"Miss Korea" May Be One Long Makeover

You might not think that Lee Yeon Hee would need too much of a makeover to play a contestant in a beauty pageant, but the actress is going to get the full treatment in her new drama "Miss Korea."

Lee Yeon Hee recently played the unfortunate Yoon Seo Hwa in "Gu Family Book" and Taecyeon's fiancée, in the film "Marriage Blue." In "Miss Korea" she will play a small town girl who dreams of  entering a national beauty pageant. It will be the actress' first leading role since she starred in "Ghost-Drama," more than a year ago.

In her new drama Lee Yeon Hee's character gets plenty of encouragement from her middle-aged male neighbors. Not only do they support her wish to enter the competition but they also offer to help her prepare for the pageant. They come up with a plan for a makeover.

That should be interesting for at least two reasons. First, the actress is already a beauty. Second, the very idea of middle-aged men giving a girl a makeover is amusing. Will the makeup crew have to find a way to make Lee Yeon Hee look plain and ordinary before her neighbors attempt to improve her? Or will she look fine to start with and wind up looking worse because of her neighbors' misguided attempts to turn her into their ideal woman.

There's no telling what ideas her neighbors will come up with. It could be an improvement and it could turn out to be quite funny.

The man in charge of making Lee Yeon Hee over will be played by Lee Sung Min, the actor who won praise for his performance as Choi In Hyuk in the drama "Golden Time." He also recently played Han Tae Sang's gangster boss and enemy in the melodrama 'When A Man Loves" and he will appear in the 2014 film "The Law of Pleasures." Lee Sung Min previously worked with the drama's director Kwon Seok Jang on "Golden Time."

Kwon and screenwriter Seo Sook Hyang have also worked together before, most notably on  the funny food-inspired comedy "Pasta," which starred Gong Hyo Jin and Lee Sun Kyun. "Miss Korea" is their first joint effort in three years.

Kwon also directed the comedy "My Princess" and Seo wrote the script for "Romance Town."

The SM C&C-produced drama "Miss Korea" will be shown in December after "Medical Top Team" finishes its run.