# It's Beautiful Now

It's Beautiful Now (Korean: 현재는 아름다워) is a 2022 South Korean television series starring Yoon Shi-yoon, Bae Da-bin, Oh Min-suk, Shin Dong-mi, Seo Bum-june, and Choi Ye-bin. Directed by Kim Seong-geun, the weekend drama depicts the reality of the current generation that are reluctant to get married and have a family. It premiered on KBS2 on April 2, 2022 and aired every Saturday and Sunday at 19:55 (KST) till September 18, 2022.

## Synopsis

The series depicts the story of the Lee family, whose head is Lee Kyung-cheol (Park In-hwan), the grandfather. His son, Lee Min-ho (Park Sang-won), and his wife, Han Kyung-ae (Kim Hye-ok), have 3 sons. The sons are reluctant to marry, so the elders declare that they would give an apartment to the son who marries within 6 months.

## Cast and characters
### Main

* Yoon Shi-yoon as Lee Hyun-jae
    36 years old, a partner lawyer in law firm Haejun, specializing in family (divorce/inheritance) law and criminal law. He is a lawyer with a high win rate due to his logical eloquence.
* Bae Da-bin as Hyun Mi-rae
    31 years old, the eldest daughter, a VIP personal shopper. She asks for an annulment of marriage by saying that she was fraudulently married.
* Oh Min-suk as Lee Yun-jae
    39 years old, a dentist.
* Shin Dong-mi as Shin Hae-jun
    41 years old, CEO of law firm Haejun, divorce attorney. She has a crush on Yun-jae.
* Seo Bum-june as Lee Soo-jae
    27 years old, a 7th grade public exam preparation student. He is the youngest brother with strong positive narcissism, and has a part-time job of loading and unloading at a parcel delivery service. He meets Na Yu-na at his part time job.
* Choi Ye-bin as Na Yu-na
    25 years old, she is the eldest of two sons and one daughter. She dreams of becoming a pastry chef. She works hard at a bakery academy, and also works part-time as a courier.

### Lee family

* Park In-hwan as Lee Kyeong-cheol
** Ji Seung-hyun as young Lee Kyeong-cheol
    79 years old, head of Igane, Min-ho's father. He worked hard as a fresh produce seller.
* Park Sang-won as Lee Min-ho
    60 years old, Lee Kyeong-cheol's adopted son, Kyung-ae's husband, vice-principal of a middle school, father of 3 sons.
* Kim Hye-ok as Han Kyung-ae
    60 years old, Min-ho's wife, mother of 3 sons.

#### Lee extended family

* Sunwoo Yong-nyeo as Lee Kyung-soon
    76 years old, Lee Kyeong-cheol's younger sister, who immigrated to Atlanta, United States but went bankrupt and came back to live with her brother.
* Jung Heung-chae as Choi Man-ri
    58 years old, Lee Kyung-soon's son.
* Kim Ye-ryeong as Yoo Hye-yeong
    55 years old, Choi Man-ri's wife.
* Cha Yeop as Choi Seong-soo
    35 years old, law firm manager in Hae-jun's law firm, Lee Hyun-jae's cousin.
* Hyun Jyu-ni as Lee So-ra
    35 years old, wife of Choi Seong-soo. She is a nursing assistant at Lee Yoon-jae's dental clinic. Lee So-ra married at an age of 20, and has three children.
* Kim Hyo-kyung as Choi Ha-neul
    12 years old, the eldest daughter of Seong-soo and So-ra.
* Im Ye-jin as Choi Ba-da
    10 years old, the second daughter of Seong-soo and So-ra.
* Kim So-min as Choi Hae
    8 years old, the youngest son of Seong-soo and So-ra.

### Hyun family

* Ban Hyo-jung as Yoon Jung-ja
    80 years old, a successful restaurateur, everything she touches turns into money.
* Byun Woo-min as Hyun Jin-heon
    57 years old, Yoon Jung-ja's son. He owns a Gimbap franchise and is in love with his wife.
* Park Ji-young as Jin Su-jeong
    53 years old, Hyun Jin-heon's wife. She lived a comfortable life and gave birth to a daughter and a son (Hyun Mi-rae and Hyun Jeong-hoo).
* Kim Kang-min as Hyun Jeong-hoo
    27 years old, Hyun Mi-rae's younger brother and Head of Bong Food headquarters. He has crush on Na Yu-na.

### Others

* Hong Yo-seob as Na Seok-man, Yu-na's father
* Song Ok-sook as Sok Sook-suk, Yu-na's mother
* Lee Joo-shil as Jung Mi-young
    77 years old, Su-jeong's mother.
* Choi Su-rin as Jin-ju
    Su-jeong's sister-in-law.
* Kwak Hee-ju as Na Wan-ju
    Na Yu-na's younger brother.
* Ahn Sang-eun as Satbyul
    Macaron shop owner and Yu-na.

### Special appearances

* Bae Woo-hee as Yeon Na-young
* Lee Hyun-jin as Park Jun-hyung
    32 years old, party to the marriage annulment lawsuit.
* Kim Sun-woong as Bong Food worker
* Woo Hyun as Judiciary
* Kim Ji-min as The plaintiff filed for divorce.
* Bae Geu-rin as So Young-eun
    36 years old, ex-girlfriend of Hyun-jae. After breaking up with Lee Hyun-jae, she married the son of a semi-millionaire and followed each other's rules. 10 years later, the two reunite as lawyers and divorce clients.
* Yoon Bok-in as VIP client
* Lee Jung-hyuk as Jaehyun, So Young-eun's ex-husband.
* Nam Bo-ra as Kim Yu-jin, currently recommended playwrights.

## Production

In August, it was reported that Yoon Shi-yoon had been offered a role in the series, and he was considering it positively. Director Kim Seong-geun directed the KBS weekend drama after the 2006 weekend TV series Thank You, My Life and the 2009 daily drama Jolly Widows. Park In-hwan and Shin Dong-mi are working together after the 2019 TV series Liver or Die. Park In-hwan last appeared in the KBS weekend drama Believe in Love in 2011. Kim Hye-ok is appearing in a KBS weekend drama for the fourth time. Previously, she joined in My Too Perfect Sons (2009), Seoyoung, My Daughter (2012) and My Golden Life (2017) with KBS.
On March 11, photos from script reading site were released revealing the site. Production presentation of the series was given by Oh Min-seok, Shin Dong-mi, Yoon Si-yoon, Bae Da-bin, Seo Bum-june, and Choi Ye-bin on April 1, 2022.

## Release and reception

It's Beautiful Now began its first broadcast on KBS2 on April 2, 2022, and aired every Saturday and Sunday at 20:00 (KST). As per Nielsen Korea, the 50th episode of the series logged 29.4% nationwide ratings. It also attracted 5.3 million viewers and as of September 18, 2022, it was placed at 12th rank among Top 50 series per nationwide viewers in Korea.

