That pretty much sums up my viewing experience of Pretty Boy: not a particularly good drama, but one I found extremely watchable and that I anticipated each week.
The storyline is two-fold: one thread is Dokko Ma Te and the ten women he must "conquer"; the second being a drama-standard birth secret plot. I will admit that the birth secrets had me most invested and offered little surprising twists. The women storyline might seem off-putting at first, but in the end, it became less about Ma Te taking advantage of women and more about a mutual exchange and growth happening within those connections.
Where the drama started to corrode were the moments where I actually paid attention to what was going on. Those were the moments when the plotlines to nowhere, random character entrances and exits, moments of discontinuity within the story, and quick fix deus ex machinas that happen off screen and present a quick "WTF" fix to a problem became glaringly obvious.
OK, that's admittedly quite a lot wrong with the drama. However, if you're looking for a drama that will fly by quickly with light humor and mystery and a quirky comic book feel to it, Pretty Boy should hold you over until the main drama course arrives.
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At times, the storyline was solid to fair, but eventually, the story got caught up in its own premise (conquering 10 women) that it left very little room for any personal growth on the part of its female lead and severely understated the role of the other lead male. In fact, the story focused much more on the growth of one of the supporting roles than any emotional investment in other characters.
Furthermore, the story focused so much on the typical birth secret tropes that it lost a lot of its early humor. The story was at its best when Bo Tong and David did funny things, not when 95% of the episode dealt with the MG Group's machinations.
That being said, I feel the story limited its actors in a way. As this was Jang Geun Suk's comeback role, the character of Dokgo Ma Te seemed awfully similar to his previous roles, in particular that of Hwang Tae Kyung. This drama did nothing with JGS' acting that I hadn't already seen from him. IU, on the other hand, had a very vivacious character early on, but the story kept her rather one-note toward the end. The only decent performance was Lee Jang Woo's David Choi, which at least had me feeling for him and who was as beautiful inside as he was outside.
The only song from the drama which I remember off-hand was David's song. The rest of the OST didn't really resonate with me and seemed much more like surface music rather than fused with the storyline.
I will rewatch this only for David; really, I'm not even sure if I can rewatch it. In that regard, Bel Ami was just a surface drama; it's not memorable or great. It's really just botong.
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I enjoyed the acting, but what really made this drama special is that if I ever imagined a good harem story made into live action, where all the girls would get their moments to shine, and all their stories had a moral lesson - Bel Ami is just that. Saying so, I have to defend the main character by stating that he is NOT a pervert (like most guys in a harem-like story). In fact, he turns out to be a deep person and he evolves a lot as the story progresses like most characters do so in this drama.
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**I might have included some spoilers!!**Story:
The story at first is about a man who's supposed to be the most handsome man in the world and a girl who likes him, sounds a very typical RomCom.
It didn't sound so interesting for me, but from episode 2 it was interesting,
Ma Tae had to learn each thing from each woman in order to start living on his own and to receive a "password".
I liked that it not only talked about romance but also about opening a bussiness of your own, and I even learned things that I can say "I learned for life" from those women he had to learn from,I liked the idea of learning each thing from each person.
I think that from episodes 1-10 it was a good drama but from then I really don't know what happend and it turned to be a really boring and -trying to be a complicated drama .
Acting/Cast/characters:
The cast for me wasn't that "strong" .It was a nice cast for people that love Jang Geun Suk or IU .
Their acting wasn't that good or that bad but avarage.
It had a good point of many character's personallities but I think that except of JGS's character each character was shallow and not improving.(He, for at least changed and learned things)
Bo Tong from the first beginning was shallow and liked Ma Tae only because of his look and in the ending they tried to tell us "no she didn't only because of that" .
David was cute but as it kept going on , it was a bit pathetic for me that he still tries.
I was rooting for him all along but somewhat I couldn't bare to watch his behaviour anymore.
Hong Yu Ra had a pocker face the whole drama and could only stare but not show any emotion well...
The other women were interesting (until girl no.5) after that they weren't necessary for the plot.
