True Beauty review

True Beauty is a loud, silly high school romcom, and it is funnier than its premise deserves. Moon Ga Young plays Lim Ju Gyeong, a girl bullied for her skin who learns makeup from online videos, transfers schools and turns up as the pretty new girl, terrified that anyone will see her bare face. Cha Eun Woo is Lee Su Ho, the cold top student who stumbles onto her secret, and Hwang In Yeop is Han Seo Jun, his former best friend turned rival. The triangle between the three of them drives most of the run. The comedy is the reason to watch. Moon Ga Young throws herself into slapstick with no vanity at all, her family is a sitcom of its own, and her older sister's romance with a shy teacher is as good as the main plot. Hwang In Yeop walks off with the show: the second lead is written warmer and funnier than the lead, and that imbalance hangs over everything from the midpoint on. The premise is where it wobbles. What she hides is a few pimples, the script treats a plastic surgeon as a sensible next step and a dermatologist as unthinkable, and the message about accepting your own face gets drowned out by the teen drama around it. Both boys do things early on that the show plays as charming and that read as pushy now. The back third runs on misunderstandings, and the cringe comedy is turned up high enough that some will bail in the first episode. Watch it for the laughs, the family and the friendship between the two boys. Give it until episode 3. Skip it if you need the logic to hold or cannot sit through second-hand embarrassment.