## Viewership

| Episodes | Episodes | Episode number | Episode number | Episode number | Episode number | Episode number | Episode number | Episode number | Episode number | Episode number | Episode number |
| Episodes | Episodes | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| | Ep. 1–10 | 4.182 | 4.267 | 3.759 | 4.429 | 3.617 | 4.270 | 3.694 | 4.210 | 3.654 | 4.327 |
| | Ep. 11–20 | 3.622 | 4.364 | 3.880 | 4.185 | 3.602 | 3.947 | 3.496 | 4.092 | 3.748 | 4.114 |
| | Ep. 21–30 | 3.705 | 4.163 | 3.706 | 4.315 | 3.627 | 4.428 | 3.651 | 4.183 | 3.671 | 4.453 |
| | Ep. 31–40 | 3.903 | 4.718 | 4.101 | 4.630 | 4.196 | 4.484 | 4.481 | 4.928 | 4.415 | 4.896 |
| | Ep. 41–50 | 4.522 | 5.159 | 4.253 | 4.921 | 4.571 | 5.287 | 3.970 | 4.587 | 4.518 | 5.300 |
| Ep. | Original broadcast date | Average audience share | Average audience share | Average audience share |
| Ep. | Original broadcast date | Nielsen Korea | Nielsen Korea | TNmS |
| Ep. | Original broadcast date | Nationwide | Seoul | Nationwide |
| 1 | April 2, 2022 | 24.5% (1st) | 22.8% (1st) | N/A |
| 2 | April 3, 2022 | 24.6% (1st) | 23.4% (1st) | 20.7% (1st) |
| 3 | April 9, 2022 | 22.8% (1st) | 20.7% (1st) | N/A |
| 4 | April 10, 2022 | 25.3% (1st) | 24.2% (1st) | N/A |
| 5 | April 16, 2022 | 21.0% (1st) | 19.6% (1st) | 17.8% (1st) |
| 6 | April 17, 2022 | 24.1% (1st) | 22.7% (1st) | 21.3% (1st) |
| 7 | April 23, 2022 | 22.2% (1st) | 20.6% (1st) | 19.5% (1st) |
| 8 | April 24, 2022 | 24.4% (1st) | 22.9% (1st) | 21.1% (1st) |
| 9 | April 30, 2022 | 22.3% (1st) | 20.7% (1st) | 16.8% (1st) |
| 10 | May 1, 2022 | 25.0% (1st) | 23.8% (1st) | 19.2% (1st) |
| 11 | May 7, 2022 | 20.7% (1st) | 19.4% (1st) | 16.3% (1st) |
| 12 | May 8, 2022 | 24.3% (1st) | 23.1% (1st) | 20.6% (1st) |
| 13 | May 14, 2022 | 23.1% (1st) | 22.0% (1st) | 18.5% (1st) |
| 14 | May 15, 2022 | 23.9% (1st) | 22.7% (1st) | 19.6% (1st) |
| 15 | May 21, 2022 | 20.9% (1st) | 19.3% (1st) | N/A |
| 16 | May 22, 2022 | 22.2% (1st) | 20.7% (1st) | 18.8% (1st) |
| 17 | May 28, 2022 | 20.8% (1st) | 18.9% (1st) | 17.7% (1st) |
| 18 | May 29, 2022 | 23.8% (1st) | 22.2% (1st) | 19.4% (1st) |
| 19 | June 4, 2022 | 21.2% (1st) | 20.2% (1st) | 16.1% (1st) |
| 20 | June 5, 2022 | 23.8% (1st) | 22.3% (1st) | 18.7% (1st) |
| 21 | June 11, 2022 | 21.7% (1st) | 20.7% (1st) | 17.0% (1st) |
| 22 | June 12, 2022 | 24.0% (1st) | 22.5% (1st) | 20.1% (1st) |
| 23 | June 18, 2022 | 21.1% (1st) | 19.0% (1st) | 17.1% (1st) |
| 24 | June 19, 2022 | 25.0% (1st) | 23.1% (1st) | 20.2% (1st) |
| 25 | June 25, 2022 | 21.7% (1st) | 20.0% (1st) | N/A |
| 26 | June 26, 2022 | 25.0% (1st) | 23.1% (1st) | 21.4% (1st) |
| 27 | July 2, 2022 | 20.5% (1st) | 18.6% (1st) | 17.6% (1st) |
| 28 | July 3, 2022 | 23.1% (1st) | 20.9% (1st) | 19.0% (1st) |
| 29 | July 9, 2022 | 21.3% (1st) | 19.7% (1st) | 18.2% (1st) |
| 30 | July 10, 2022 | 24.2% (1st) | 22.2% (1st) | 20.6% (1st) |
| 31 | July 16, 2022 | 21.6% (1st) | 19.8% (1st) | 19.3% (1st) |
| 32 | July 17, 2022 | 26.0% (1st) | 23.3% (1st) | 22.1% (1st) |
| 33 | July 23, 2022 | 23.7% (1st) | 21.8% (1st) | 20.5% (1st) |
| 34 | July 24, 2022 | 25.7% (1st) | 23.1% (1st) | 23.0% (1st) |
| 35 | July 30, 2022 | 24.0% (1st) | 22.2% (1st) | 19.2% (1st) |
| 36 | July 31, 2022 | 26.2% (1st) | 23.9% (1st) | 22.5% (1st) |
| 37 | August 6, 2022 | 25.6% (1st) | 23.2% (1st) | N/A |
| 38 | August 7, 2022 | 27.4% (1st) | 24.7% (1st) | N/A |
| 39 | August 13, 2022 | 25.0% (1st) | 22.4% (1st) | 21.2% (1st) |
| 40 | August 14, 2022 | 27.3% (1st) | 25.2% (1st) | 21.7% (1st) |
| 41 | August 20, 2022 | 26.5% (1st) | 24.2% (1st) | 21.3% (1st) |
| 42 | August 21, 2022 | 28.8% (1st) | 26.0% (1st) | 23.4% (1st) |
| 43 | August 27, 2022 | 25.2% (1st) | 23.3% (1st) | 20.7% (1st) |
| 44 | August 28, 2022 | 28.2% (1st) | 25.2% (1st) | 24.4% (1st) |
| 45 | September 3, 2022 | 26.8% (1st) | 24.2% (1st) | 21.3% (1st) |
| 46 | September 4, 2022 | 28.9% (1st) | 25.7% (1st) | 23.6% (1st) |
| 47 | September 10, 2022 | 22.1% (1st) | 19.9% (1st) | 17.9% (1st) |
| 48 | September 11, 2022 | 26.2% (1st) | 23.4% (1st) | 21.7% (1st) |
| 49 | September 17, 2022 | 26.4% (1st) | 24.8% (1st) | 21.7% (1st) |
| 50 | September 18, 2022 | 29.4% (1st) | 26.4% (1st) | 24.2% (1st) |
| Average | Average | 24.2% | 22.3% | — |
| In the table above, the blue numbers represent the lowest ratings and the red numbers represent the highest ratings. N/A denotes ratings that were not released. |||||

