200 Pound Beauty

Country: Korea
Genre: Comedy
Release Year: 2007
Type: Movie

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Average User Review Score
95%

200 Pound Beauty Review
Hanna is an amazing singer who could easily take the music world by storm, but there is one small problem: she weighs 200 pounds! Since there's no way she can take the stage, she is the lip-sync vocalist for pop-singer Ammy, who is gorgeous and beautiful but completely untalented. Hanna has a problem though, she is madly in love with her and Ammy's talent agent, a man named Sang-jun. Ammy, being slightly jealous that Sang-jun seems to pay more attention to Hanna despite the fact that Hanna is grossly overweight and ugly, decides to embarrass Hanna at Sang-jun's birthday party. After this event, Hanna has an extreme plastic surgery to completely change her body. But even though she is now a gorgeous and talented woman, can she sway Sang-jun's heart?

A superb, brilliant movie. Not only did this movie provide lots of laughs, but it was also incredibly heart wrenching. Plastic surgery movies are common in Korean cinema, but its safe to say that 200 Pound Beauty stands above the rest. In fact, I can safely say that it ranks as one of the best Korean movies I have ever seen.

After transforming her body into that of a goddess, Hanna realizes that her new life brings about unexpected changes in her demeanor and personality. Her new look also doesn't necessarily bring her closer to getting her love, Sang-jun. Even when Sang-jun does start falling for her, she realizes that she despises her new personality. One scene shows her rejecting her own father for the sake of hiding the fact that she was once a fat, ugly woman.

Although the storyline may sound cliche, the movie actually swerves from a few of the common cliches that plastic surgery movies present. At the end, the protagonist finally accepts her new look and is able to revert back to her old personality. The ending was slightly weak in my opinion because it did not have romantic closure, and instead leaves the relationship between Hanna and Sang-jun hanging. However, throughout the whole movie, this was probably the only major flaw I found with the storyline.

Besides a great storyline, this film has a cool soundtrack featuring the hit song "Maria" which charted at #1 in Korea. I'm not sure if Kim Ah-Joong, the actress for Hanna, really sang the song, but if she did then she is a damn talented singer. Because of this film, Kim Ah-Joong is now an A-list actress, and truthfully I can see why. Her acting was simply amazing in this film; she was so believable and heart-warming that I'm sure any audience would fall in love with her.

If you're looking for a romantic comedy that will also make you cry like a baby, then look no further than 200 Pound Beauty. This movie will surely rank amongst the greatest Korean films of all time.

Written by Andrew Kao