My ID Is Gangnam Beauty (2018) Review: Beyond the Makeover

Is My ID Is Gangnam Beauty worth watching?

Mostly yes. My ID Is Gangnam Beauty is a modest campus romance that turns out to be more thoughtful about beauty standards than its title suggests, with a sincere lead performance from Im Soo-hyang. It treats plastic surgery as the product of years of bullying and social pressure rather than as a joke, which gives the series a genuine subject. The reservations are a romance that stays fairly thin and a tendency to resolve its bigger questions a little too neatly.

What is My ID Is Gangnam Beauty about?

Kang Mi-rae was mocked for her looks all through school. She arrives at university as a chemistry freshman after cosmetic surgery, hoping for a fresh start, and is instead handed a new label: the “Gangnam beauty”, pretty but supposedly fake. Classmates who once ignored her now judge her from the other direction. The only person who treats her exactly as before is Do Kyung-seok, a blunt, reserved student she knew in middle school, who has no patience for flattery or appearances.

My ID Is Gangnam Beauty is a South Korean series in Korean, adapted from a webtoon and written by Choi Soo-young. Im Soo-hyang plays Mi-rae and Cha Eun-woo plays Kyung-seok, with Jo Woo-ri, Kwak Dong-yeon and Park Yoo-na in the student ensemble. This review covers the whole series: one season of 16 episodes, and the story is complete.

Surgery treated as a symptom, not a punchline

The show’s smartest choice is to take Mi-rae’s insecurity seriously. The first episodes use flashbacks to school bullying to show why she made the decision she did, and the drama never frames it as vanity. Instead, it examines how appearance judgements persist no matter what she looks like: she was once mocked for her face and is now mocked for having changed it.

That irony gives the series a sharper edge than most campus rom-coms. It is also careful to widen the lens. Several supporting characters, including the classmate celebrated as a natural beauty played by Jo Woo-ri, turn out to be shaped by the same pressures in different ways. The show is less interested in villains than in a culture that trains everyone to rank faces.

Im Soo-hyang carries the emotional weight

Im Soo-hyang gives Mi-rae a hesitant, self-conscious warmth that makes her easy to root for. The performance is strongest in small moments: flinching at a stranger’s glance, rehearsing confidence, or deflecting a compliment she cannot believe. She keeps the character from becoming a lesson and makes her growth feel earned.

Cha Eun-woo’s Kyung-seok is written as quiet and emotionally closed, which suits his reserved screen presence but leaves the romance with limited spark. The character’s steadiness is the point, a boy who never cared how Mi-rae looked, yet the relationship relies more on the idea of acceptance than on chemistry. Kwak Dong-yeon adds some lightness as a friendly senior.

Where the series plays it safe

At 16 episodes, the middle stretch leans on familiar college-drama material: department parties, gossip, misunderstandings and a lot of longing looks across the lecture hall. The subplots involving families and rivals are handled with a light touch that sometimes tips into superficial. The show also wraps up its conflicts in a gentle, reassuring way that feels slightly too easy for the problems it raises.

It is not a bold series visually or structurally, but it is a considerate one, and that makes a difference with this subject.

Who should watch My ID Is Gangnam Beauty?

It is a good fit for viewers who enjoy low-stakes campus romance with something to say, and for younger adults dealing with questions of self-image. There is school bullying and discussion of body image and self-esteem, but little else to worry about. Sixteen episodes of about an hour make it an easy one to finish over a couple of weeks.

If you like it, try these next:

• Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo, another campus romance about a young woman learning to like herself, with more comedy and bounce.
• Our Beloved Summer, for a romance shaped by old school memories and quiet self-doubt.
• Fight for My Way, for young adults who refuse to let others define their worth.

The verdict

My ID Is Gangnam Beauty is a gentle campus drama that treats a difficult subject with more care than expected. The romance is underpowered and the resolution a little too tidy, but Im Soo-hyang’s sincere lead performance and the show’s thoughtful take on beauty standards make it worth a look.

Rating: 3.5/5