Day 3 - 200 Pounds of Beauty
First Impressions:
As I write this I am listening to Janet Jackson's Miss You Much. This is the opening song to "200 Pounds of Beauty" where we learn that Hanna is the voice behind Korean pop sensation Ammy. This song alone is worth the price of finding a decent quality version of the movie with English subs. The more I listen to it, the more I realize how much it foreshadows the movie.
The Plot:
Being a foreign rom-com, I feel it's necessary to re-cap the plot for those who might not be into subtitles or grainy DVD rips. Hanna is an overweight (presumably 200 pound) woman who works as a sex phone operator as well as the voice of a pop star known as Ammy. Hanna is a sweet and sensitive woman with a voice that captivates the guy who manages the talent and Hanna's big crush. I can't remember his name but he reminded me of Tuxedo Mask, brooding, always in formal wear, and around when there's danger.
We learn that Hanna regularly visits her father who has dementia and thinks Hanna is her mother and asks why she is 'getting larger by the day'. Hanna has a best friend who tells her there are 3 types of girls: pretty (they are a treasure), average (they are a present), and rejects (Hanna). We also learn that Hanna's one relationship with a salesman was a ploy to make sales and he never really cared about her.
When Tuxedo Mask sends her a dress to wear to a dinner, Hanna is overjoyed, even though her bff finds it unflattering. Nonetheless she wears it, seated to the right of Tuxedo Mask. Ammy shows up in the same dress and sits to the left of him. Later on in the bathroom, Hanna is crying in a bathroom stall overhearing Ammy and Tuxedo Mask discuss how she is unattractive yet talented. Hanna decides to kill herself but is interrupted by a call from one of her sex-line regulars who happens to be a plastic surgeon...
Right. So, Hanna gets head-to-toe surgery and emerges beautiful, slender and unrecognizable. As her surgeon puts it, the only flaw is that it looks too natural. Hanna becomes Jenny and climbs her way up the charts dethroning Ammy along the way. But Hanna/Jenny is so damn sweet that she still slathers Ammy with sunscreen and gives her tips on how to improve at singing.
Hanna/Jenny has all the attention and pardons pretty girls get. She still has her voice and seems to have the attention of Tuxedo Mask who is attracted to her innocent and natural visage. That said, being pretty makes her into an object or a commodity; she is something that can be 'drained'. Post-surgery, a fellow doctor exclaims, 'It's so beautiful'. So even the pretty have problems, albeit different from being ignored or chastised for being too big to pass through a dining area.
Ammy discovers Hanna is Jenny, Finkel is Einhorn! She tries her damndest to reveal that Jenny is not an 'all-natural' beauty but an 'ugly fat girl who had surgery'. Jenny pulls a page from Bey's Lemonade and turns it all around, telling her adoring fans the truth and changes her name back to Hanna, embracing who she was. Her fans answer, 'It's okay!'
At the end, Hanna does not land Tuxedo Mask and is even MORE popular than she was as Jenny.
Personal Reflection:
"Beauty is attitude."
Okay, so there was no wedding. She doesn't get the guy. But there's also no morality play. I was expecting her to go back to being the overweight version of herself instead of merely changing her name, which really just shows how indoctrinated I am by the Western version of the 'love yourself' theme. If you love yourself, then it doesn't matter if you are the original version of yourself or the post-op version. I mean, it doesn't stop vandals from painting "Pig" on her car even though she is now slender, which I didn't quite understand.
I also thought Hanna was really cute. Sure, she was overweight, but I wouldn't say she was ugly, which the characters seemed to throw around synonymously.
This movie is from 2006, a year after "The 40 Year Old Virgin", back when gay and fat jokes were funny. I felt pained watching the three doctors unsuccessfully try to lift her from the paramedic stretcher to the hospital stretcher while the nurses tittered with laughter. How humiliating! My thought was the doctors should really add another 'arm day' to their workout routines.
I wanted her to wind up with the delivery driver whom she helps after he gets in a parkade accident while staring at her, and later stalks her, and then becomes her biggest fan. When Tuxedo Mask tries to educate him (ie. throws him into a chain-link fence) on how Jenny might not like being watched, she steps in and says that Tuxedo Mask shouldn't deprive him from watching from afar because sometimes that's all that someone has. She was, of course, speaking of her own personal crush on Tuxedo Mask.
That's the end? I feel a sequel.
Rom-Com Tropes:
1. Inner beauty is more important than outer beauty.
2. Be true to yourself.
3. Funny and loyal best friend.
Soundtrack:
Koreans know good music.
