You’re Beautiful: Episode 4

The ratings battle looks like it’s going to be Iris’s to lose, but at least You’re Beautiful improved slightly from yesterday. (Their numbers came in at a respective 25.3% and 8.9%. Heading to the Ground sank further to hit its series low, a 3.3%.) I don’t really buy the argument that the audiences for the two dramas are so vastly different, but I enjoy the contrasting tones. (I’m sure there are differences in viewership, but all in all, drama lovers like dramas when they’re fun and entertaining, and don’t confine themselves to certain genres.)

SONG OF THE DAY

You’re Beautiful OST – “여전히” (Still). This is the main song sung by A.N.JELL in this episode.
[ Download ]

EPISODE 4 RECAP

Tae-kyung jumps into the pool to rescue Mi-nam, who is starting to lose consciousness. He shakes her underwater until she rouses, and swims for the surface. Unfortunately, in her struggle to get to the surface, she kicks him on the head, shoving him back down.

He gurgles angrily, “Go… Mi… Nam…” and sinks.

(HAHAHA. I had a feeling the writers were going to subvert this touching gesture with a punchline.)

Mi-nyeo surfaces and sighs in relief at her near miss. She gets dressed, wondering who it was who came to save her. Just as she thinks back and is struck with the possibility of it being Tae-kyung, she looks at the pool in alarm — just as his body floats to the surface.

Soon, an ambulance arrives and a weakened Tae-kyung is being wheeled out on a stretcher. He sees Mi-nyeo by his side, gripping his hand worriedly. He raises his head, and with the last of his strength, he puts his hand on top of hers… and flings it off. (HAHA.)

On the upside, as a result of this news, the fans come around and praise Mi-nam for (supposedly) saving Tae-kyung’s life. Sayuri leads the rest of the fan club in a chant, “Go Mi-nam, thank you!”

On the other hand, Tae-kyung is peeved to hear that Mi-nam has been made into the hero. He mutters, “Who saved whom?” Sung-chan thinks Tae-kyung should stay longer at the hospital. Tae-kyung grumps that he’s fine, but Sung-chan says that the public response has been really good. Staying longer would take advantage of that. LOL.

Meanwhile, another celebrity is at the hospital today — top pop star Yoo Heyi. (Hyee? Hae-yi?) She visits a sick child and cries in compassion, all while a camera crew busily films the proceedings. Heyi is loved by all and called “Korea’s fairy” as an endearment (similar to “America’s sweetheart,” it’s the label that both Eugene and Sung Yuri were called back in their idol days).

Heyi has to excuse herself because she’s so overcome with her emotions, and steps outside while the others marvel at her kind heart. Of course, they don’t see her walking away like a pop-diva Keyser Soze, her tearful sniffles gradually turning into a derisive sneer. Back in her van, she gripes about the photo op and orders her assistant to hand her a tissue.

But wait — it’s not an assistant, it’s Tae-kyung sitting in the backseat. She stepped into the wrong van! Gathering her wits, she quickly assumes her public persona, adding a hint of flirtatiousness, but he’s not fooled since he’s seen her true side. She drops the act and says, “I’m no fairy, like you’re no angel.”

Still, she sees his comments as an interest in her (no doubt because everyone else fawns over her). He’s turned off by her conceit (although it rather mirrors his own), and tells her to leave with her trash (dirty tissues) and to leave the door so he can air out her noxious perfume.

Heyi leaves in a huff. As she heads back to the hospital, a reporter spies the A.N.JELL decal on the van, and wonders at the connection…

Jeremy confronts Mi-nyeo, demanding to know what happened at the pool between her and Tae-kyung. He threatens to spray her with water if she doesn’t spill, and she can’t think of an answer, so he makes good on his threat. He chases her around with the garden hose, spraying her with water and asking for the truth.

