NAMA : HILDA AZ-ZAHRA G

NO. ABSEN : 14
KELAS : XII MIPA 3

Movie Review: 200 Pounds Beauty

Orientation 200 Pounds Beauty is a 2006 South Korean musical

romantic comedy film written and directed by Kim Yong-hwa. It
is based on the Japanese manga Kanna's Big Success! by Yumiko
Suzuki about an overweight ghost singer who undergoes
intensive plastic surgery to become a pop sensation.

Plot/Synopsis. Hanna Kang is an overweight phone sex part-timer and a

ghost singer for Ammy, a famous pop singer who actually lip
syncs instead of being famous for her own vocal talent. Other
than that, Hanna has a huge crush for Sang-jun who's a director
and whose arrogant father owns the entertainment company. One
day, Ammy purposely insults Hanna's weight in front of Sang-jun
during his birthday party, knowing well that Hanna likes him.
While crying in the restroom, Hanna overhears Sang-jun telling
Ammy that even though they are just using Hanna for her voice,
they must be kind to her so she will not walk out on them.
Heartbroken, Hanna attempts suicide but is interrupted by a
phone call from one of her phone sex regulars who is a top plastic
surgeon. She persuades him to perform a head-to-toe plastic
surgery operation on her. Hanna puts herself in seclusion for a
year as she recovers from the changes from the surgery and
weight loss.
When she comes back from the hospital, Hanna is
incredibly beautiful and slender, that even her best friend Jung-
min cannot recognize her at first. With Jung-min's help, Hanna
creates a new identity for herself; she is now a Korean-American
from California named Jenny. After auditioning to be Ammy's
secret vocalist again, she earns her own recording contract instead
from Sang-jun, claiming that she is "all-natural". In the
meantime, Ammy desperately tries to find Hanna by spending
time with Hanna's father who is in a hospital due to mental
problems, possibly Alzheimer's. She hopes that he would help her
find Hanna because she needs her voice to sing for her 2nd
album. Without it, Ammy fears that her own secret in being
unable to sing will be exposed to everyone. In the hospital's
bathroom, Sang-jun calls Ammy and orders to give up her search
for Hanna. He wants her to give Jenny a chance to help him finish
her album and also reminds her of her role in a TV show he got
her. Sang-jun also warns Ammy that he will have her contract
terminated if she doesn't stop and memorize her lines for the TV
show. She refuses out of fear for possible competition in album
sales with Jenny. Ammy tells Sang-Jun that she is determined to
find Hanna because she will come back to her like always. After
many encounters with Jenny, they both realize that Jenny is
actually Hanna.
Jenny's debut single "Maria" becomes a hit and in the party
to celebrate it, Ammy brings Hanna's father in an attempt to blow
her cover. Desperate to keep her true identity a secret, Hanna
ignores her father. Jung-min gets furious about her indifferent
behavior. After the party, Sang-jun reveals to Jenny that he
knows her true identity but is now cold and distant. He seems
unable to forgive her for lying to him but says that he will
conduct her concert scheduled the next day. Hanna also confesses
her love for him that made her to do such a thing. She tells Sang-
jun off how difficult it was for her in the last year because he
insulted her at the bathroom on the night of his birthday party
about him using her voice to promote Ammy. Hanna also
mentions she put herself into seclusion at the hospital to heal
from both the weight loss and plastic surgery in order to make
him love her back. After realizing how worthless she was to
Sang-jun even as Jenny, Hanna tearfully refuses to have anything
to do with him and leaves. When she tells the plastic surgeon
about it the next day, he wisely makes Hanna realize that she's
better off without Sang-jun.
Before the concert, Ammy threatens Sang-jun that she will
reveal Jenny's deception if the concert was not cancelled. Even
his father agrees and confronts Sang-jun for the deception after
being sent photos by Ammy. He orders the release of Hanna's X-
Rated CD covers and the discontinuation of the concert, not
wanting to lose money. Sang-jun stands up against her threat and
his father's orders by refusing to cancel it. Sang-jun encourages a
distraught Hanna to do this concert, not for the sake of the fans or
the company but for herself. Before performing, Hanna
apologizes to Jung-min for her earlier behavior. She coldly rejects
her apology, telling Hanna that they can't be friends anymore
after how she's treated her own father. In turn, Hanna stands up
for herself and tells Jung-min off how she truly felt about her
being an unsupportive friend to her even before she got famous.
She admits that her salesman ex-boyfriend was right about one
thing. He knew Jung-min was jealous of Hanna for having a more
natural beauty and singing talent. She leaves Jung-min to her own
thoughts in the bathroom to perform at her concert. At the
concert, Hanna proceeds tearfully to tell the large crowd her
story: that she was a ghost singer to an ungrateful Ammy while
she was overweight, how she went into a year of seclusion to heal
from the changes from the surgery and that she has abandoned
everything that is dear to her, including her former best friend and
father, to get to where she is. Sang-jun plays a tape of the old,
obese Hanna, singing. The crowd, moved by her sincere
confession, responds by chanting "It's okay". Hanna rekindles her
 relationships with her father and best friend. She drops the stage-
name Jenny and re-releases a CD with her own name, Hanna, and
becomes a highly successful music artist. Despite her having
moved on from her crush on him, Sang-jun realizes the very thing
about Hanna that had always drawn him to her was Hanna's
innocence, and continues to promote her. It's implied that Ammy
has faced controversy of her own when the fans were angered in
how she was treating Hanna while overweight and was only using
her for her singing voice to cover up that she is a horrible singer.
In the end, she has faded into obscurity.

During the post credits, Jung-min also asks to get a head-

to-toe plastic surgery from the surgeon.
Interpretative Though this movie is about the transformation of an
Recount overweight girl to a slim beauty, I do not think it is about the
weight problem. It is a reflection of the Korean trend of plastic
surgeries.
It would be interesting to analyze koreans who seem
accepting and willing with plastic surgeries. They're korean has
been taught that the beauty means big eyes, pointed noses like
Westerners. Asian especially korean and Westerners are quite
different in many ways and we need to accept who we are.
I've watched other korean movie about surgery too like
'Gangnam Beauty'. And I can say that actress who plays as a girl
that have done surgery, both in 200 Pounds Beauty or Gangnam
Beauty have similiar artifical face like the nose, the lip and the
eye. Sometimes I feel a bit uncomfortable to watch them because
I can't tell the different between them even when they’re different
person.
Evaluative Overall, I think this movie is interesting, fun to watch and
Summation lighthearted. There are great messages from this movie like not
all of pretty-faced girl is more talented than the ugly girl,etc. And
even this movie is kind of romantic & comedy, but there are
some scenes that can touch your heart too and makes you cry.