200 Pounds Beauty (Hangul: 미녀는 괴로워; RR: Minyeoneun Goerowo; lit. "Hard to be a beauty") is a 2006 South Korean comedy film based on a Japanese manga, Kanna-san, Daiseikou Desu (カンナさん大成功です!) by Suzuki Yumiko. The story is about an overweight girl who undergoes extreme plastic surgeries to become a pop sensation. The film was a financial success, earning approximately $45 million against its $4 million budget. It was also critically well-received, winning Best Actress for Kim Ah-joong and Best Cinematography for Park Hyeon-cheol at the 2007 Grand Bell Awards, together with nominations for Best Film and Best Director. The film received 6,619,498 admissions nationwide becoming the 3rd highest grossing Korean production of the year. source
Plot
Han-na is an overweight phone sex employee and a ghost singer for Ammy, a famous pop singer who actually lip syncs. 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 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 so that she can live a life, 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. Not even her best friend Jung-min recognizes her. With Jung-min's help, Han-na 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, is afraid of a possible competition with Jenny for album sales and 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 Han-na's father who is in a hospital due to mental problems, possibly Alzheimer's. She hopes that in spending time with him, he can help her find Han-na so she can convince her to come back and help record her 2nd album. While in the bathroom, Ammy gets a call from Sang-jun who tells her that he isn't pleased with her attempts to find her ghost singer so she can finish her postponed 2nd album. He orders Ammy to give up her search for Han-na and give Jenny a chance to help her finish her album. He already had given up searching for Han-na and wants her to do the same. Sang-jun also orders Ammy to focus on memorizing her lines for the upcoming sitcom appearance (that he got her in much to her detest) or she'll lose her job. Disgusted with the reminder of the sitcom appearance and being threatened with losing her job, Ammy tells him that she'll find Han-na because like a dog, she'll come running back to her. Meanwhile, romance begins to blossom between Jenny and Sang-jun, as he continues to promote Jenny, in effect boosting Han-na's confidence in her new self. However after spending time with Han-na's father and Jenny, Ammy eventually realizes that Jenny is actually Han-na in disguise. She begins her attack on Han-na right away in an attempt at revenge for making her postpone the release of her 2nd album.
During a date one night, Jenny refuses Sang-jun's advances, as the surgeon mentions that if he touches her breasts, he will immediately know they are fake. She instead offers a phone sex session. After Jenny has fallen asleep, he sees the African character Jenny had drawn on the glass and realizes that he had seen it before; Han-na had drawn exactly the same signs on a sheet of music. He then realizes as well that Jenny is actually 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 the party however, Ammy brings Han-na's father in an attempt to blow her cover. Han-na's father tries to return Han-na's Barbie doll to her, which had always been Han-na's favorite 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 insisting on giving her the doll, Sang-jun drags him away from Jenny knocks him down onto the floor. Desperate to keep her true identity a secret, Han-na makes no move to help her father. It is Jung-min who finally helps him up, casts Jenny a furious look and leads Han-na's father away from the party.
After the party, Sang-jun and Jenny are 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 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. She tears down the posters and smashes her CDs that are placed on a table and got cut from the CDs. Han-na tells him that it is incredibly frustrating and painful not being able to 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 brushes away his efforts saying, "You broke my heart. Tissue paper cannot fix it." The truth eventually reaches the company boss and he is disappointed with the whole thing after being secretly sent side by side photos of Han-na and Jenny.
During the meeting before the concert, Sang-jun apologizes and takes responsibility for the deception in not telling his boss the truth about Jenny's real identity being Han-na. Despite being warned by the company boss to cancel the concert, he insists on going through with the concert after reminding the boss that he was the one who helped the company. Later, Sang-jun encourages a distraught Han-na 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. He admitted he knew Ammy was behind it and had her fired after what she did to embarrass Han-na. At the concert, Jenny can'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. Han-na proceeds tearfully to tell the large crowd her story: that she was a ghost singer to an ungrateful Ammy while she was overweight, how she went into a year of seclusion to heal from the changes from the surgery and that she has abandoned everything that is dear to her, including her best friend and father, to get to where she is. She also tells the crowd about how on the way to fame and fortune she has also lost her own identity and that she can no longer continue singing under Jenny anymore. Sang-jun plays a tape of the old, obese Han-na, singing. Han-na turns around and sees her old image on the screen 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, Han-na, 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. Even though he was unable to rekindle his relationship with Han-na, Sang-jun continued to promote her.
During the post credits, Jung-min also asks to get a head-to-toe plastic surgery from the surgeon.
Cast
Kim Ah-joong as Kang Han-na / Jenny
Joo Jin-mo as Han Sang-jun
Ji Seo-yoon as Ammy
Kim Hyun-sook as Park Jung-min
Im Hyun-shik as Han-na's father
Sung Dong-il as record company executive
Lee Han-wi as plastic surgeon Lee Kong-hak
Park No-shik as Jenny's fan
Lee Beom-soo as taxi driver (cameo)
Kim Yong-gun as record company CEO (cameo)
Lee Won-jong as fortune teller (cameo)
Ryu Seung-soo as traffic officer (cameo)
OST
200 Pounds Beauty OST