1. Miss You Much, Hakuna Matata, Ava Maria, Heaven is a Place on Earth.
As I write this I am listening to Janet Jackson's Miss You Much. This is the opening song to "200 Pounds of Beauty" where we learn that Hanna is the voice behind Korean pop sensation Ammy. This song alone is worth the price of finding a decent quality version of the movie with English subs. The more I listen to it, the more I realize how much it foreshadows the movie.
The Plot:
Being a foreign rom-com, I feel it's necessary to re-cap the plot for those who might not be into subtitles or grainy DVD rips. Hanna is an overweight (presumably 200 pound) woman who works as a sex phone operator as well as the voice of a pop star known as Ammy. Hanna is a sweet and sensitive woman with a voice that captivates the guy who manages the talent and Hanna's big crush. I can't remember his name but he reminded me of Tuxedo Mask, brooding, always in formal wear, and around when there's danger.
We learn that Hanna regularly visits her father who has dementia and thinks Hanna is her mother and asks why she is 'getting larger by the day'. Hanna has a best friend who tells her there are 3 types of girls: pretty (they are a treasure), average (they are a present), and rejects (Hanna). We also learn that Hanna's one relationship with a salesman was a ploy to make sales and he never really cared about her.
When Tuxedo Mask sends her a dress to wear to a dinner, Hanna is overjoyed, even though her bff finds it unflattering. Nonetheless she wears it, seated to the right of Tuxedo Mask. Ammy shows up in the same dress and sits to the left of him. Later on in the bathroom, Hanna is crying in a bathroom stall overhearing Ammy and Tuxedo Mask discuss how she is unattractive yet talented. Hanna decides to kill herself but is interrupted by a call from one of her sex-line regulars who happens to be a plastic surgeon...
Right. So, Hanna gets head-to-toe surgery and emerges beautiful, slender and unrecognizable. As her surgeon puts it, the only flaw is that it looks too natural. Hanna becomes Jenny and climbs her way up the charts dethroning Ammy along the way. But Hanna/Jenny is so damn sweet that she still slathers Ammy with sunscreen and gives her tips on how to improve at singing.
Hanna/Jenny has all the attention and pardons pretty girls get. She still has her voice and seems to have the attention of Tuxedo Mask who is attracted to her innocent and natural visage. That said, being pretty makes her into an object or a commodity; she is something that can be 'drained'. Post-surgery, a fellow doctor exclaims, 'It's so beautiful'. So even the pretty have problems, albeit different from being ignored or chastised for being too big to pass through a dining area.
Ammy discovers Hanna is Jenny, Finkel is Einhorn! She tries her damndest to reveal that Jenny is not an 'all-natural' beauty but an 'ugly fat girl who had surgery'. Jenny pulls a page from Bey's Lemonade and turns it all around, telling her adoring fans the truth and changes her name back to Hanna, embracing who she was. Her fans answer, 'It's okay!'
At the end, Hanna does not land Tuxedo Mask and is even MORE popular than she was as Jenny.
Personal Reflection:
"Beauty is attitude."
Okay, so there was no wedding. She doesn't get the guy. But there's also no morality play. I was expecting her to go back to being the overweight version of herself instead of merely changing her name, which really just shows how indoctrinated I am by the Western version of the 'love yourself' theme. If you love yourself, then it doesn't matter if you are the original version of yourself or the post-op version. I mean, it doesn't stop vandals from painting "Pig" on her car even though she is now slender, which I didn't quite understand.
I also thought Hanna was really cute. Sure, she was overweight, but I wouldn't say she was ugly, which the characters seemed to throw around synonymously.
This movie is from 2006, a year after "The 40 Year Old Virgin", back when gay and fat jokes were funny. I felt pained watching the three doctors unsuccessfully try to lift her from the paramedic stretcher to the hospital stretcher while the nurses tittered with laughter. How humiliating! My thought was the doctors should really add another 'arm day' to their workout routines.
I wanted her to wind up with the delivery driver whom she helps after he gets in a parkade accident while staring at her, and later stalks her, and then becomes her biggest fan. When Tuxedo Mask tries to educate him (ie. throws him into a chain-link fence) on how Jenny might not like being watched, she steps in and says that Tuxedo Mask shouldn't deprive him from watching from afar because sometimes that's all that someone has. She was, of course, speaking of her own personal crush on Tuxedo Mask.
That's the end? I feel a sequel.
Rom-Com Tropes:
1. Inner beauty is more important than outer beauty.
2. Be true to yourself.
3. Funny and loyal best friend.
Soundtrack:
Koreans know good music.
1. Miss You Much, Hakuna Matata, Ava Maria, Heaven is a Place on Earth.
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