200 Pounds Beauty

200 Pounds Beauty

Summary

Hanna is an overweight ghost singer for Pop artist, Amy. Sweet and talented Hanna always did her job with love and enthusiasm; singing is her passion. One night, Hanna is bullied by Amy and over hears their manager, (Sang Jun) saying hurtful words about her appearance. Having had a secret crush on him, Hanna's world is shattered by his words and attempts suicide.  Before she can kill herself, she is stopped by an epiphany that all of her problems are with her physical looks. Thus, she pursues a total body transformation through exercise and plastic surgery. During her extensive makeover, she disappears from work and home, leaving Amy and their manager without any hope to schedule singing performances. After unveiling a new and  (by most social standards) improved look, and with the help of her closest friend (Jeong Min), Hanna auditions to sing for Amy as, Jenny. Upon hearing her sing, Sang Jun decides to debut Jenny as a pop singer and market her as an all “natural beauty”. 

BeKa's commentary

Early on in my friendship with Bex, she loaned me this DVD. (Totally caught me by surprise, because she said if I liked it I could keep it. Who does that?!) I was wary of giving it a try because I wasn't a big fan of the Hallyu wave, but she seemed really excited about it so I thought, "I'll give this a try!" Much to my delight, I loved the movie. I laughed, I cried, I felt like eating a tub of ice cream. In short, I felt a lot of feelings.

As someone who has struggled with weight management issues, I could relate to Hannah on an emotional level. How often have you (or rather, I) felt that I had something to offer - whether it's a talent, personality, a particular skill set, or something else - but felt hindered by your size. I've had jobs that I was miserable doing (despite fantastic pay) because I wasn't a waif. The other girls would pick on me for being "unfashionable." (Note: The other girls dressed similarly to or worse than me, but because they were thin it was considered OK.) That saying, "Hell is other people"? It's true.

Although some might not agree with Hannah's reasons for seeking out plastic surgery, it kept her going when she felt she was unable to carry on with life and actually made her a bit happier. Although having surgery isn't a miracle cure for life, it gave her the push in the right direction to start bettering herself (emotionally and otherwise.) She does still need to work on herself and we see her begin that transformation post-surgery. She learns the importance of honesty and begins to appreciate the relationships she had with the people around her.

I would absolutely recommend this movie to a friend, and maybe even buy it for them! ;) 

Bex's Commentary

My aunt was and still is, riding the K-wave when she  recommended this movie to my cousin and I. We LOVED it and both ended up buying ourselves a copy on Ebay. The songs are catchy, some of them are obviously covers of other artists like, Belinda Carlisle “Heaven is a Place on Earth”, Ben E. King “Stand By Me”, and Janet Jackson “Miss You Much”. I really enjoyed the ballad, “Byul (Star)”.

I’d recommend this to anyone who likes cute/funny movies and fluffy little white dogs that play dead when you say, “Bang!”.  (Soooo cute!)

Audio is in Korean, unless you somehow manage to buy a Chinese produced version, then of course you’ll have Chinese dubbing and really poor quality English subs.

If you liked this movie, you may want to try:

"My Mighty Princess"

"My Boyfriend is Type B"

If you want Drama series recommendations let me know, I’ve seen quite a few.