200 Pounds Beauty

Background:
Me and Ginnie had been strolling around in SM Manila whenever our 3 hours vacant hit our time. It's our routine for this semester, maybe it's because we're irregular, we do experience this sched more often. Funny to think that we've been spending our money too much in food. lol. Country Style~ French Baker~ Joey Pepperoni~ Roast House~ etc.

And so, Last Wednesday, our professor in Control Systems dismissed us early. We decided to have our dinner, again, in SM Manila (advertisement lol). Oh well, we wanted something new for our taste buds, that's why we went in a fast food chain for us to choose variety of foods. I told her that we should take sea-foods coz our stomach is populated with pork. lmao. Then we dropped off in McDonald's for dessert.

After a long conversation, we heard Boy bands songs playing on the track and Ginnie asked me to take a peak in Music Bar. Sort of genres we've been looking in each shelf discussing reviews. OPM Section. Pop. Rock. Country. Then we glanced at the Movie Section... Local and Foreign Films.... blah blah..

Oops! Something caught my attention before we went off. It was the "200 Pounds Beauty" that started to hunger my curiosity because of the cover.

Ok. Before I start my review, let my eyes finished crying. Hell Yeah. I'm in the moment of truth while making this entry.

__________________________________________________________________

Here's the Plot of the Story which I googled it and copied at Wiki.

Kang Han-na is an overweight phone sex employee and a secret vocalist for Ammy, a famous Korean pop singer who actually lip syncs as she cannot sing. Instead of being famous for her own amazing vocal talent, Han-na hides behind Ammy's performance stage and sings during Ammy's concerts, and records all of Ammy's songs. One day, Ammy ungratefully humiliates her in front of the music company's director Sang-jun during his birthday party, knowing full well that Han-na has a crush on him. While crying in the bathroom, Han-na overhears Sang-jun telling Ammy that even though they are just using Han-na for her voice, they must be kind to her so she will not walk out on them.

Heartbroken, Han-na attempts suicide but is interrupted by a phone call from one of her phone sex regulars who happens to be a top plastic surgeon. She decides to get a head-to-toe plastic surgery instead. The surgeon at first refuses to operate on Han-na, but Han-na threatens to blackmail the surgeon by telling his wife about his calls. Then, Han-na makes a moving speech that she does not want to undergo surgery merely to be beautiful, but for the sake of love and as a boost in confidence, and the surgeon is deeply moved. Han-na puts herself in seclusion for a year as she recovers from the changes.

When she comes back from the hospital, Han-na is incredibly beautiful and slender. No one, not even her best friend, Chung-min, recognizes her. With Chung-min's help, she creates a new identity for herself; she is now a Korean-American from California named Jenny. After auditioning to be Ammy's secret vocalist again, she earns her own recording contract instead from Sang-jun, claiming that she is "all-natural". In the meantime, Ammy, oblivious just like everyone else of Han-na's new identity, desperately tries to find Han-na so that she can record her own postponed album (since she cannot sing the songs herself) by spending time with Hanna's father who is in a hospital with some mental problems, possibly Alzheimer's. Meanwhile, romance begins to blossom between "Jenny" and Sang-Jun, as he continues to promote Jenny, in effect boosting Hanna's confidence on her new self. However, Ammy, through spending time with Han-na's father and Jenny, eventually realizes that this Jenny is actually Han-na in disguise.

During a date one night, as sparks fly, Jenny supposedly stripped for Sang-Jun in the character of a nurse, through a phone sex session. After Jenny has fallen asleep, he sees the African character Jenny had drawn on the glass and realizes it was a sign he had seen before. He remembers that when Han-na still existed and he had not met "Jenny" yet, Han-na had drawn the exact same signs on a sheet of music. Then he adds all of the signs up and realizes as well that "Jenny" is actually Kang Han-na but he keeps this information to himself.

"Jenny's" debut single 'Maria' becomes a hit and the recording company holds a party to celebrate its release. On the day of a party however, Ammy brings "Jenny's" father, in an attempt to blow Han-na's cover. Han-na's father tries to return Han-na's Barbie doll to her, which has always been Han-na's favourite childhood gift from him. Startled by the sudden appearance of her father and not knowing how to react in front of all the people, including Sang-jun, Han-na denies knowing her father and calls him a fan instead when Sang-jun asks her if the old man is her guest. As her father keeps on insisting on giving the doll to Han-na, Sang-jun drags him away from Jenny and accidentally knocks him down onto the floor. Desperate to keep her true identity a secret, Han-na made no move to help her father. It was Chung-min who finally helps him up, casts Jenny a furious look and leads Hanna's father away from the party.

