200 Pounds Beauty: Movie
This was a very interesting movie. Let it be known that Korean movies, especially dramas, have lots to say. Anyone expects this movie to be your typical “inside beauty vs outside beauty” message, but it goes a bit farther. I’ll explain with a brief synopsis.
Hanna is overweight and unattractive. Everyone around her is repulsed by her appearance, but everyone acknowledges her beautiful voice. She has two jobs: One is as a phone sex operator and the other is as a ghost singer for pretty and skinny pop star, Ammy. After a humiliating dinner, she overhears Sang-jun, her producer and crush, tell Ammy that they are just using her and he only treats her nice so she won’t leave the company. That devastating news makes her seek the services of a plastic surgeon.
She gets remade from head to toe and reinvents herself as a beautiful and skinny singer from California named Jenny. When she resurfaces a year after disappearing for surgery, she becomes very successful and pushes away the only people who love her by getting too caught up in her new self. Eventually though, Ammy and Sang-jun find out the truth. She is devastated when he pushes her away due to her deception and tells her she was always special because of her innocence. She confesses to the world who she is and releases her album as herself. She gets plenty of fans and “anti-fans.”
So long story short, the message of the movie is that your image of yourself is what’s most important. Her reason for getting plastic surgery wasn’t just to become beautiful or have life easier. She wanted a boost in self-confidence and the ability to live life without fear. It is a very interesting viewpoint of the inside of the mind of a person who gets cosmetic surgery.
Some people are tortured souls trapped inside of their own bodies. Sometimes a person can only be who they are destined to be if they have sufficient confidence. Sometimes the only way they can get that confidence is from changing the way people look at them on the outside. As a black man with long locs who has been rejected for jobs because of my appearance, I can definitely relate.
Jonathan Thomas Jones is a speculative fiction author and founder of geekhavenreviews.com. He has been passionate about all things geek for his entire life. See more about him at jonathanthomasjones.com and follow him on twitter @jtgloryjones.
