Valentine's Day is approaching us, so I decided to write my first movie review on the best movie in the world, which also happens to be one of the most captivating love story's of all time. Image heavy and slight spoilers ahead, but nothing too major that ruins the story.
Meet Woojin.
"Which one is he?" Well, Woojin is all of them. One day he may be female, male, a different nationality, or even another age. The image above is just a few of the faces he takes on throughout the film. On Woojin's eighteenth birthday while preparing to go to school, he looks into the mirror and sees a middle-aged man instead of his normal self. It's inexpiable, an unnatural condition happens to him suddenly with no cure. From that day on, he's forced to adjust to this new life: a new body every single day. This makes things for him a lot more complicated.
Living life normally is out of the question. Making friends and working is already difficult, so dating is something unattainable for him. Or is it?
With only his mother and his childhood friend knowing about this mysterious occurrence, he lives an otherwise quiet and lonely life. His only joy becomes his extremely successful online furniture business and interacting with his crush who happens to work at a furniture store, Yisoo.
Woojin doesn't act on his crush, he just simply is fine with talking to her every day, asking her questions about furniture that he already knows about, and Yisoo doesn't suspect a thing since she thinks he's a different new customer everyday. Except one day where Woojin discovers a loophole to his condition, he recklessly follows his heart to go on a date with Yisoo.
This movie happens to sound very strange or maybe even laughable, which is why I watched it with no expectations. But it's so raw and so completely down-to-earth, that I found myself relating to a lot of the characters. It deals with a lot of topics like internal conflict, prejudice, discrimination, and self-worth. It's realistic in the sense that it's hard: the characters may not make the right choices sometimes because they're just blindly following their feelings. But it's also real in the sense that despite the hardships you may go through, there is always a solution in the end.
The film is light-hearted, hilarious, sexy, and romantic. It appeals to all the audiences, received spectacular reviews, and it's even expected to have an American remake.
Upon meeting Woojin, Yisoo goes through a lot more problems than the viewer would think, many people begin to gossip about her and her health deteriorates with the stress that comes with being with him. Woojin and Yisoo have to figure out if their love will prevail despite all the hardships, and their journey together is simply inspiring.
The Beauty Inside also features many top actors in Korea. Such as Han Hyo-joo who plays Yisoo and Park Seojoon, Park Shinhye, Lee Dong Wook and many others who play Woojin. So if you happen to be into Korean dramas and movies, you will see a bunch of familiar faces and experience top notch acting.
The cinematography in the film is simply stunning and the scenes will have your mouth drop at how beautiful the shots are, plus they may have you tear up just a bit...or a lot. The chill and happy soundtrack are addicting to listen to throughout the movie as well.
The Beauty Inside is simply a movie about love. Love is looking past appearance, love is not caring what other people think and only worrying about the person in front of you, and love is sacrifice. This movie teaches great lessons...and also had me wondering if any of us in the real world could experience such a thing. Maybe it won't be exactly like this--I hope none of us have to have such an extreme case of waking up every day as a new person. But perhaps everyone could experience a true love that runs as deep as this one, a love that is truly worth fighting for.