But at some point, his mind starts to get away from him again, because the sight of Mi-nam dripping with water takes on a suggestive (appealing) vibe. Alarmed at his own reaction, Jeremy raises the hose to spray her again — but this time he’s sprayed instead.

Shin-woo has stepped in to stop him, and reminds Jeremy that their first performance as the new group is approaching, and Mi-nam can’t get sick.

Jeremy’s reaction is hilarious as he exclaims in a hurt tone, “Did you just spray me to save that guy?!” Feeling betrayed by his hyung, Jeremy turns to his dog for comfort.

Shin-woo again dries Mi-nyeo off, then asks what happened yesterday. Why was she around when Tae-kyung fell into the pool?

Before she can respond, Tae-kyung announces, “It was my mistake.” He says that he had slipped and fallen, and Mi-nam helped him. Shin-woo accepts this and lets the matter drop, but he finds it even odder that Tae-kyung would make a mistake (and admit to it). Clearly he senses there is more to the story.

Tae-kyung heads to his room to find that Mi-nyeo has left food for him. She’s learning, because when she pops by, this time she stays at the threshhold until he (reluctantly) invites her in.

It’s a good sign that he makes a move to eat it, even if he does stop before he gets the chance — he’s allergic to shellfish. She apologizes, saying she didn’t know, to which he answers, “Yeah, I’m sure you didn’t. That’s why you’re frightening.” Mi-nyeo replies that she just wanted to be useful.

Rehearsals. The guys get down to business preparing for their upcoming performance, and Mi-nyeo gradually improves until finally, the guys are satisfied. (There’s a moment when Mi-nyeo angles for a high-five, is left hanging by Tae-kyung, and then self-fives.)

Meanwhile, Mi-nyeo asks Hoon-yi and the stylist to help her find the woman who brought her the photograph.

Jeremy watches Heyi’s video clip of the hospital visit, enamored of the pop star, and uses this as an opportunity to suss out his hyungs. He prods them to admit that they like Heyi, or that they like girls (emphasis on girls) like her. He’s disappointed when neither Shin-woo nor Tae-kyung agrees with him, then pointedly asks Mi-nam for an opinion on Heyi.

The two others tense briefly, but Mi-nyeo just answers blankly, “Who’s Yoo Heyi?”

Hoon-yi and the stylist (who really needs a name other than “Stylist Wang”) therefore teach Mi-nyeo all the various idol stars using a child’s rhyme (used to learn multiplication tables) altered with the names of idol stars.

Her training is progressing well, but Mi-nyeo has a sticky moment when another group of trainees(?) find her in the bathroom. Quickly, she slips into a stall to avoid their attention, but the lead guy grows offended. He knows she’s avoiding him, and accuses her of being snobby now that she’s made it into a group. Mi-nyeo protests and makes grunting noises to try to convince them that she’s really in the stall for gastrointestinal purposes, although they don’t buy it.

She tells herself sadly, “I guess everyone hates me. It’s only because I’m afraid I’ll get caught as a girl.” But when she steps out of the stall, she finds the three trainees staring at her in shock: “Are you a girl?”

They grow suspicious and decide they have to check, spurring her to run out.

As they pursue her down the hall, Sung-chan hears the guys’ accusations and asks, “Go Mi-nam, you’re a girl?” She keeps running through the crowd of fans, who overhear the shouts and also catch on.

As she runs down the front walk, Mother Superior pulls up in a taxi. (Never thought I’d write that sentence, ha.) Wisely, the nun asks, “You’ve run hard, but are you short of breath? Do you hurt where you were hit? Does something seem odd to you?”

This, as you may have guessed, is all a dream. Mi-nyeo awakens in the stall and breathes a sigh of relief.

When the A.N.JELL guys head out, Mi-nyeo is startled to find a few signs with the name Mi-nam on it. Sayuri now faces her with nervous excitement, asking for an autograph. When Mi-nyeo asks, “Didn’t you hate me?” Sayuri shakes her head vehemently.

