To the Beautiful You (Korean, Drama)

This is the Korean version of the Japanese Manga 'Hana Kimi'.

Well, while Korean drama 'Boys Over Flowers' is strictly based on the Manga 'Hana Yori Dango', Korean 'To the beautiful You' drama is just mildly based on the Mangs 'Hana Kimi', though the drama is way better than the Manga.

Well, maybe coz that manga is kind of a bit old, and it's a Japanese Manga, so obviously the boy character has a bit dominates the girl character. Where as in the drama the hero heroine are equal and are friends.
Also, the character of the male lead, in the Manga is a bit irritating and arrogant, where as we will love Tae Joon in the Korean drama for his down to earth, boy next door kind of feeling.

Anyway, now let's forget about the Manga 'Hana Kimi' and focus only on the Drama 'To the beautiful you'.

First of all, this drama is hilarious and cute. The character Cha Eun-gyul is a character we will never forget and we will take him to heart at once. He is the best thing in this drama. We can't help laughing our head out on his jokes and situations.
Cha Eun-gyul is the reason why I love this drama so much. The character is one of a kind and we will just love him beyond a limit.

The jokes of the teachers' triangle love is also kind of really hilarious and sweet and cute.

The thing about this drama is that we will love all the side characters more than the main leads, coz the side characters are all really so sweet and cute and funny.

Even though the storyline is the usual, and used a lot 'girl pretending to be a boy', it is still enjoyable and refreshing.

Technical details : The drama is of 16 episodes long, ad each episode is of 1 hr.

Characters:

Gu Jae-he : She is a simple and happy girl who used to live with her mom, and step dad, and step-brother in US. She was the biggest fan of Kang Tae-joon. And then due to an injuerry Kang Tae-joon decided to stay away from his sports, and this makes Jae-hee sad. She decides to study in Ginne High, Kang Tae Joon's school, to do everything to help him back to his sports. But the problem is Gennie High is an all boy's school. She can do anything for Kang Tae-Joon. So she cuts her hair, and pretends to be a boy to study there.

Kang Tae-joon : He was an international High Jump athlete. He got gold medal in the last 'world junior championships'. Despite the fact that he is a celebrity and he is adored by all the people around him, and girls go gaga over him, he is still a shy and down-to-earth personality inside. He can tend to be a bit arrogant if he is angry, but else can be very sweet and caring too.
He was really close to his mother, but she passed away recently after being in hospital for a long time. He still hasn't got over his mother's death and the sadness it caused.

Cha Eun-gyul : A student of Gennie High, and  Kang Tae-joon and Gu Jae-hee's classmate. He is a football prodigy and can shoot a goal even while talking on mobile phone. He likes to blog and he often puts photos of himself on the blog with amazing 'slice-of-life' type captions.
He is a really lovable, and fun loving character. And he and Gu Jae-hee becomes best friends fast.But that is when Eun-gyul starts feeling raising heartbeats type feeling towards Jae-hee. Since he thinks Jae-hee is a boy, this puts poor Eun-guyl in confusion and trouble, and that becomes an ROFL situation for us viewers.

Soel Han-na : Kang Tae-joon's childhood friend. She is one year younger than him. She likes him romantically, though she is only like a sister for Tae-joon. She can be a bit pesky and selfish at times, and nags around Tae-joon all the time. But according to Tae-joon she is still just a kid, and is not bad at heart.
Besides being Tae-joo's friend, she is also a celebrated gymnastics athlete, and is considered as 'national fairy'.

Ha Sueng-ri : Ginne High has three dormitories and each dorm has a head. Ha Sueng-ri is the dorm head of Dormitory 2, in which Tae-joon, Hae-hee, Eun-gyul and all the rest reside. He also the athletic team captain. He is a personality which shows maturity and responsibility at the same time. Someone we will feel like looking up to and respecting. Well that is until he falls in love... then he is kind of hilarious.


Min Hyon-jae : Tae-joon's classmate and rival. He also is in high Jump, but no matter how hard he try he is never able to beat Tae-joon. For this reason he hates Tae-joon and can go to any extend to beat him. But later we see that there ia a reason behind all these extreme acts and that he is actually quiet not that bad.
Also, he is the room mate of Cha Eun-gyul.

Dr. Jang Min-woo  : He is the school doctor in Gennie High. He discovers Gu Jae-hee is a girl soon enough. But then on, even if he gets angry with her, he keeps her secret. Then after that he is kind of like an agony aunt for Jae-hee.
He is not really interested in relationships and haven't had one for 8 years. But he is really interested in fashion, though he is a doctor.
He is also the uncle of Sung-ri.

