200 Pounds Beauty
Director: Kim Yong-hwa
Year: 2006
Rating: 5.0
Country:
Korea
This was a huge hit when
it came out in Korea in 2006. A comedy that morphs into melodrama as Korean
films tend to do. It carried a few messages along with the humor about beauty
- but by the end they are very mixed messages as if the director Kim Yong-hwa
lost the thread by the end. But my main complaint about the film is that
all the characters are as shallow as an ink stain and pretty unlikable if
you go one layer down. What kept me going was a fine performance from the
actress who plays both overweight and beautiful and sings her own songs.
I had never bothered with this film previously because I expected it to be
a fuzzy version of a Hong Kong film, Love on a Diet. It isn't really, but
it isn't nearly as funny as that one was either.
There is probably no polite way to say it,
but Hanna (Kim Ah-jung) is a large girl. In an obvious fat suit. And she
is desperate for love. A fortune teller says forget it, not going to happen.
She makes her living doing phone sex, but mainly just comforting lonely men.
They love her voice. But at night. she is the singer for Ammi, a popular
singer. Meaning that she sings hidden in the back for another more presentable
female up front (Ji Seo-yun). Think Singing in the Rain. She is also in love
with the singer's manager Sang-jun (Joo Jin-mo) who seems to be a really
sweet guy and sees her value. She thinks maybe this is the guy. Till that
old cliché hits her in the face. She overhears him while sitting in
a bathroom stall talking to Ammi about how they are just using her. She goes
home and tries to kill herself - but stops when she gets a call on the sex
line - but still falls into a deep sleep and a few heavy jokes follow about
the hospital staff trying to lift her up.
This is all the set-up for the real part
of the film. She decides to remake herself. A complete makeover - loses a
lot of weight and has more plastic surgery than a burn victim. Everything
you can think of. She becomes Jenny, a Korean American. Plastic surgery is
of course a big deal in Korea. There are probably not many Korean actresses
who have not had a little work done on the eyes or the mouth or the chin.
The film gets a little interesting for me when they finally unwrap her. I
had no idea who the actress was or what she looked like. She had done very
little in film prior to this - and not much since. Well, wow. She is a stunner
- a dreamy face and watery eyes. And she is so happy as she walks down the
street like she is on fire. Men run into things looking at her or just babble.
It is nice being beautiful. So, I hear.
Then the melodrama comes into play. And it left a sour taste - she goes after
the guy who said the nasty things about her - becomes a singer - starts to
hate her subterfuge. But in the end, the message seems to be - no matter
what you look like, be happy, embrace it - but if you can afford plastic
surgery to look better - do it. The actress got caught up in a tax evasion
scheme and it really sidetracked her career - too bad. She is stunner with
or without plastic surgery. Only her doctor knows for sure (I was since informed
that she did). Probably financed by the Korean Plastic Surgery Association.