## Accolades

| Award ceremony | Year | Category | Nominee | Result |
| APAN Star Awards | 2022 | Top Excellence Award, Actor in a Serial Drama | Yoon Shi-yoon | Nominated |
| APAN Star Awards | 2022 | Excellence Award, Actor in a Serial Drama | Oh Min-suk | Nominated |
| APAN Star Awards | 2022 | Excellence Award, Actress in a Serial Drama | Shin Dong-mi | Nominated |
| Asia Artist Awards | 2022 | Rookie Of the Year Award – Actor | Seo Bum-june | Won |
| KBS Drama Awards | 2022 | Best Young Actor | Kim So-min | Nominated |
| KBS Drama Awards | 2022 | Best Young Actress | Kim Hyo-kyung | Nominated |
| KBS Drama Awards | 2022 | Best Couple Award | Bae Da-bin with Yoon Shi-yoon | Won |
| KBS Drama Awards | 2022 | Excellence Award, Actor in a Serial Drama | Yoon Shi-yoon | Won |
| KBS Drama Awards | 2022 | Excellence Award, Actor in a Serial Drama | Park In-hwan | Nominated |
| KBS Drama Awards | 2022 | Excellence Award, Actress in a Serial Drama | Park Ji-young | Won |
| KBS Drama Awards | 2022 | Best Supporting Actor | Oh Min-suk | Nominated |
| KBS Drama Awards | 2022 | Best Supporting Actress | Shin Dong-mi | Nominated |
| KBS Drama Awards | 2022 | Best New Actress | Bae Da-bin | Nominated |