Director Baik’s directorial debut, The Beauty inside is a soft romantic comedy released in 2015. The film is inspired off the 2012 American social film called The Beauty Inside. The story revolves around a man who wakes up every day in a different body. Starring Han Hyo Joo as a pertinent character, The Beauty Inside explores the idea of surface level beauty of a person and how that is relevant to their love life. The Beauty Inside had pre-sold its distribution rights at the Cannes Film Market to around 11 Asian countries. This included countries such as Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, Philippines and Singapore. there was an English-language remake of the film starring Emilia Clarke. It was also remade into a Korean Drama starring Seo Hyun-jin as the female lead alongside Lee Min-ki.

The film follows Kim Woo-jin, who after his 18^th birthday started waking up in a different body everyday. It could be the body of someone older or younger, or of the opposite sex. Woo-jin started facing struggles to accommodate himself in the world where he would wake up as someone new everyday. Eventually Woo-jin adapts to his surroundings and creates a comfortable space for himself where he can thrive. Yet, Woo-jin is lonely in his world where no one except his close friend Sang-baek and his mother know the truth. Woo-jin creates furniture for a living and runs his business in the privacy of his house while his friend Sang-baek aids the marketing aspect of his venture. Eventually Woo-jin meets Yi-soo in a furniture shop she works at. He visits the place often and gets accustomed to her. She is not aware of his existence even though she has seen Woo-jin several times just not as the same person every single time.

The film highlights on the aspect of love without appearances, instability and perseverance. The details of the film are soft and simple, it does not evoke extremely strong emotions and it makes the viewer feel comfortable and at peace most of the time. The character Woo-jin played by around 30 different actors, adds to the depth to the detail of the character. The idea of love without physical expectations is a concept that has been contested over at various points of time. Woo-jin and Yi-soo have a romance that is fresh yet at the same time it is mature and collective, It is not overly emotional yet it holds a significant feeling. The instability of the character of Woo-jin is represented and how the inconsistency in his physical sense affects the people around. Woo-jin seems like a man who comprises of multitudes of different people, although the loneliest individual in the film throughout is Woo-jin. Trying to find joy in his customizable world, unfortunately the matter of the fact is that he is trapped within his life-long situation and the only solution that can be brought about is from him and only him. This narrative changes course as Yi-soo walks into Woo-jin’s life and encourages him to see a future that is different from the future he decide for himself.

References

Lee, M. (2015, September 07). Film review: ‘The Beauty Inside’. Retrieved May 22, 2021, from https://variety.com/2015/film/reviews/film-review-the-beauty-inside-1201585362/

Jinsight. (2015, December 14). The beauty Inside: Movie review. Retrieved May 22, 2021, from https://www.jinsightreviews.com/2015/12/the-beauty-inside-movie-review.html