When I Was the Most Beautiful

When I Was the Most Beautiful^[2] (Korean: 내가 가장 예뻤을때) is a 2020 South Korean television series starring Im Soo-hyang, Ji Soo, Ha Seok-jin and Hwang Seung-eon. The series follows a woman ceramic artist who falls in love with two brothers. Produced by May Queen Pictures and RaemongRaein Co. Ltd. for MBC,^[3][4] it aired on MBC TV on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 21:30 (KST) from August 19 to October 15, 2020.

When I Was the Most Beautiful
Hangul	내가 가장 예뻤을때
Literal meaning	When I Was the Prettiest
Revised Romanization	Naega Gajang Yeppeoss-eulttae
Genre	Romance Melodrama
Written by	Jo Hyoun-kyoung
Directed by	Oh Kyung-hoon
Starring	Im Soo-hyang Ji Soo Ha Seok-jin Hwang Seung-eon
Music by	Gaemi (Music Director)
Country of origin	South Korea
Original language	Korean
No. of episodes	32[a]
Production
Running time	35 minutes[a]
Production companies	May Queen Pictures RaemongRaein
Original release
Network	MBC TV
Release	August 19 (2020-08-19) – October 15, 2020 (2020-10-15)

Synopsis

The drama tells the story Oh Ye-ji (Im Soo-hyang), an art student who dreams of becoming a ceramic artist. She heads to a school in Yangpyeong as both a student and a teacher, where she meets brothers Seo Hwan (Ji Soo) and Seo Jin (Ha Seok-jin). Hwan, who is Ye-ji's student, falls in love with her and takes her to his father's workshop to confess his feelings. However, at the workshop, Ye-ji meets Jin. Although Jin is aware of Hwan's feelings toward Ye-ji, he does not hesitate to win over her heart and eventually gets engaged to her. Overnight, those who are meant to be each other's strongest supporters end up becoming the worst enemies thanks to a twist of fate. Straddling desire and love, the three struggle to figure out what's right during the most beautiful time of their lives.

Cast

Main

• Im Soo-hyang as Oh Ye-ji
  • Kim Do-Hye as young Oh Ye-ji

Oh Ye-ji is a ceramic artist. She has a pure heart and relentless optimism and refuses to give up no matter the situation. She dreams of finding ordinary happiness but in a cruel twist of fate gets caught in a love triangle with two brothers, Seo Hwan and Seo Jin.

• Ji Soo as Seo Hwan
  • Son Yi-hyun as young Seo Hwan

Seo Hwan, an architectural designer, is an innocent young man who falls in love with Ye-ji at first sight. His feelings put him at odds with his older brother Seo Jin, but he can’t let go his fateful first love.

• Ha Seok-jin as Seo Jin
  • Park Min-Sang as teenage Seo Jin

Seo Jin is a race car driver and the leader of his rally team. He is cool and reserved on the outside but ruthless in the pursuit in what he desires. When he meet Oh Ye-ji for the first time at his father’s workshop, he instinctually feels attracted to her.

• Hwang Seung-eon as Carrie Jung

Carrie Jung is a sponsor manager at Koryo Monster and ex-girlfriend of Jin. She is charismatic, and she is intensely jealous of her ex-lover and has a selfish egotistic streaks. She is still passionately in love with Seo Jin, and is unable to let him go even after their break up.

Supporting

People around Seo Hwan

• Park Ji-young as Kim Yeon-da, Hwan's mother
• Choi Jong-hwan as Seo Sung-gon, Hwan's father
• Jeon Yu-lim as Jung Da-woon, Seo Hwan's classmate
• Son Bo-seung as Baek Jung-il, Seo Hwan's classmate
• Joo In-young as Hong Il-hwa, Da Woon's mother
• Lee Seung-il as Song In-ho, Seo Hwan's classmate
• Stephanie Lee as Amber, Seo Hwan's College Classmate

People around Oh Ye-ji

• Kim Mi-kyung as Kim Go-woon, Ye-ji's mother
• Kim Jung-tae as Ye-ji's father
• Shin Yi as Oh Ji-young, Ye-ji's aunt
• Jung Eun-pyo as Lee Kyeong-sik, Ye-ji's uncle
• Kim No-jin as Lee Chan-hee, Ye-ji's cousin
• Lee Dong-ha as Ryu Sueng-min, Ye-ji's ex-boyfriend

People around Seo Jin

• Park Ji-young as Kim Yeon-da, Jin's mother
• Choi Jong-hwan as Seo Sung-gon, Jin's father
• Lee Jae-yong as President Bang
• Kim Tae-gyeom as Kang Ki-seok, Jin's racing team
• Jung Wook-jin as Park Woo-geun, Jin's racing team

Others

• Kwon Hyuk as Kim Yeon-cheol
• Jung Wook-jin as Park Woo-geun
• Seo Eun-woo as Yoon Ji-Yang (Ep. 1–3)
• Daniel Joey Albright as Sam (Ep. 1–3)
• Lee Seung-il as Song In-ho
• Shin Dam-soo as Song In-ho's father
• Hwang Hyo-eun as Song In-ho's mother

Production

• The first script reading of the cast was held in April 2020 at MBC Ilsan Dream Centre in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.