Music:
I won't remember the OST for the rest of my life but it had a nice-main song .
Romance: (I'm adding it because it's important for a drama)
Awefull!
The whole drama they show how much Bo Tong likes Ma Tae and how he doesn't even pay attantion to her, and to end this drama they made a stupid switch that he fell in love with her ,I really didn't like it at all, David deserved much more than that but at the end as I said I thought he was pathetic,
The others may had a romace parts in it but I don't see why I need to tell about them more.
I almost didn't even watch the ending...I thought that the ending of "trying to make everything too good" wasn't that right..
This review also sounds really bad, but it was a good drama at first.
But I liked the fashion of IU and Myung Mi etc. I liked some points of the tips we got . So sad it was ruined like that at the end...
I really wanted to give it a 7 but I'll give it a 6.5 although it's worth 6...but I remember the good parts in it so that's why I made it 6.5.
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Acting/Cast: All veteran actors and actresses. No complains in this department. Despite all his wacky styles, JGS is definitely a more solid actor that many idol actors in the industry. He just need to select his script more carefully and really test his strength in acting by moving away from the cliche type idol dramas. In Pretty Boy/Bel Ami, he somewhat redeemed himself after so many not so high ranking idol dramas since You're Beautiful. This is again, thanks to the change in drama direction halfway through towards a more melo type drama.
Rewatch value: I am not in a hurry to rewatch this. The story and acting is good but the drama has so many twists and revelation that watching it the second time will take away some of the impact of why it is good.
Overall: A solid 8/10. Definitely worth watching but if you are expecting something that will take your breath away and stick to you mind for years after that will turn you into a rewatch maniac, this is not it. Nevertheless, it stands out as a worthy entertainment amongst all the mediocre KDrama offerings from 2013.
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Cast: Now I understand why people like IU so much. She really has this girl next door feel to her. I love JGS. He's one of my favorite actors, but this was not his best work. I feel like Lee Jang Woo never fully committed to his character. I feel like the director had something to do with these two not performing their best.
Music: It was ok. Good variety, I didn't feel like they were playing the same song all the time throughout this drama.
Rewatch: Probably not because there wasn't anything that made me think yeah I needed to watch again. There wasn't a pivotal moment that made everything change and made me think yeah I want to watch this build up again.
Overall: If you want an aegyo drama that was probably based on a fanfic, then give this a shot. I went into this drama with about the same thought as Nail Shop Pairs. Yeah, I feel like the writers for both of Nail Shop Pairs and Pretty Boy have the same style. I want to give this a better rating because I really like IU, JGS, and Lee Jang Woo. I really hope their next dramas are better than this.
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It's undeniable (for me) that "Pretty Boy" is one of the worst dramas I have ever watched. Which is really sad considering that I liked the first few episodes a lot. I honestly thought that this is a very promising drama.
At the beginning I really liked Bo Tong's character and her fangirling over Ma Te. It was really funny and sometimes I could recognize my fangirling self in her behaviour. But as time went by I didn't get her obsession with Ma Te. It didn't make any sense. Ma Te wasn't a jot interested in her and only used her to reach his goals and although Bo Tong knew this she didn't care much. She deified her Oppa and scaled down her value. Her sole reason for breathing was Ma Te. She was diligent and brave, that's an undeniable fact. But without Ma Te she wasn't really living. She had no real purpose in life. And that was kind of annoying.
I found her more bearable when she was together with David. They had many things in common and I just liked their relationship. And I honestly wanted her to end up with him. But this only went on till he was deeply in love with her because then David somehow turned into a male version of fangirling Bo Tong. That was a pity.
I think that was the point when I couldn't wait for this drama to end. I even thought of dropping it.
In general the idea of this drama is good, but it wasn't really well executed. Many things were overdone and repeated until they were luke-warm and just boring.
Also this whole thing about Ma Te and his woman started very interesting but it somehow lost it's meaning on the journey. At
some point I couldn't understand why he did have to conquer
this women. And I also didn't understand why he stopped using the things he had learned from the women he conquered. It didn't make much sense.
