200 Pound Beauty : Culture on Culture



This show was amazingly good! Watched this show in bunk this week. Humorous and with a very good message to boot (though plot is cliched, sitll nevertheless enjoyable.). My first impression is that it is another show going to glorify physical beauty, turns out the other way. Interestingly, the director uses pop culture to make a statement on that pop culture, namely S. Korea's obsession with plastic surgery. I love the song too. Story is about this girl, Hanna, who is fat and ugly, and was a backup singer to a popstar. Because of her appearance, nobody gives her a chance to be in love. She attempted to commit suicide, but when she failed, she decided to give herself a new lease of life - plastic surgery. Enter the beautiful, now plastic Jenny, played by Kim Ah Joong. In the way to popularity, she found herself deserting her own father, her best friend, and herself.

One very good style the director used was to focus the camera only on the female fans, and show only their reaction when they realized that Jenny had undergone surgery. This is probably to make the point that a female popstar is usually the idol and example of the female fans. This film urges the people to focus more on inner beauty rather than the outside.

Maria.... Ave Maria...