I’m aware that South Korea has a high take-up of plastic surgery, particularly of women’s faces, but I hadn’t really questioned how that is regarded and talked about among Korean people. A K-drama might not be the most accurate way to find out, but romcom My ID is Gangnam Beauty (JTBC 2018) certainly gave me an insight.

Kang Mi-rae (Im Soo-hyang) gets plastic surgery between high school and university, after years of being bullied because of her looks. At first, the only person who knows (besides her mother) is her one close friend from school Oh Hyun-jung (Min Do-hee, from Reply 1994) who is bubbly and cheerful and tries to get Mi-rae to join in with the fun of university life. And at first it seems to be going great. Mi-rae immediately has boys chatting her up, girls befriending her and crowds clapping her dancing at Freshers Week.

However, it becomes clear that most people can tell Mi-rae had surgery and some of them judge her harshly for it, calling her a “Gangnam plastic monster”. She’s also being exposed for the first time to stalkery men and women who snipe behind her back. Mi-rae seems super naive at times, but she didn’t experience these things at school – the nastiness there was pretty open, as we see in flashbacks.

There is one other complication in Mi-rae’s life: Do Kyung-seok (Cha Eun-woo), a handsome rich guy in her department who went to the same middle school as her. Mi-rae is terrified of being outed as formerly ugly and struggles to trust Kyung-seok. Even when they become friends, he’s still a complication because he has famous parents and therefore the people around him are under the spotlight, while Mi-rae desperately wants to stay under the radar.

Thankfully there is more to Mi-rae than obsession about looks – though you wouldn’t know that from the first half of the first episode. She’s studying chemistry and is pretty smart. She’s open, funny and is deeply upset to learn that her father is hurt by her plastic surgery – he sees it as her not wanting to look like him.

As well as having some interesting discussions about female beauty standards and plastic surgery, this show is also firmly anti stalking and harassment, unlike many K-dramas I’ve seen. There are a few romantic storylines and all are sweet, with no wrist grabbing, entrapment or forced kisses. The few examples of not-great behaviour are clearly labelled as such and perpetrators receive their come-uppance, though in quite an understanding way.

The show isn’t wholly bereft of K-drama tropes though. There’s a long-lost parent reveal, a rich father trying to control his children, a rich guy playing at being poor and inevitably a love triangle. It’s also fairly silly and cheesy. I’m not hugely surprised to find it’s based on a comic, My ID Is Gangnam Beauty by Choi Soo-young.