But I guess what annoyed me the most was the whole talk about the password. I was annoyed by his mother when she didn't allow him to see his father because he didn'T have the password. This is so stupid. What kind of parent would do this to his own child? Although at the end it was explained why this password was needed for me it still was superfluous.
What also made me cringe were the crying scenes in this drama. I couldn't stand them at all and was always happy when the person who cried stopped crying. It was even worse than those open-eyes-kisses. Really, it made me just feel very uncomfortable.
I didn't like this drama very much but I wouldn't say that I regret watching it. There were some funny scenes and I didn't hate it all the time. That's why you should give it a try if you like the story/the actors. Read some reviews and forge a personal opinion. I believe that there were a lot of people out there who actually liked this drama.
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STORY: I marathoned like the first 8 eps bc I hate waiting for updates. but as I started watching, I felt like it had no "real" plot to it. I would get very confused. I feel like there were still unanswered questions even after the drama ended. That was disappointing.. Actually what was more disappointing was the ending.
- ___ - but y'know. It's not really the casts fault.
ACTING/CAST: oh gosh. I don't even know where to begin with the acting.
I had second-lead syndrome throughout the entire drama.
Okay as much as I hate to admit I felt like there was no chemistry between Jang Geun and IU. Ma Tae's character bugged me a lot bc all he really did was seduce women with his looks. Where was the lesson learned in all that? So like if I were to seduce and flatter everyone, would I become rich and famous too? LOL that was a joke. but srsly though. IU's character was a little much for me too, but towards the end she was tolerable. I wish Jang Geun and IU had more chemistry. Maybe the romance scenes wouldn't have sucked so much(idk if you would even call them that). Na Hong Ran is a crazy beeotch. You have been warned.
MUSIC: It was nice to listen to for the most part. Nothing too over the top which was nice. Jang Geun has a beautiful voice *O*
REWATCH VALUE: unfortunately I would not watch this again. but don't think this is bc the drama is bad. It's actually interesting in a sense. I usually don't rewatch dramas. But that's just me. if I were to rewatch this, it'd probably be for the male actors haha..
I hope this was helpful without me giving too much away.
dont let my review stop you from watching this.
you could even disagree with me after watching this.
but you won't know unless you actually watch it.. Lol
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A Waste of Time
I started watching this knowing it was originally a Manhwa. I'm not sure if the drama followed the Manhwa exactly, but if the Manhwa was like "THIS", then it was badly written. The story did not have a meaning to it, and as the drama went on, it got even more boring. About six episodes before the end, I was hoping the show would get canceled and end quickly because I could not take it anymore. In the last episodes, I ended up sleeping whenever I start watching it.Viewers usually get attached to the characters when watching, but not in this. Knowing it was a Manhwa beforehand, I expected the characters to be quirky and childish, but that did not help, I disliked all the characters. I feel like the writers made all the characters seem pitiful, and I really hated that. I hated how Han Chae Young acted, she always had the same facial expression. I don't know if she was supposed to act like that, but she was the worst in my opinion.
The main actors severely lacked chemistry. No sweet moments at all. I really did not care who Bo Tong or Ma Te ends up with; I just wanted the drama to end.
I was expecting too much from this drama, but what a royal disappointment it was. I regret wasting time on it.
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IU was sooo cute in this drama but the obsession she had for Ma Te was a little annoying for me. She wasn't a strong charakter but i thought she was cute and lovable.
The romance between Ma Te and Bo Tong was weak in my opinion. Most of the time Ma Te was busy with sudicing some woman and Bo Tong was hanging out with David so there wasn't much interaction going on with both of them. I liked Bo Tong with David more but he had no chance against Ma Te...... -.-
Only the last 3 episodes made me excited and i wanted to watch more of Bo Tong and Ma Te's relationship.... even though i pitied David for not getting the girl :(
Afterall the Drama was okay. Nothing special but not THAT bad. I give it a 8 cause the last 3 episodes got me excited :)
PS: The names Bo Tong and Ma Te were horrible in my opinion >.< xD
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