There’s a ton of proso in k-dramas
You know how amnesia used to be a huge trope in American soap operas? The equivalent, in Korea, is prosopagnosia. There are a metric ton of shows in Korean right now with premises that hinge entirely on faceblindness — and characters who are faceblind are popping up on other, totally unrelated shows as well.
As well all know, Korea is a hotbed of international trends (remember Baby Shark?) So I’m hardly going out on a limb when I predict that we are about to see main characters with prosopagnosia across a variety of genres, on all your favorite streaming platforms. The dramatic possibilities are endless: A thriller featuring a faceblind victim with a stalker she can’t recognize. (I am actually writing a story about this happening in real life, right now.) A rom-com, featuring a faceblind protagonist who can’t recognize the guy she just hit it off with. (Katherine Center came up with a really clever complication for her main character in the novel, “Hello Stranger” — a romcom with a faceblind protagonist who was named after yours truly!)
Right now I am watching "Beauty Inside" (뷰티 인사이드) — a zany romcom about a famous actress with a strange medical condition — she involuntarily shapeshifts, turning into other people, including men and children. This has resulted in a reputation problem for her, because people think that she is promiscuously dating all these random men that paparazzi photograph at her home — and, worst of all, they think she has a secret lovechild, because she turned into a toddler one time.
After an incident at an awards show where she flees so that no one sees her transformation, she is getting dropped by advertisers left and right. That includes a airplane company, whose CEO is faceblind. The character is a classic “Mr. Big” style rich-dude dreamboat. Their “meet cute” is so inventive! He’s on the roof of a building talking about why they have to drop the actress as their spokesmodel (because she is a dirtbag) and he notices a beautiful woman listening into his conversation and looking aghast. Anyone else would have recognized this famous actress immediately, but our faceblind CEO doesn’t! He does appear to figure it out, though — and to test his theory, he doubles down, repeating the rumors about the actress having a secret child. The actress stops crying, Faceblind CEO gets off the phone, and they have their first sexy argument.
In the ensuing scenes there are a lot of plot complications — and I did not follow them all. But basically, the actress ends up keeping her spokesmodel job by saving a codeshare/merger deal with some other airline. (This other airline is run by a German guy, I think, though they speak English at their meeting.) Anyway, his adorable blonde daughter has a side conversation with the actress in Korean Sign Language, which the kid learned because she is a big fan of the actress. The actress learned it because she fears she might turn into a mute character someday, and wanted to be able to communicate if that happens.
On the flight home, the two seem to really be connecting and the actress falls asleep on the CEO’s shoulder. She wakes up suddenly and flees into the bathroom where she changes into a different woman — one with lighter brown hair. Since I am actually faceblind, I infer this from her hair alone — I have to confirm that she also has a different face with Steve!
Just like me, Faceblind CEO also does not notice that his love interest has a new face! He’s totally nonplussed by her transformation, so he has no idea why she suddenly feels that she must hide her face. But he helps her out anyway, throwing a blanket over her.
I have often wondered what the obverse of faceblindness is — and it never occurred to me that it’s a person whose face is always changing! How creative! The faceblind CEO can see through the actresses many faces, and he can also overlook her great beauty, and actually “see” her at her core. Similarly, the actress is going to be uniquely positioned to figure out that the CEO is faceblind.
For me, an American who consumes a steady diet of romcoms, “Beauty Inside,” is both familiar and strange. There are a lot of zany sound effects that American live-action shows would never use. For instance, when a character blinks in d, there’s often a chime, or falls down, there might be a horn honk. I can’t think of any American shows that use silly sound effects besides cartoons. We are much to realism-focused for that. Another departure from realism in “Beauty Inside,” is, of course, the main character’s affliction. But overall, they are living in a world that is recognizable and largely normal. It’s sort of a magical realism situation, where there’s only one super weird thing going on. I can’t think of another example of a modern American show that does this — except perhaps My Crazy Ex Girlfriend, where characters occasionally break out in song and dance. (Older examples, however abound. I Dream of Jeanie; Bewitched.)
"Beauty Inside" (뷰티 인사이드) Episode 1 & 2
Faceblind realism score: 9/10. If my love interest walked into a bathroom and emerged with a different but similar face, I wouldn’t notice. I might notice the hair change, though. The meet cute on the top of the building is more sus. What are the chances the actress you are talking about is the beautiful woman standing right next to you crying? I would never have made that leap.
It’s also interesting that the faceblind CEO can recognize his fish, and he’s learned to recognize many of his employees by drilling himself on the specific details of their carriage, voice and clothes. He makes all his employees wear nametags. He also upsets his mom by failing to recognize her in a train station, which reminds me of how the original prosopagnosiac, a German soldier, failed to recognize his mom in a train station after his head injury.
