apart and become rivals instead. But towards episode 11 they begin loosening up and slowly go back to being friends again after resolving their issues.
• Will They or Won't They?:
  • Goeun and Juyeong. It seems to be a running gag for them to not have a romantic closure.
  • Jugyeong and Seojun. After all the Ship Tease between them she still ends up with Suho.