"I'm doing this so I can live a life. Not to satisfy my vanity."

Han-na is a really sweet young woman with a beautiful voice. Too bad nobody appreciates her because she's overweight. She secretly sings for Ammy, a huge pop star, and fulfills men's fantasies through a phone-sex job. She has to put up with a lot of shit, and after Ammy humiliates her in front of the man she loves she decides to have full-body plastic surgery so she can live her life. She becomes Jenny, the American/Korean superstar!

Dammit dammit dammit dammit dammit! I did not want to like this movie. I repeat, I did not want to like this movie. Why did I even watch it? It sounded very much like a "Let's make fun of overweight people!" movie and that pissed me off. But I caved (it was the part about her having a phone-sex job that did it) and watched the damn movie. I watched it, and I liked it. Wait... what?! Oh god! Surely that's a mistake. I mean... I didn't get emotionally involved, right? No tears shed here! *hides her snot covered shirt* The movie was so cliché, so predictable, and it had such an insulting premise. How could I like it? I don't know but I did! I laughed, I cried, I got giddy, and I liked it.

Whew! Glad I got that off my chest. I have a big hatred for romantic comedies, but there is something about Korean romantic comedies that just get me! 200 Pounds Beauty has such a stereotypical ugly girl turned pretty plot. There are plenty of movies like this, and none of them have affected me like this movie has. Maybe it was the directing, or just the fact that Ah-jung Kim (Han-na) is awesome, but I loved this damn movie.

Whether fat or skinny, Han-na is adorable. It killed me when everyone would make fun of her and treat her like shit, especially since she is so sweet. The birthday party scene just tore me up. Luckily her personality doesn't change much after the plastic surgery. She is still goofy as hell and adorable. I wished she never did get the plastic surgery, but watching her reactions to being "beautiful" cracked me up. Just seeing her joy made me feel happy for her. I do wish there are more scenes with the overweight Han-na, because it's very easy to see the overweight Han-na and the skinny Han-na as separate people. Especially since the overweight Han-na was so odd looking.

Han-na went through a lot of crap due to her weight. I was really sad she decided to go through with the plastic surgery, but if I had experienced everything she experienced every day and actually had the opportunity to fix myself... I can see me going for it. Even though people in the movie overreacted to her beauty, it is sad that in real life she would still go farther in the music business as "Jenny" than as Han-na. They are the same person with the same personality, but everyone would like "Jenny" much more and that is really depressing. It did make me feel better that Sang-jun (her love) had strong feelings for the overweight Han-na. Even if it wasn't love (sadly...) he still knew she was special, and treated her like a human being. He certainly didn't treat Ammy as a human being... which kinda bugged me even though I didn't like her. I loved it when he put her in her place, but at the same time I didn't like how harsh he was to her.

There were things that annoyed me. The international english name to this movie is 200 Pounds Beauty, but of what I looked up the literal translation to Mi-nyeo-neun Gwae-ro-wo is "Being Beautiful is Agonizing" which makes me hate the international english name more. Why 200 lbs.? 200 lbs. is not as large as they are implying and the fat suit Ah-jung Kim wore made her look abnormally overweight. She didn't look anything like a normal person that size would look. The fat jokes were too far-fetched, I mean really, three men can't pick her up? I call bullshit on that one. Putting the fat jokes aside (there were much less than expected) the comedy in 200 Pounds Beauty is great. Everything was timed perfectly, even the drama. When I wasn't laughing my ass off I was holding back tears, or in some cases I was crying and laughing at the same time. This is what I love about Korean comedies.

The main complaint I hear about 200 Pounds Beauty that is that it is hypocritical. It is supposed to be a commentary on the plastic surgery trend in Korea and has the "you're beautiful no matter what you look like" theme but all this good stuff is happening to Han-na because she became beautiful. Which voids the moral of the story... since she does much better being beautiful. That's only one way of thinking about it and you can take the moral different ways. No matter what I thought about the hypocrisy of it all, I still enjoyed the hell out of the movie.

I love love love all of the actors in 200 Pounds Beauty. Ah-jung Kim (Han-na) sold the movie for me. She is amazing to watch and dove right into her character, becoming Han-na/Jenny. I loved every moment with her. Her expressions from becoming "pretty" made me feel all giddy. I enjoyed every single moment of her. Jin-mo Ju (Sang-jun) was perfect in his role. Somehow he pulled off a bastard and a nice caring guy all at the same time. Seo Yoom (Ammy), if that is her name... couldn't find much info about her, was a whiny little biatch. And that's why I liked her, she was great as Ammy.

The soundtrack of 200 Pounds Beauty fits the movie perfectly. Most of the songs in the movie are English cover songs. Blondie's "Maria", Janet Jackson's "Miss You Much", and the famous "Stand by Me". I suprisingly liked all the songs except maybe "Miss You Much", but I didn't like the original. Anytime I hear "Maria" or "Beautiful Girl" I get them stuck in my head for DAYS. I still randomly sing them in my head while showering.

I never thought I would say this, but I loved this movie. Sure it's a bit hypocritical and very cliché, but it was still a lot of fun to watch. It has a very predictable plot, but at the same time it stands on it's own. Besides the fat jokes the comedy is excellent and I was crying like a little baby at the end. Maybe this is just my guilty pleasure... I don't know. I just know how it made me feel, and it made me feel like a damn giddy emotional teenage girl. Dammit!

What I liked: Ah-jung Kim; the phone sex job; Han-na's goofy noises; the way Han-na convinces the plastic surgeon to work on her; Han-na's father and his butt grabs (he was too adorable); "I even cry pretty!"; overweight Han-na dances so cute while she's singing; skinny Han-na's awkward happy walk in public; all the awkward goofy things skinny Han-na would do; hell, anything Ah-jung Kim did.

What I didn't like: Even though it was not supposed to feel good, Han-na's humiliation scenes just killed me; very stereotypical and predictable plot; the fat jokes; 200 Pounds Beauty as the international English title?! Why is Pounds plural, why?! I hate the name so much.

What I've learned: Plastic surgery isn't good, but if you get it and feel bad about it then it's ok!; "MARIAAAAAAA, AVE MARIAAAAAA, somethingsomethingsomethingsomethingsomething, MARIAAAAAA, AVE MARIAAAAA" will never leave my head!; I've regressed into a giddy emotional teenage girl; A father grabbing his daughter's ass can actually be hilarious!

200 Pounds Beauty is available to buy at the following vendors: