To The Beautiful You

The Korean drama, To The Beautiful You, is a show that has captured the hearts of many with its storyline and cast. The show is based off the manga Hana-Kimi, otherwise known as Hanazakari no Kimitachi e (For You in Full Blossom), by Hisaya Nakajo and stars a great cast of talented people with Choi Jinri, better known as Sulli from the K-Pop group f(x), Choi Minho from SHINee, Lee Hyun-Woo, and even has Kim Woo-Bin who starred in the hit drama Heirs for a few episodes. The television show aired upon the Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) from August 15 to October 4, 2012 and has 16 episodes to its name.

Plot

Goo Jae Hee (Sulli) is living in America. One day she sees a track and field competition on television and soon develops feelings for one of the high jump athletes that comes from South Korea - Kang Tae-Joon (Minho). He wins a gold medal and his words during a speech inspire her, so much so that when he becomes injured and his high jump career is jeopardized, she makes the choice to transfer schools to attend his own so she can help him get back to jumping. The only problem in her plan is that Tae-Joon attends an all-boys high school and so she must disguise herself as such to enter. Once enrolled, she meets friends like Cha Eun-Gyeol (Lee Hyun-Woo) and finds out that her dorm mate is none other than Kang Tae-Joon himself - who, after a previous brief run-in with Jae Hee, is less than pleased with having him as a roommate.

However, her secret doesn't stay kept for long. After a being tripped during a scrimmage soccer game, Jae Hee is taken to the nurse's room for treatment and Jang Min-Woo, the school's doctor, realizes that she's disguised as a member of the opposite sex immediately. Min-Woo plans on reporting Jae Hee, but after some persuasion and pleading with him, Min-Woo ultimately agrees on keeping her secret and helping her so she can help Tae-Joon.

As time progresses, more incidents that threaten Jae Hee's identity occur and Kang Tae-Joon even finds out that Jae Hee's actually a girl by overhearing a heated argument with her and her older step-brother, Daniel, who wants to bring his sister back home to the States when he realizes what's going on. Jae Hee tries to keep her secret from the school and her classmates all the while trying to cheer Tae-Joon on with his high jump career. As her friendships grow stronger, Eun-Gyeol and Tae-Joon begin to realize that Jae Hee is special to them in different ways and start to fall for her.

Overall

This drama was hard to look away from and I was spending most of my day glued to my television screen just waiting to see what would happen next. The characters and their personalities are all unique, which helps the story become more interesting to see how everything will play out. While I felt that there wasn't enough of a romance, it still had its moments and the plot of the show itself was enough to fully entice me and keep my attention without fail. The acting is great and I found the show as a whole to be amazing. I highly recommend this show to anyone who's a fan of Korean dramas, as well as to those who are into K-Pop groups like f(x), SHINee, and even EXO-K as they have a small cameo in one of the episodes!

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