Dr. Daniel Dawson : Gu Jae-hee's step brother (step dad's son). He really loves his sister and is the bestest brothers you could have. But he can be strict at times when his sis needs scolding. He is caring and also protective towards Jae-hee.
And even though he is American, he can speak Korean really well.
He is a doctor, or more specifically a neurologist; and is one of the bests in the world.

Song Jong-min : He was the pretty boy at Ginne high till Jae-hee arrived. So he gets obviously offended by Jae-hee coz he(she) is prettier than him. He is kind of like half gay, and like to put lip balm on his lips once every two seconds or so.
He also likes Cha Eun-guyl way beyond a normal level, though we don't know for sure if it's a romantic love or just friendship love.

Hong Dae-ra : She was Cha Eun-gyul's childhood friend. She left to America when they were little, and came back just a year back. She meets up with Cha Eun-gul now. Eun-gul calls her 'Hong Dang-Moo' meaning 'Read Radish', and she calls Eun-gyul by 'Cha-dook', meaning 'Cha-Rock'. That's how they have been calling each other like since forever.
Eun-gyul try to date her to get rid of his feelings for Jae-hee. Though Dae-ra loves Eun-gyul really truly and want them to have a really good relationship, Eun-gyul's heart is stuck on Jae-hee and he never loves Dae-ra back.

Bhek Gwang-min : He is the track coach of Ginne High school. He is the one training Tae-joon and Hyon-jae. He appears strict while teaching, but outside the gym he quiet a friendly and funny person. He has a crush on Teacher Lee. But Teacher Lee likes Dr. Jang instead. But he constantly tries to win her heart.

Sangchu (Lettuce) : The dog that is there at the dorm. His name 'Sangchu' means 'Lettuce'. Sangchu doesn't like any other boys except Kang Tae-joon, and will bite any other boy/man. But he is ok with girls/women. So people are surprised to see that he gets so well with Gu Jae-hee.
Sangchu is an element that always connects Jae-hee and Tae-joon.

Story line :
Gu Jae-hee lives in USA with her moher and step father, and step-brother. She is a big fan of Kang Tae-joon a young Korean High Jump athlete. But then, she learsn that Tae-joon got an injery and has taken an off from Jumping and is even planning on quitting coz he doesn't seem to be able to jump any more.
She can't sit and watch the situation.
So...
Jae-hee comes to study in Gennie High, an all boys's school, where Tae-joon study, pretending to be a boy. She is trilled to meet Tae-joon of whom she is really a big fan. But she hears him saying to Sangcho that maybe he should quit jumping. She at once tell him that he shouldn't. Tae-joon just get shocked by the sudden out burst.
Then by co-incidence, Gu Jae-hee gets put in the same room as Tae-joon and they are to be room mates. Eventhough first Tae-joon kick him(her) out of the room, since Sueng-ri sunbae scold him for that, he lets him(her) in the room on the condition that he(she) shouldn't be too noisy.
She starts doing things to inspire Tae-joon to jump again from the next day onwards.

Cha Eun-gyul and Gu Jae-hee becomes good friends. And then Cha Eun-gyul's heart starts beating faster whenever he looks at Jae-hee. This puts him in confusion, cos Jae-hee is a boy for him.

Dr. Min-woo finds that Jae-hee is a girl. But since she begs to him that she can't leave till Tae-joon starts jumping again, he keeps her secret. But Dr. Min-woo thinks that maybe Tae-joon has Ipswitch syndrome  a condition in which you suddenly lose the ability to do sports again without a particular reason. Thsi condition has no remedy.
But this is just a doubt of him that maybe...just maybe Tae-joon has that. Jae-he tells Tae-joon that he(she) thinks he doesn't have that and he(she) is sure that he will jump again.
Min Hyon-jae see Tae-joon's reports and leak the fact that he may have Ipswitch syndrome to a reporter and this gets published. Tae-joon accuse Jae-hee that he(she) leaked the information to the reporter.

Then the athletic meet comes, and there, Jae-hee runs in the marathon so that Tae-joon is spared from the Jigh-jump competition. She wins the marathon, while trying very hard, and even though she sprains her ankle. Then she tell Tae-joon that she was thinking of what Tae-joon said after winning the Gold Medal at the World Junior Championships : "Miracle is another name for efforts". She also tell him that it was not her who leaked the information to the article.

