2005|101 MIN | Comedy
DIRECTOR LEE Gae-byok
CAST SHIN Min-a, RYOO Seung-bum, KIM Gang-woo, HEO Myeong-hoeng
RELEASE DATE October 27, 2005
CONTACT Showbox
Tel +82 2 3218 5657
Fax +82 2 3444 6688
Despite having lost her eyesight at a young age, Hae-joo is a young woman who maintains a positive attitude. She has been in a fairytale relationship with Dong-gun, the perfect boyfriend, for three years when she finally receives the news that she has an eye donor. Though she recovers her sight what she doesn’t know is that Dong-gun isn’t the handsome prince charming she was led to believe. Nervous about disappointing her, Dong-gun pretends to be away on a business trip in Hawaii while he ponders his dilemma. During this time she meets a handsome young prosecutor who happens to the high school friend that Dong-gu based his persona on.
Echoing the popular narratives of romantic dramas of the day, SHIN plays a love interest with a disability. Even though she is quickly cured, the former ailment gives her the naive characteristics that provide a platform for SHIN (who had appeared in
KIM Jee-woon’s crime classic
A Bittersweet Life (2005) earlier that year) to craft a cute and endearing romantic lead.
Meanwhile,
RYOO Seung-bum plays a character with very low self-esteem who is unable to bring himself to show his true self, even to someone who loves him, he even toys with the idea of changing his appearance through extreme plastic surgery. Like
Gianna JUN’s character in
Il Mare (2000), Dong-gun works as a voice actor during the day whose romantic turbulence is reflected in his erratic audio performances.
Mixing humor with vulnerability,
The Beast and the Beauty proved a winning combination for viewers in Korea when it was released and further cemented the reputations of its stars.