Search movies, actors, endings… ⌘K
● Movie Guide · Last updated May 18, 2026

My ID is Gangnam Beauty: Plot, Cast, Ending & Where to Watch

2018 · South Korea · Comedy, Drama · 1h 05m · Korean

My ID is Gangnam Beauty is a 2018 South Korea comedy film directed by —. This guide covers the plot, full cast, an overview of the ending, where to watch, and similar films you might want next.

Read Ending Explained → Movies Like My ID is Gangnam Beauty Where to Watch
ComedyDramaNotable
Original Title
My ID is Gangnam Beauty
Director
—
Writers
Choi Soo-young
Country
South Korea
Runtime
1h 05m
Release
Jul 27, 2018
§ 01 Plot · 6 min read

My ID is Gangnam Beauty Plot Summary

Gangnam Beauty (Korean: 내 아이디는 강남미인) is a 2018 South Korean television series starring Im Soo-hyang, Cha Eun-woo, Jo Woo-ri and Kwak Dong-yeon. Based on the webtoon of the same name published in 2016 by Naver, it centers on the life of a college student who had cosmetic surgery to evade ongoing derision from her bullies. However, her decision seems to backfire as her peers ridicule her artificial look. The title of the webtoon and of the TV series alludes to the Korean word gangnammiin, a derogatory term in South Korea for people who are attractive but look as if they went through a number of plastic surgeries for a pretty face, a hot body or both.

● Quick takeaway

My ID is Gangnam Beauty (2018) is a South Korea comedy film, running 60 minutes. Bullied for her looks, Mi-rae gets plastic surgery hoping for a better kind of life but faces new challenges in college. Based on a hit Korean webtoon. Stars Im Soo-hyang and Cha Eun-woo. Critical reception: IMDb 7.2/10. Tagline: "A beauty who feels unfamiliar with her beauty.." This guide covers the plot, full cast, ending, and where to watch.

§ 02 Cast · 6 roles

Cast and Characters

Im Soo-hyang headshot
Im Soo-hyang
as Kang Mi-rae
Im, then in her early thirties and a decade into Korean television leading roles after New Tales of Gisaeng (2011), plays Mi-rae as a chemistry freshman whose interior monologue is the show's true engine. The performance has to register two faces — the post-surgery face the camera shows and the pre-surgery face Mi-rae's anxieties insist everyone can still see — and Im carries the doubling through small physical choices around eye contact and hairline rather than through dialogue.
Cha Eun-woo headshot
Cha Eun-woo
as Do Kyeong-seok
Cha — a member of the K-pop group ASTRO making one of his first major acting transitions — plays Kyung-seok as the campus's deadpan ideal, a chemistry student who refuses every social register the show's other freshmen are trying to perform. The casting is the show's largest single asset and its largest internal joke: a male lead whose face has been industry-discussed since his debut, opposite a female lead whose face has been the explicit subject of bullying.
Shin Jun-seop headshot
Shin Jun-seop
as Young Do Kyeong-seok
Shin plays the middle-school version of Kyung-seok in the flashback sequences that establish the tutoring-academy summer he and Mi-rae shared years before the present-day campus action. The role is small but structurally essential: it places the two leads in the same room before Mi-rae's surgery, so that the show can resolve in the second-half question of whether Kyung-seok recognises her not as a beautiful classmate but as the bullied teenager he once sat next to.
Jo Woo-ri headshot
Jo Woo-ri
as Hyeon Su-a
Jo plays Soo-ah as the show's quietly menacing antagonist — the unanimously beautiful classmate who has learned to use compliment culture as a weapon and who organises the department's social hierarchy around the implicit threat of her approval. The role refuses the mean-girl-broad-strokes template the genre is otherwise full of: Jo gives Soo-ah a slow-burning insecurity of her own that the show pays off in the final stretch.
Kwak Dong-yeon headshot
Kwak Dong-yeon
as Yeon U-yeong
Kwak plays the senior chemistry student Yeon Woo-young as the friendly third corner of the show's romantic triangle — the kind, slightly older classmate running the freshman induction events who notices Mi-rae before Kyung-seok does, and whose unrequited interest the show holds open through the middle act. The role is the genre's classic 'second-male-lead' position, and Kwak plays it with enough warmth to keep the triangle from feeling perfunctory.
Park Joo-mi headshot
Park Joo-mi
as Na Hye-seong
Park plays Mi-rae's mother Na Hye-seong as the show's quiet emotional engine in the family-home scenes — a former cosmetic-surgery patient herself, ambivalent about her daughter's decision to undergo the procedures, and the figure through whom the series threads its longer argument about Korean beauty culture as an inheritance rather than an individual choice.
§ 03 · Spoiler Zone · Read with care

Ending Overview

How does My ID is Gangnam Beauty end? Our spoiler-aware breakdown walks through the final act beat by beat — including the choices, motivations, and ambiguous final shot that viewers most often debate.

Read full Ending Explained →
§ 04 Watch · Updated May 18

Where to Watch My ID is Gangnam Beauty

Availability may vary by region and change over time.

N
Netflix
Streaming · Subscription
● Available
R
Rakuten Viki
Streaming · Subscription
● Available
O
OnDemandKorea
Streaming · Subscription
● Available
N
Netflix Standard with Ads
Streaming · Subscription
● Available
View all regions & options →
§ 06

Frequently Asked

What is My ID is Gangnam Beauty about?

Bullied for her looks, Mi-rae gets plastic surgery hoping for a better kind of life but faces new challenges in college.

Where can I watch My ID is Gangnam Beauty?

See the Where to Watch section below for the current streaming, rental, and purchase options in your region.