That night at the party, Tae-joon drinks alcohol by mistake. Apparently he is allergic to alcohol and even the slightest dose will send him high and then he will kiss the first person he see. The first person, apparently happen to be Jae-hee and he kiss her.
The kiss gets seen by Hyon-jae, and he takes picture of it.
Next day he sends that as MMS to everyone.
But then, when people accuse Tae-joon, Jae-hee takes responsibility and says that Tae-joon is innocent and it was him(her) who kissed him. This incident makes Tae-joon say a sorry and thank you to Jae-hee.

Tae-joon had a doubt that Jae-hee is a girl, from the start itself. So  he do things like protecting her(him) from the water vehicles splash and so on.

Then in holidays all of the people go off to Sueng-ri sunbae's mother's resort and there, a guy who is a helper at the resort figure out that Jae-hee is a girl, and then try to rape her. But thankfully Tae-joon who already has a doubt that Jae-hee is a girl, and also senses that the helper guy's intentions are not right, comes in time and rescue Jae-hee.

After coming back to school, Jae-hee discovers that her step-bother, Daniel Oppa is coming to Korea. She is a fix, coz her brother doesn't know that she is pretending to be a boy and studying in a boys' school. She manages to fool her oppa for one day, but soon Daniel finds out the truth and scolds her a lot for that.
While Daniel is scolding Jae-hee, Tae-joon happens to come around and hears the conversation  Then he knows for sure that Jae-hee is a girl. He has proof now.

He sits with Sangchu and ask him isn't the right thing to send Jae-hee away? He goes back to room and tell Jae-hee to get out of the room coz he can't handle her any more.

She goes away, and is sad. And is discovered my Eun-gyul. He tries to comfort her, but he starts getting feeling for her. She he decides to run away from her than comfort her. He runs away, and decides to try another way to route his emotions. He calls up an old friend, Hong Dae-ra and decides to meet up with her.
Kang Tae-joon see a PPT made my Gu Jae-hee on her laptop. The PPT is addressed to Holton Coach with whom Tae-joon wants to train with, but got rejected already.

She tells in the PPT how she hated being different among Americans and got teased by them, and didn't want to go to school any more. She wanted to be same as them. But an ugly duckling doesn't become a swan in real life. Miracles like that doesn't happen in real life. So she had given up hope. But then, she had seen Tae-joon in TV. 'He flew in to sky and told me this "A miracle is another name for effort"'- She says. And that gave her courage and energy  She got back in tracks and ran and won the competition and that got her a lot of friends and good attention and respect. So Tae-joon is someone who gave her back her life. That's why She ask Holten Coach to give him another chance.

Seeing this Tae-joon gets so touched that, he runs after Jae-hee and catch her by her wrist and tells her "You told that you will go only after seeing me jump. Is it ok if you just go like this? Don't go, Gu Jae-hee"

From next day onwards Tae-joon tries his best to jump again, and practice as hard as he can. Gu Jae-hee helps him out by all she can.
Tae-joon still doesn't tell Jae-hee that he knows that she is a girl.

Eun-gyul tries to divert his feelings towards Hong Dae-ra, but his heart still stays with Jae-hee. Finally he decides to be honest with him and admit his feelings for Jae-hee, even if he is guy. He brakes up with Dae-ra. He even gets a new more cooler hear cut to impress Jae-hee, but she doesn't notice it much though.
But that is also around when Kang Tae-joon also realises his feelings for Gu Jae-hee.
Then it becomes a real triangle love story between Kang Tae-joon, Gu Jae-hee, and Cha Eun-gyul.

The highlight of the story is still the cuteness of he characters. Especially of Cha Eun-gyul.

But there are some small small mistakes in the drama. Some things like we will find loop holes in the story if we look too carefully. But that are mistakes that can be ignored. But if you are determined to not believe in the story then you are welcome to do so. But even then, even if you don't believe in the story, then also you will enjoy it.
It is a total entertainer. And a really loveable drama.

The OST is quiet good. I especially love the songs 'It's me', 'In your eyes' and 'Closer'. And also the song 'Stand up', that song gives us a lot of energy and inspiration.
On the whole this drama gives you an inspiration and energy. I really really like the sentence 'a miracle is another name for effort', that is used in the drama.  The drama also shows things that is related to that sentence and it keeps on telling us that we can do anything and create even a miracle if we keep on trying and make efforts for it.

But ya, it's good to watch once or twice, or even thrice. Or may be even a fourth time. But if you watch it more than that, you tend to get a bit bored. (Well, I say that coz no matter how much I watch dramas like Heartstrings or Coffee Prince, I don't get bored. They can be watched even a million times and not get bored).


My ratings of this Drama : 9.5/10

My Top 10 Korean Dramas

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