After the party, Sang-jun and 'Jenny' were the only ones left in the room. Sang-jun reveals to 'Jenny' that he knows her true identity but is now cold and distant. He seems to be unable to forgive her for lying to him but says that he will still work to promote 'Jenny' and carry on with her concert scheduled the next day. Han-na breaks down at this point, heartbroken and unable to pretend to be someone else anymore. Han-na tells him that it is incredibly frustrating and painful not being able to be just be herself but have to live a lie, especially in front of him. The surgery that took a whole year to recover from was not nearly as painful as realizing that she still could not be close to Sang-jun. As Sang-jun tries to comfort her, she brushed away his efforts saying, "You broke my heart. Tissue paper cannot fix it."

The day of "Jenny's" first concert, Sang-jun still insisted on continuing Jenny's concert, despite his father's protests. Later, he encourages a distraught Jenny to do this concert, not for the sake of the fans or the company but for herself, thus implying that he has forgiven her and will continue to support her. At the concert, Jenny couldn't sing and later breaks down from the pressure of seeing her father being dragged away by security and tells everybody to stop. She then reveals to the public that Jenny is a "fake," and that she is not "all-natural", as she had claimed, but is "plastic". However, nobody seems to believe her. She proceeds tearfully to tell the large crowd her story: how she has abandoned everything that is dear to her - her best friend and father - to get to where she is. She also tells the crowd about how along the way to fame and fortune she has also lost her own identity and that she now no longer knows who she is. Just then, the screens behind her on the stage started to show a clip of the old, obese Han-na, singing angelically. Han-na turns around and sees her old image and tells the crowd that the image is the real her. The crowd, moved by her sincere confession, responds by chanting "It's okay," and Han-na rekindles her relationships with her father and best friend. She drops the stage name "Jenny" and re-releases a CD with her own name, Hanna, and becomes a highly successful music artist, gaining many fans and anti-fans along the way. Sang-jun realizes the very thing about Han-na that had always drawn him to her was Han-na's innocence. However he also realizes that she has moved on and is now content with who she is.

__________________________________________________________________

My Movie Review:

Ok, here we go. For me, this is one of the BEST Korean Movie I'd ever watched. It simply reflects some part of my life and I'd be giving a few different reasons why 200 Pounds Beauty attract me.

First on my list is ...because I'm almost on my way to Han-na's foot steps. I mean, not totally always being ignored but (sometimes) because of my figure. I'm also suffering from having extremely poor self-esteem. I knew some of my friends treated me differently than that of sexy girls.

Yeah. I can really relate to the story especially at the scene that a delivery man had been stalking her and capturing video. Instead of getting mad to the folk, Han-na even protected the guy against Sang-jun. Let me quote the line:

"Give him a break. He did it out of liking me.
What's the big deal?
What's a person to do when all they can do is watch from afar?"

"Do you have any idea what it feels like...
not being able to confess one's love?"

As a die hard fan, he'd been doing it just only for himself. He got no intention of ruining Han-nah's image as well. So what's the big deal of liking someone? Yet, all they can do is to watch from afar and imagine impossible into reality. --- This part also made me cry. I have nothing to do but to dream.

Second is.. the film ingeniously touched my heart and mind, but doesn’t forget to made me laugh. Full of lessons- thoughts -words of wisdom and quotations. I love it ♥ The film is a bit sad but I think people can still understand and sympathize with Han-nah's situation or mine as well. LOL.

Sometimes, I loose my hope. Cry. Frequently getting depressed and had the feeling of rejection. Oh! I remember, Chung-min says..
"There are 3 kinds of woman: a Treasure. a Winner. and you.. a Rejection."

Acknowledgment:
I really want to thank Ginnie for giving me some overview about the film before I watched it ♥
For the people who watched this.

I strongly recommend readers of my blog to watch this. I bet you will cry, if you do. lol.
I'm gonna rate this 200/100. Hahahaha!~

That's all for today :)