Miss Korea

       

Given  Synopsis (viki.com): 

Can a former high school beauty queen help save a failing cosmetics company? Oh Ji Young (Lee Yeon Hee) used to be the most beautiful girl in her high school but she now scrapes by making a living as an elevator girl for a department store. Her former classmate, Kim Hyeong Joon (Lee Sun Kyun) works for a cosmetics company that is about to go out of business, if he doesn’t find a way to save it. He and his colleagues come up with a brilliant idea that they hope will help save their company and their community: Find a local girl that they can groom to become the next Miss Korea. Could Ji Young be the woman who can save them all? “Miss Korea” is a 2013 South Korean drama series written by Seo Sook Hyang and directed by Kwon Seok Jang, the same writer-director team behind the popular 2010 drama “Pasta.”

Review:

         This felt repetitive since it was about the competition and saving the company while rekindling a high school romance. I don't have much to say about it. It just felt very distant from me. I had trouble relating to the female character because her high school attitude vs her current attitude were polar opposites and I had trouble investing myself into the growing relationship. True, I still kept coming back to watch it and to get closure...but it was frustrating for me. The girls in the competition were catty and used relations and bribery. I did not like that. Competition was not fair and square and that angered me. Girls worked hard to abash one another through revealing secrets and causing scandals. The relationship within this drama was a sub-plot. I felt like the drama was basically about the competition and a girl rising to her full potential while finding romance in a high school sweetheart. There were a lot of "awww" moments but the chances of me coming back to this drama to watch it for those moments are highly unlikely.

        I just really appreciated the teamwork, the hard-working characters and their perseverance to maintain that "waikiki" smile, and the ability to remain strong despite other girls trying to win and sabotage chances. It was a battle of who was the smartest and who was the one that could cause the crowd to swoon. It was pretty good on those aspects. But the story-line focus didn't strike me as interesting as some dramas make it. I guess I was expecting a romance that wasn't so confusing. Half the time, I wasn't sure if they were actually going to be together or if they were just reminiscing old memories while remaining professional and friendly in their current state.  However, I stayed with this drama because it was fascinating as to how she went through the hurdles and how her relationship with the male lead matured from their high school one. So toward the end, you see a lot of high school nostalgia because things work out for both of them.

This is probably a good choice to go to if you want inspiration to work out, to study harder, to strive to be more than you are through hard work, and so forth.