Mi-nyeo carefully signs her name, but her letters are block-like and childish. Tae-kyung catches a glimpse of them and smirks, then wields his own pen with a flourish. He pretends to do this nonchalantly, but he’s totally showing off for her benefit. Mi-nyeo is duly impressed with his cool signature, and feels sad about hers in comparison.

Therefore, she practices various different styles, and asks for Tae-kyung’s help picking out the best one. When he says they all suck, she requests his help in devising a new autograph.

He declines (and Mi-nyeo, now used to his prickly personality, doesn’t take it personally, but backs off). However, when she leaves, Tae-kyung grabs some paper and gets work on a cool autograph anyway.

Shin-woo offers a hand, and is a little disappointed to hear that she asked Tae-kyung for help first. He tells Mi-nyeo to come to him first in the future. He devises a cutesy signature that suits her personality, and she is grateful for it.

The subject of autographs makes Shin-woo wonder how she came upon her name, which leads to mention of her parents. He’d heard she doesn’t have parents, but she answers cheerily that her mother is alive. “Or, she may be alive. She must have left us right after giving birth to us for some reason.”

Her name is unique enough to be memorable, so Mi-nyeo is confident that it will help in reuniting with her mother: “If I become famous, she will come find me. I’m waiting for that.”

Meanwhile, Tae-kyung is pleased with himself for coming up with an adequate autograph and leaves it in Mi-nam’s room. (It’s very cute how he leaves it on the desk, but worries that it’ll get lost in the clutter, so he finds a better place to store it — with one corner sticking out of her trunk.)

As he leaves her room, he runs into her and is about to tell her about the autograph, but is cut short when she tells him happily, “Shin-woo hyung made one for me.”

He waves her aside and pretends not to care, but back in his room, he pouts; he’s annoyed that he bothered to help. But he’s also struck with the thought that Mi-nam will find the paper he left behind, and imagines her mocking him, saying Shin-woo’s is better. He must get his back!

Thus Tae-kyung sneaks into Mi-nam’s room, where she’s asleep on top of the chest. (Spying the autograph Shin-woo came up with, he sniffs, “It’s not so great.”)

He has to pull her away from the chest to retrieve his paper, and doing so causes her to topple backward — still asleep — onto him. The movement turns out the light, and Tae-kyung finds himself lost in the dark. He suffers from “night blindness” — an inability to see anything without adequate light — and has to fumble his way to the door.

Once out in the safety of the (lit) hallway, he says, “Go Mi-nam really is dangerous.”

Now for the aunt. Being rather flighty and brash, Auntie Dearest has gotten into some kind of brawl, and complains to her fellow cellmate, “Did I know that bitch’s nose was an $8,000 nose?” Hehe. Furthermore, she takes out a loan to secure her release, figuring she can count on her famous nephew Mi-nam to repay her debt.

As Mi-nyeo wonders what kind of person her parents were, her aunt explains to her cellmate that the father was a well-known songwriter — in fact, he even wrote for the famous singer, Mo Hwa-ran. We learn from a televised interview that Hwa-ran’s favorite song is the one that Go Jae-hyun — Mi-nam’s father — wrote for her, and she describes it as holding memories of the purest love she’s ever received.

At the music festival, Jeremy eagerly approaches Heyi, who is hosting the event. Using her sweet public persona, Heyi says she’s a fan, and greets each of the members — until she gets to Tae-kyung, whose name she pretends not to know. (He can’t believe her nerve, and calls her immature.)

As the guys ready for rehearsal, Hoon-yi tells Mi-nam that the woman with the photograph has returned and is ready to meet her. However, because of the performance, she can’t obey her impulse to leave right away, and Hoon-yi assures her that he’ll take care of the meeting and call her with details right away. He points Mi-nam back to Studio B for makeup and rehearsal.

