200 Pounds Beauty (2006)

I had always meant to watch this, but due to work and other things, I always put it off. After a while, and a weekend with nothing to do, I found myself sitting at my computer bored. After looking through my dramalist for a movie to watch, this was at the top of my list. Without much of a thought, I instantly put it on. All I have to say is, I don't regret it.

The actors are amazing and are able to portray their characters well. Even the minor roles do their job extremely well and put loads of emotion and humor in their roles. Joo Jin Mo does a great job portraying Sang Jun, an agent whose first priority is his job rather than his love life. Kim Ah Joong plays the female lead who undergoes surgery to get the one she loves, but in the end, the surgery plays an even greater role in her life and makes her re-evaluate her goals. For their great acting, I gave them a ten. Casting did a magnificent job in choosing the actors and I can't imagine anyone better. Everyone on set had great chemistry.

The music was fantastic. You may recognize Blondie's "Maria", which was done extremely well, and boy, does Kim Ah Joong have lungs! She can sing! The rest of the music is great and may make you want to download onto you're mp3!

Rewatch value is definitely a ten. At first, I was going to put a nine, but the day after I watched this movie, I had to watch it again, just because it's that great. For a movie to do that, it deserves a ten.

Overall, the movie is a 10. Watch this movie, don't regret it, and love every bit of it. If you're looking for a movie with a good message, great music, great script, great directing, and great cinematography, I HIGHLY recommend checking this movie out!

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I avoided this movie as long as it was possible. Although considered and ''older'' movie this was still trending when I started watching Korean dramas and movies in 2015. On first sight, I just found the theme annoying, but the biggest reason for my avoidance was that I was not a particular fan of Joo Jin Mo. But when I finally gave up and decided one night to just get over with it and watch it I was pleasantly surprised. The story was fun, charming, funny at times, with still enough seriousness and learning points included. For me, it was not cheesy at all. I learned to like Jin Mo a bit more, although his character was not particularly likable. The winning point for me was most certainly Kim Ah Joong. Not only is she stunningly beautiful, her acting in this movie was just mesmerizing. Actually, the entire cast was very well chosen. The music was good also, and Ah Joong's singing (if it truly was her singing) was beautiful. This movie is one of my favorite and I will definitely watch it again and again and again. In my opinion, it represents one of those ''classic'' movies that you can rewatch many many times.

Saruman approved!

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Did not disappoint

STORY:
The story was actually very well done! I got into it after seeing a few clips on YouTube. I was expecting to be offended by the body-shaming ideas that the story seemed to give off. However, I was pleasantly surprised.
It's a very sweet story about society, self love, and acceptance.

ACTING:
The cast did a great job! I felt everything that the FL felt, and the ML did a good job at making me like him, dislike, then like him again.

MUSIC:
The music was catchy, well written, and meaningful.

REWATCH VALUE:
I usually watch movies and move on. But I wouldn't mind rewatching this one. It was very satisfying to watch from beginning to end and the charm of it doesn't wear off at all.

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First of all, I have to applaud Kim Ah Joong's excellent acting in this movie. She really played the innocent and sweet Hanna/superstar Jenny really well. I can't say much for the other actors, but Hanna's best friend was really convincing as well. One thing I was disappointed about was the acting of the male lead. I think it's just the role of the male lead in the movie that isn't much of a role, really, besides being the handsome guy Hanna likes, because I watched Empress Ki and his acting was much better in that drama.

Second, this movie made me cry so hard. You'll have to watch it to see what I mean, but I have re-watched this film so many times and that scene always squeezes out a bucketful of tears. Always.

Third, I loved Kim Ah Joong's singing! The OST "Ave Maria" and the song she sang as Jenny for the first time were so amazing. This isn't KPOP STAR so I won't go into details but those songs and the situations in which she sang them complimented her acting and really showed how much her character loved singing. I found myself downloading them after I watched the movie for the first time, and re-listening to them after I re-watched the movie.

