Recently, I watched the Korean movie, 200 Pounds Beauty. The story focuses on Hanna, an obese, ugly woman, who is frustrated and demoralized about her life. She has a beautiful voice and is secretly the actual voice behind a popular Korean singer. However, her looks humiliate her and keep her from ever gaining celebrity herself. So, she decides to undergo full-body plastic surgery. A year later, she reappears as 'Jenny,' a beautiful, slim and 'natural' beauty. Suddenly, her life is perfect - she receives kindness and help from strangers, is on her way to becoming a popular new star and the man she was in love with returns her feelings.
Too bad, while Hanna is morbidly obese by Korean standards, she's actually...not that abnormal by American ones.
The plot of this movie is so...Korean. Sure, overweight, unattractive people being treated poorly, and the make-over story that often accompanies it are common themes everywhere - Sabrina, Clueless, Shallow Hal, and on and on. But, there are very few countries that would use plastic surgery as the make-over device. The movie's ending tries to point out the negatives of what Hanna has done, but she still reaps the rewards from it. Ultimately, the movie still tacitly approves of plastic surgery.
How can we not feel a little better about plastic surgery after staring at Kim A-Jung's pretty, pretty face for 90 minutes?
But actually, that moral debate doesn't interest me very much. I just thought it was an interesting look into the attitude of Koreans toward plastic surgery.
The line echoed throughout the film is "It's okay, as long as it's not my girl." During the film, Hanna and her best friend discuss how all men feel the same - they could understand why some women would get it done, but couldn't accept it in the person they were dating. Yet, obviously, this is not reality, considering that 76% of Korean women in their 20s and 30s have had cosmetic surgery (from Ask a Korean!).
Maybe the reality is that Korean men and women have an unspoken agreement. Men will gloss over the plastic surgery and women will gloss over the sleeping with prostitutes.
(Prostitution is sadly, extremely common here. Wikipedia tells me it is estimated to be a $13 billion dollar industry...and that doesn't sound surprising at all...).
Oh, Jon Hamm, you're so dreamy.
I'm also reminded of the 30 Rock episode "The Bubble." Jon Hamm guest stars as Liz's boyfriend, who is so attractive that the world just bends to his needs. This is mirrored in 200 Pounds Beauty. While Hanna is treated poorly, Jenny's life is perfect. She rear-ends a taxi and the the cab driver starts apologizing. A policeman gets involved and immediately offers to set her up with a good mechanic. The attractiveness bubble fixes all of her problems.
I hear some foreign guys talk about this, too. Essentially, they say, being in Korea is like being a hot girl. Or, what they seem to imagine life is like for hot girls - People want to help you, things work out for you, life is just...easier. I believe people who are more attractive are probably treated better but I feel skeptical of such significant differences. If this were really true, there wouldn't be so many beautiful waitresses in Los Angeles.
Men may want to think that hot girls are treated better, and they are now enjoying an 'only fair' reversal of fortune. But this seems like crap to me. I don't think attractiveness is that much of a factor - the important thing is knowing how to use what you have.
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