Original soundtrack

When I Was the Most Beautiful OST Album
Soundtrack album by Various artists
Released	2020
Genre	Soundtrack
Language	Korean

Part 1

Released on August 19, 2020 (2020-08-19)

No.	Title	Artist	Length
1.	"Go With" (동행)	1415	04:39
2.	"Go With" (Inst.)		04:39
Total length:			08:78

Part 2

Released on August 27, 2020 (2020-08-27)

No.	Title	Artist	Length
1.	"Once" (한번)	So Hyang	04:12
2.	"Once" (Inst.)		04:12
Total length:			08:24

Part 3

Released on September 3, 2020 (2020-09-03)

No.	Title	Artist	Length
1.	"You Should Be Happy" (그대 행복해야 해요)	Jeon Sang Keun	03:34
2.	"You Should Be Happy" (Inst.)		03:34
Total length:			06:68

Part 4

Released on September 10, 2020 (2020-09-10)

No.	Title	Artist	Length
1.	"The Days Engraved" (새겨진 나날들이)	Lucia	03:54
2.	"The Days Engraved" (Inst.)		03:54
Total length:			07:08

Part 5

Released on September 17, 2020 (2020-09-17)

No.	Title	Artist	Length
1.	"Walking The Way We Only Know" (우리만 아는 그 길을 걸어가요)	Floody	03:21
2.	"Walking The Way We Only Know" (Inst.)		03:21
Total length:			06:42

Part 6

Released on September 24, 2020 (2020-09-24)

No.	Title	Artist	Length
1.	"Draw Into You" (너로 물든다는 것)	Monday (Weeekly)	03:28
2.	"Draw Into You" (Inst.)		03:28
Total length:			06:56

Part 7

Released on October 1, 2020 (2020-10-01)

No.	Title	Artist	Length
1.	"Dream of Mirror"	Jo Yuma (조유마)	05:47
2.	"Dream of Mirror" (Inst.)		05:47
Total length:			10:94

Ratings

In this table, the blue numbers represent the lowest ratings and the red numbers represent the highest ratings.

Ep.	Original broadcast date	Average audience share (Nielsen Korea)[5]
		Nationwide
1	August 19, 2020	2.4%
2		2.9%
3	August 20, 2020	2.0%
4		2.4%
5	August 27, 2020	1.9%
6		2.5%
7	September 2, 2020	2.2%
8		3.0%
9	September 3, 2020	2.8%
10		3.0%
11	September 9, 2020	2.6%
12		3.5%
13	September 10, 2020	3.2%
14		4.2%
15	September 16, 2020	2.7%
16		3.6%
17	September 17, 2020	3.7%
18		4.7%
19	September 23, 2020	2.7%
20		3.7%
21	September 24, 2020	3.8%
22		4.6%
23	September 30, 2020	1.7%
24		2.3%
25	October 7, 2020	2.6%
26		3.2%
27	October 8, 2020	3.4%
28		3.6%
29	October 14, 2020	3.1%
30		4.1%
31	October 15, 2020	3.9%
32		5.0%
Average		3.1%

• Note: On August 26, 2020, the broadcast was canceled in order to air special news coverage of Typhoon Bavi. Episodes 5 and 6 were aired on August 27 instead.^[6]

Notes

1. In order to circumvent Korean laws that prevent commercial breaks in the middle of an episode, what would previously have been aired as single 70 minute episodes are now being repackaged as two 35 minute episodes, with two episodes being shown each night with a commercial break between the two.^[1]

References

1. Park, Jin-hai (May 16, 2017). "Drama viewers angry over commercial breaks". The Korea Times. Archived from the original on August 19, 2020. Retrieved April 17, 2020 – via PressReader.
2. "When I was the Most Beautiful". MBC Global Media. MBC&iMBC. Archived from the original on April 11, 2021. Retrieved March 16, 2021.
3. "When I Was The Prettiest [Title in the URL]". mqpictures.com (in Korean). May Queen Pictures. Archived from the original on January 24, 2022. Retrieved July 30, 2020.
4. "When I Was The Prettiest". raemongraein.co.kr (in Korean). RaemongRaein Co. Ltd. Archived from the original on October 8, 2020. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
5. "Nielsen Korea". AGB Nielsen Media Research (in Korean). Archived from the original on January 24, 2022. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
6. "태풍 '바비' 북상에 지상파 3사 일제히 특보체제 돌입(종합)". Yonhap News (in Korean). Archived from the original on January 24, 2022. Retrieved August 26, 2020.

External links

• Official website (in Korean)
• When I Was the Most Beautiful at IMDb
• When I Was the Most Beautiful at HanCinema