As for the story plot, I won't spoil it, but I have to say that this movie really portrayed well the idea of using plastic surgery to remake your life. Plastic surgery is ubiquitous, particularly in Korea, but the topic is still a sensitive one in the Korean entertainment industry. I see that this movie addressed the issue well and I would like to see the entertainment industry accept and be more comfortable with plastic surgery.

I definitely recommend this movie! Watch it or re-watch it ^^

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Summary: this movie had so much potential but totally squandered it.

Seeing that the issue of plastic surgery is the main focus of this movie, it definitely had a lot of potential to explore Hanna's motivations and the consequences of her decision to go under the knife. But the story plays it very safe. I didn't get a clear stance from the movie about undergoing plastic surgery to beautify oneself and I finished the movie feeling pretty confused about what to think about the lead character's transformation. Even her emotional conflicts about undergoing surgery aren't well-explored, and the story tries to explain away these emotional conflicts by some simple crying scenes that don't have much depth or meaning to them.

I found myself liking the old, fat Hanna than the new, sexy Hanna, and that's probably a credit to Kim Ah Joong in her fat suit.

Joo Jin-mo plays well the role of the suave guy who Hanna has a crush on. Yet, and I'm not sure if this is due to poor writing or poor acting, I never get a clear sense of what he thinks of the old Hanna and the new Hanna. There are hints of his opinion towards plastic surgery, and his perception of the old Hanna, but there's no real exploration of how he feels about her transformation.

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Usually, I hate Korean movies but this one is an exception. While most Korean movies have bad story lines, scenes that are supposed to be funny but aren't, or mediocre acting, 200 Pound Beauty is the opposite. I watched this movie with my family, and we all loved it. The acting is great, and I'm very happy with the casting. Although the theme that the movie is based around can be considered in a serious light and there are serious scenes (plastic surgery, pressure to conform to the social norms), the movie is hilarious and I was ROFL'ing throughout the whole movie. There are inappropriate innuendos (which I would normally dislike), but they fit into the story line and just add to the overall hilarity of the movie itself. And the music just makes everything that much more perfect. I found myself singing Ave Maria, Beautiful Girl, and Byul over and over again because the songs were so catchy-and not in a bad way. The overall atmosphere that the movie created put me in a bubbly mood.

There are a couple flaws in the storyline and there are a couple scenes where I thought "whaa-?" or "okay, don't really like this scene", and there were a few actors that didn't really act very well (but they scarcely appeared anyways so it doesn't really matter). Still, this is by far the best South Korean romcom in existence and the only one I'd recommend out of the myriad of Korean movies out there. I have watched this movie 10 times already and I'm still not bored yet.

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A Predictable and Unoriginal Delivery of an Otherwise Positive Message

I won't say this movie was abhorrent, as it wasn't, but it was very disappointing for me. Even if it did deliver the positive message of being confident in your own body and staying true to yourself, the actual plot was just entirely too predictable. Every cliché that could happen in this type of movie did happen, which not only made me lose respect for the main character but also the movie itself. Any idea or moral that it tried to convey was undermined by an uninteresting plot. Unfortunately, it couldn't be salvaged by the romance either, as I felt almost no chemistry from the male lead. I am glad they managed to avoid vilifying plastic surgery (especially with the unrealistic beauty standards of the modern world), but there was a bit of fat-shaming in the form of slapstick comedy. Not a lot, but just enough to further diminish the power of the main message. Also, I won't say too much about the ending but it felt very sudden and a little unrealistic. This was a short review as I really don't have a lot to say, but I suppose I'll say this: For a movie from 2006, I can applaud how it's managed to stay mostly inoffensive until now among a veritable minefield of potential discretions, and maybe this plot concept was a bit more fresh back then. But viewing it now, the movie is entirely too predictable and uninteresting to be saved by an occasionally endearing performance from the lead actress. With that, I will recommend against watching this movie.

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