The Beauty Inside

Based after the 2012 American film of the same name, The Beauty Inside withholds the plot of a man known as Kim Woo-jin who wakes up every day in the body of a different man and sometimes even a woman or child. Known as a romantic comedy and revolving around the struggles of leading such an intricate life, we're taken on a roller coaster ride of emotions throughout his journey of relationships.

Plot

On his eighteenth birthday, Kim Woo-jin awoke for the first time in another body. On the inside, he was completely the same; personality and all. But outside, he looked like a stranger ghosting through the halls of his own home. Scared beyond anything, Woo-jin approaches his relatively taken aback mother who accepts him regardless of skin color or gender. But ever since his eighteenth, Woo-jin realizes upon waking the next day that he'll live his life in a different body.

Only two people know of Woo-jin's life-changing secret: his mother and best friend Sang-beck. Sang-beck is notorious for his noteworthy humor and often times spends his days laughing at Woo-jin's change in character. But of course if his best friend incorporates the body of a young female, he may or may not have the occasional attitude of wanting to hit on him. Regardless, Sang-beck is overall very protective of Woo-jin, yet goes about his life trying hard to shelter him from the outside world.

Known as a furniture maker for a high-fashioned company, ALX, Woo-jin is able to hide in his studio designing while Sang-beck goes out selling out to top-notch furniture stores. It's through this that Woo-jin meets a young woman named Yi-soo who works as a sales person at Mamastudio—a top notch furniture shop. Woo-jin is immediately infatuated by the woman who smiles and laughs and always approaches her days at work with a kind and passionate heart.

Every day after waking up into a new body, Woo-jin makes his way to the furniture store and speaks to Yi-soo about different types of furniture. He spends most of his time procrastinating work and buying random furniture pieces in hopes of getting closer to Yi-soo. And finally one day, Woo-jin wakes up as a young man that looks to be around Yi-soo's age. He comes up with a plan to stay up for three nights straight in hopes of approaching her and making contact. Slowly but surely, Woo-jin's plan is a success, but Yi-soo's quick attraction to him falls through when he wakes up on the fourth day as a woman.

Woo-jin keeps his distance and Yi-soo is left utterly confused until weeks later when Woo-jin reveals his secret. Yi-soo—taken aback by this confession—tries hard to look past this. But even though she truly loves Woo-jin on the inside, Yi-soo struggles to cope with the reality of being with a transforming man.

Overall

When I first saw this movie straying in that long list of Top Picks on my Netflix, I spent a few minutes contemplating the summary. I didn't know The Beauty Inside was based off the American social film (frankly because I never even heard of it), but seeing that it was a romance comedy immediately had me at a disadvantage, especially since I absolutely loath romance. Regardless, I gave this a try and didn't think in a million years I would be so attracted to this story. It's so raw and passionate that I found myself entranced by the scenes on screen.

Woo-jin's character is absolutely beautiful and it seems that he uses his abilities of waking up in a new skin every day to his own advantage. From the beginning, there's no doubting how he's a lonely man, especially with how many women he beds in a night with all those charming looks. But then there are his down days where he'll wake up as a woman or perhaps an older man. He'll have problems with sight, speech, and physical movement. In retrospect, he's so used to waking up differently that he has a whole wardrobe of clothes for men and women—sometimes even children.

I could relate to Woo-jin's character for a number of reasons. It seemed like he was invisible to the world since he could never hold the shape of a person too long. He didn't have any friends though he longed for that sense of comfort and he was so talented, yet his work didn't have a face—just a name.

Then there was the character of Yi-soo played by Han Hyo-joo. Let me just say, what a wonderful actress for the perfect role. I couldn't be prouder that she played an open-minded character who despite the hardships of loving Woo-jin, didn't care at the end that he was sometimes a woman. It's the first time I've seen anything remotely close to the openness of sexuality in a Korean movie and it just made me so happy. As a pansexual woman not caring of gender identity or the such, I was overwhelmed to see a character portrayed in the same light. Obviously she had struggles coping with the reality of it, but in the end, love is love and executed so perfectly, I couldn't have asked for a better ending.

If you're a fan of romance comedies with a twist, The Beauty Inside is a perfect movie for a Saturday night in!