SYNOPSIS:
Hanna is the ghost singer for famous Korean pop idol
Ammy. But in real life, she is made fun of because of her
weight and appearance. When Ammy's malicious jokes leaves
Hanna humiliated and heartbroken, she makes a drastic decision
to undergo full-body plastic surgery, thereby changing her
life forever...
MOVIE REVIEW:
Ever heard of the ugly duckling turning into a beautiful swan?
Well,
that’s basically the premise of this Korean-comedy hit
“200 Pounds Beauty”. Hanna (Kim A-Joong) is an
overweight ghost singer of a famous idol named Ammy. Her dream-lover
is none other than the charismatic, handsome music producer
(played by Joo Jin-Mo) of the latter. After suffering through
a few embarrassing, humiliating jokes by Ammy, Hanna decides
to go for a massive (pardon the pun) overhaul at the cosmetic
surgeon to begin a new phase in her life.
With
any light-heartened comedies these days, the plot can’t
really do without issues dealing with kinship, friendship
and romance. But director Kim Yong-Hwa (who did another comedy
hit called “Oh Brothers” in 2003) makes it so
easy for audience to sympathies with the character Hanna and
fall in love with her along the way.
Hanna
is fat, her dad is holed up in a mental hospital and men are
out to cheat her money because of her vulnerability. Yes,
she is imperfect and yes, she still dreams of having a true
love. She’s just like the common you and me on the streets.
A character which almost everyone can relate to.
Perhaps
the biggest credit has to go to Kim A-Joong, despite not being
a A-lister in her homeland yet, her performance is the soul
of “200 Pounds Beauty”.
For
the first 30 minutes of the movie, Kim has to endure donning
the fat suit (like what Sammi Cheng did for “Love on
a Diet”) but her adorable, child-like facial expressions
never fails to lighten up her performance throughout.
And
for the record, her vocal in the movie is hers as she has
to undergo months of training prior to filming.
Get
this dvd and you can easily see why “200 Pounds Beauty”
is the biggest Korean hit comedy in Singapore. It’s
an easy digestible movie about you and me and the man on the
streets.
SPECIAL
FEATURES:
This Code 3 DVD contains the trailer and the teaser, TV spots
and a photo gallery for you to admire the nicely-taken photo
stills. A short 4 minutes featurette which is more like an
introduction to the movie. And also a music video if you still
can't enough of the theme song.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
A
nice clean transfer but it's a pity the dvd only comes with
Dolby 2.0, might be a bit inadequate for the bombastic concert
scenes. The disc comes equipped with English and Chinese subtitles
with the original Korea audio track and a dubbed Mandarin
track.
MOVIE RATING:
 
DVD
RATING:
Review
by Linus Tee
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