200 Pounds Beauty
2009 March 29
So this is pretty different from what other people have been blogging about, but when I heard about this movie, it reminded me of this class.
200 Pounds Beauty is a Korean comedy about an young overweight woman who undergoes full body plastic surgery and ends up a successful pop star. I thought it was sort of interesting, you guys should check it out if you get the chance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NSZO5cpl4 _ Youtube video with english subtitles
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Could you repost the youtube url? It keeps saying that it contains a malformed video id.
Here’s another url (but it has no subtitles): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj4ZGKanyJ4
I, for one, will probably watch this movie, even though it’s the trap we’ve seen with countless Hollywood movies. Unattractive girl becomes attractive, becomes popular, becomes happy along the way.
*side note: I was also pleased to see a lack of negative comments from you-tubers.
Actually Cleo I’ve seen this movie, and that’s not really what happens in it. Throughout the movie she actually realizes that the plastic surgery didn’t make her feel better about herself or help her get what she really wanted from life. Sure, she becomes and wildly sucessful famous pop star, but she actually ends up alienating several people that were always with her before the surgery. One aspect of the movie that really reminds me of this class is that she is convinced that the reason to get the surgery is not vain, but to help her gain confidence in herself once more (“I died yesterday”, she says, about overhearing the man she is in love with call her fat and ugly behind her back). It brings me back to that article so long ago where the researchers interviewed plastic surgeons and their patients, and asked what their motivations for getting, or criteria for giving someone surgery, are; this movie makes it clear by the end that the motives are never just simply what they say they are.
On another note, I wonder if this movie could ever seriously be made by Hollywood? This is a Korean film, and it wasn’t marketed over here (I saw it as a part of an East Asian Film Festival back home). I feel like there have been many movies in America with similar plots, but I wonder whether or not they have the same effect or if the emphasis is instead on the “comedy” in the fact that the singer is fat. (and I also wonder whether Hollywood will ever remake this movie – I wouldn’t be surprise! This movie was wildly popular in Korea. I wonder what a remake would look like over here!)
The link has been updated. And part of the reason I thought it was interesting because I don’t think its a movie that could ever be made in hollywood.
Then I spoke to soon, and am now far more inclined to watch it. Thanks, SarahLeia! >^_^<
I think one of the main problems Hollywood faces in making movies or shows (Ugly Betty, anyone?) like this, is that the comedy lies in the character’s unattractive appearance. It’s nice to hear that there’s a movie that, in fact, discourages such things. I feel like any Hollywood attempt of this movie would involve a popular, attractive actress being “made-up” into a fat, or unattractive person, and then “realizing her full potential.”
I wonder why there’s such a difference in America.
EEEEEEEEE! I didn’t even get very far in the movie when I saw the company that made the movie: REALIES. OMG. MADE OF WIN! (Sorry, allcaps excitement). Seriously. Real lies. Realize. So many different interpretations. (Also the movie was awesome)
On the note of remakes: Revival of Dreamgirls in South Korea.
I think it’s very important to note what kind of technology is “useful” for “fat” girls. If I’m not mistaken, there was a lot of talk about being fat in previous posts. Regarding the comedic value of being flabby, I think it has to do with stretching things a bit in a manner similar to the “what ifs” of the “taking it a step too far”. I think humor is most often used to mock things that make us uncomfortable, and reinforcing things that society wants us to do. (I wonder if there was any comedy in The Handmaid’s Tale’s Gilead?)
Additionally, I find that often fat people whether male or female are seen to be “good matured” or “humorous people” and just generally all around “JOLLY” (Santa and Mrs Claus… who may I point out doesn’t even have a first name). This can be seen in the awesome movie The Hebrew Hammer, which shows our fat jolly Santa getting offed by his skinny, nasty son who hates Chaunnukah (and yes, I know there are several different variants of spelling for that holiday). Also, in the classic Christmas story, Scrooge is SKINNY.
So, be beautiful and bitchy seems to be a constant message. But you’ll be skinny, so no one cares that you’ll be bitchy. 😛 (and that’s enough of off-topicness)