6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Woo Jin wakes up each day with a different appearance. Sometimes he's a man, sometimes a woman, sometimes old, sometimes young, sometimes Korean, sometimes a foreigner. On the inside he's the same, but on the outside he's always changing. Just like this, Woo Jin passes each day, quietly making a living as a furniture designer and maintaining an appropriate distance from others. Then one day he falls in love with a woman.
Starring: Han Hyo-joo, Park Shin-hye, Chun Woo-hee, Juri Ueno, Lee Beom-suForeign | 100% |
Romance | 23% |
Drama | 21% |
Fantasy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Korean: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Korean: Dolby Digital 2.0
English
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
If you’re like most people, at some point during the day, probably fairly early in the morning, you pass by your bathroom mirror and take a gander at yourself, reacquainting yourself with what you look like. It’s such a regular feature of life that most folks probably don’t give it a second thought, simply taking in the “sights” and moving on without ever really pausing to ponder the mystery of existence, unless of course some fright like a gigantic new pimple has shown up at the tip of the nose. Folks who have undergone extensive plastic surgery or (even more dramatically) had to undergo the relatively new phenomenon of the face transplant have had to deal with getting used to an at least partially “new” face greeting them in the mirror every day, and for those folks, the central conceit of The Beauty Inside may be more relatable than it will be for the vast majority of audience members. Based on a little remembered 2012 “social film” (an interactive entry designed around the supposed blandishments of social media) put together by Toshiba and Intel (there’s a producing team for you), this South Korean “reboot” focuses on a young man who has been experiencing a rather bizarre phenomenon since his eighteenth birthday: every morning he wakes up as a new person, at least on the outside. While his consciousness remains the same, his physical appearance changes, with absolutely no tether to age, gender, ethnicity or nationality. Sometimes he spends the day as an aged senior woman, on other occasions he can be a raucous young boy. That virtually defines The Beauty Inside as “high concept”, and that concept in and of itself may provide enough interest for some viewers. But with at least a few gaping plot holes in evidence, and a frankly kind of surprising unwillingness to really tackle some issues this concept raises, The Beauty Inside often ends up playing like a just slightly more provocative than usual romantic comedy.
The Beauty Inside is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Digitally shot with Arri Alexa XT cameras, this release sports a solid if at times kind of undistinguished looking appearance, one which offers the typical sharpness and precision of the digital format while never really popping in any significant way. Part of this is due to the fact that much of the film takes place in the shadowy interiors of Woo-jin's office design studio, and part is also due to the fact that (as seems to be increasingly the case these days) director Jong-Yeol Baek and cinematographer Tae-kyung Kim opt to shoot into (or at least towards) light sources, something that often bathes at least part of the frame in a kind of gauzy softness, as can be clearly seen in some of the screenshots accompanying this review. Generally speaking, though, detail levels are well above average, contrast is consistent if not overly strong, and black levels are similarly decent if never overwhelmingly deep. There are no issues with image instability or compression anomalies.
The Beauty Inside features a workmanlike DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track (in the original Korean, with optional English subtitles) that only rarely has forceful opportunities to strut its surround credentials. Sequences like the early montage in a club offer good immersion and nicely placed surround effects, but much of the film takes place in interior locations with just one or two characters, something that in and of itself doesn't offer a wealth of spectacular surround opportunities. Fidelity is fine and dialogue, effects and the occasional score elements are all prioritized well.
I frankly never saw the "social film" which sparked this Korean reboot (it's still available on YouTube for those interested), but even without that context, this film's reach exceeds its grasp, which is not to say that it is ever less than enjoyable on its own peculiar merits. Putting aside some logical inconsistencies, The Beauty Inside veers rather uneasily between some quasi-farcical elements and more serious dramatic interchanges that supposedly seek to delve into what this phenomenon might mean for someone. That second aspect could have received a much more fulsome development, though, and the result is kind of like sitting through a two hour gimmick. With caveats duly noted, and with an understanding that technical merits here are generally strong, The Beauty Inside comes Recommended.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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