Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
a sweet popcorn film, March 17, 2008
I had no expectations of the film when i started to watch but the young girl who played Hanna was adorable and drew me in to caring what happened to her character. Yes it is a bit cliche and yes the premise of this film has been done several hundred times in different ways but I really liked the film. It has a very sincere message about being liked for who you are on the inside. Its a sweet piece of cinema and I will gladly watch it again on a rainy day when I don't want to think too hard.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifullly You, August 13, 2007
Ive always loved Korean movies - they have a very refreshing theme. This movie is wonderfully good - the best movie Ive watched this year so far!
Its about an overweight girl who had to loose weight just to get the attention - from the person she loves and for her career.
Of course, this fairy tale comedy turns out beautifully as expected, and there were many moments to shed tears where you can really feel for the girl in her journey of accepting herself from both before and after surgery.
With funny moments in between, this movie is a good movie to watch to inspire and be inspired, whether on a good or bad day.
Truly recommended :)
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
ATTENTION all women: Don't like yourself or your body? You can just chop up your body and get silicone!, March 7, 2008
First, I'm going to say that I'm more than a bit disappointed with the underlying themes in the film. It was like a Korean twist of "Shallow Hal," but thoroughly Korean in the sense that the film promotes the idea that overweight people are somehow inherently not as valuable or do not deserve to be loved equally as "others." And it does a piss poor job of trying to salvage a "plastic surgery is BAD, mmm KAY?" message at the very, very end.
Oh, so it doesn't matter if overweight Hanna had the talent of a lifetime: she was overweight. BUT HEY, when she got plastic surgery in Korea, her whole life took a turn for the better, and you know what? It was "okay" to do so because she felt oh so remorseful... and oh yeah she was still beautiful. That part is always nice. Pretty easy to forgive a gorgeous talent as opposed to the real Hanna, an overweight pariah, isn't it?
Look, I liked the film and I'm not going to spend my time writing a thorough review and synopsis. The other reviewers on this board can do that for you. What I AM going to write is this: What kind of message is this film trying to convey?! (ESPECIALLY at the end during the credits! Does this not disturb anyone?)
Sure, the film was funny and light-hearted, and maybe even tugged at the heartstrings at some moments. But the bottom line is that the film is somehow JUSTIFYING plastic surgery and altering who you were naturally made to be in a nation where plastic surgery is already as common as McDonald's. If you don't believe that, ask someone who has lived in Korea or better yet a Korean themselves and they will tell you in far better detail just how common plastic surgery is there.
Let's make one thing clear clear: I am not against a film promoting woman accepting themselves for who they are, coming to grips with their body-image and learning to love themselves. What I AM against is a film promoting the idea that you are somehow unlovable or a reject in society because you are obese, or even somehow "chubby" or "slightly overweight."
And clearly, this is the case in Korea and is only proven more so by this film.
Was the goal of the filmmakers to discourage plastic surgery as a way of "improving your life," or encourage it as another means to "finding your true self and learning to love yourself" (once you're skinny, of course. Before that, you're screwed.)
All I can say is I got one message from this film: If you're somehow overweight, you will never be loved and find true happiness in this life. Sure that may hold some truth in Western society where we seem to have an anorexic standard of beauty, but by and large... is this what we want our daughters and young women to believe?
Woman should love themselves for who they really are, and the film does a poor, poor job in trying to convey this, because in the end if Hanna had become "fat" again... well, that would have been a different story, wouldn't it?
3 Stars because it was a well executed, funny, and enjoyable film. It never dragged, but it didn't sit well with my conscience in the end. And I thought American girls had it bad... man.
And no, I am not obese or overweight.
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