Unfortunately, Mi-nyeo mistakes that for Studio D, and wanders in the wrong hallway. Inside that room, she finds Mo Hwa-ran sitting alone, who mistakes her for her assistant.

When Mi-nyeo clarifies her identity, Hwa-ran takes the chance to ask questions about Tae-kyung. Mi-nyeo doesn’t know about their bad blood and is happy to tell her, “Tae-kyung hyung is your fan!” He even has her movies and music in her room.

Hwa-ran sizes up the innocent Mi-nyeo and offers to give an autograph to be given to Tae-kyung. And when she hears the name Mi-nam, she muses, “Go Mi-nam — so there was another with that name.”

Because of her detour, Mi-nyeo is running late and races to the right studio, where she is prepped for rehearsal, all the while nervously eyeing her phone for Hoon-yi’s call. Hoon-yi is meeting with her aunt, who wants to meet Mi-nam, but the manager presses for information of the mother.

Tae-kyung sees how distracted she is, and takes her phone away. This is her first performance and she has to focus. Does she want to get kicked out?

That was a rhetorical question, so he is taken aback when she answers, “I may be able to leave soon.” She’s found the person who came looking for her, which means she’ll be able to find her mother soon. Thanking Tae-kyung for all his help, she brightens at the prospect of being able to leave and reunite with her mother.

We can infer from his reaction that Tae-kyung is partly disappointed at the thought, even though he tells himself that this is a good thing for him, that as soon as she gets that fateful phone call, she’ll be out of the group.

The performance goes well, and afterward, Mi-nyeo looks around for Tae-kyung, eager to check for messages. She can’t find him because Tae-kyung has slipped back into the dressing room, where he checks Mi-nyeo’s phone. So she borrows Jeremy’s phone to call her manager, just as Tae-kyung sees that she has received a text message, sent earlier by Hoon-yi.

Tae-kyung reads it: “I don’t think we’ll be able to find your mother. I’m sorry…”

Mi-nyeo calls Hoon-yi, who says regretfully, “I think she passed away.”

Jeremy finds her sobbing by herself, and is alarmed. Is she sick? Is she hurt? Panicking, he tells her to stay put, and rushes outside to get help. He finds Shin-woo and tells him Mi-nam is sobbing alone, and they race together to get to her.

In the interim, Tae-kyung finds her still sobbing, and looks at her with a conflicted reaction. She cries, “They say she cannot be found. She is not on this earth.”

As she bawls, Tae-kyung stares at her for a long, silent moment, and then crouches to hold her comfortingly…

…which is, of course, how Jeremy and Shin-woo find them.

COMMENTS

I have said that the issue I most have with the Hong sisters’ writing is their lack of subtlety. I still think that’s true, but it doesn’t mean they can’t do it. They just tend to prefer the big jokey joke, like with their parody sequences. But when they do choose to be subtle(r), it’s can be pretty sly. Everything in this world is basically a parody of the real idol world — take, for instance, the entire character of Sung-chan — and they don’t necessarily have to make a big statement about every little thing. Just by including a point, they’re acknowledging and poking fun at it. Like with Sung-chan telling Tae-kyung to stay in the hospital because it’s good for his image. Or Heyi faking compassion to win brownie points with the public.

Also: I love angsty comedies! If we were in another, less exuberant romantic drama, it would be something of a letdown to head into heavier territory rather quickly like this. But in You’re Beautiful, I find that the comedy still undercuts the big moments (like Mi-nyeo kicking Tae-kyung unconscious, or Tae-kyung suffering night blindness) so that the angst doesn’t overpower. (Or so I hope it will prove to be.)

And Shin-woo! I still think he’s a yummy character, but I’ll admit that he’s got some acting weaknesses. Hhoney, I love you but you’ve gotta work on that line delivery.

All in all, a fun, lively episode.

RELATED POSTS

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October 15th, 2009 // by javabeans

http://www.dramabeans.com/2009/10/youre-beautiful-episode-4/

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