Korean Title: Arumdapda
Starring: Cha Su-Yeon, Lee Chun-Hee
Director: Jeon Jae-Hong
Studio: Premier Entertainment (Korea)
Rating: 18 +
Genre: Drama

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About This DVD

 "Beautiful", the feature debut by director Jeon Jae-hong, has won the Grand Prix at the 2008 Fukuoka Asian Film Festival. The story of a woman who becomes the object of men's obsessions and abuse due to her beauty, the film was based on a screenplay by Kim Ki-duk. JEON worked as an assistant director on KIM's films "Time" (2006) and "Breath" (2007).

The Fukuoka Asian Film Festival, which ran from July 4-13, has a history of awarding Korean films. Notably, in 2002 Kim Ki-duk's "Bad Guy" also won the event's Grand Prix. "Beautiful" first premiered in the Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival. It is distributed and sold internationally by Sponge Films.

While aesthetic standards vary over time, the desire for beauty and the power of its allure remain unchanged. Countless tales and myths across cultures speak about it, and director Jeon Jae-hong continues this tradition in his feature film debut, "Beautiful". He explores the dark side of this age-old human obsession in a haunting tale about how a woman's enrapturing beauty results in her downfall. "Beautiful" is based on an original story by distinguished director/producer Kim Ki-duk. The film reads like a stark fairytale for adults that is deeply rooted in reality. It takes flight with human desires and fantasies but keeps its feet on the ground with social messages.

The film is ridden with criticism of how rape victims are undermined and offers a disturbing glimpse into eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia nervosa. But it remains highly allegorical; characters are figurative symbols of human values and conditions.Eun-yeong is a beautiful young woman, but like Snow White or Sleeping Beauty, her looks are more of a hindrance than a blessing. Men stalk her and women are jealous.She is both ordinary woman/goddess, femme fatale/fairytale princess, but above all, a personification of beauty. This is heightened by the fact that actress Cha Soo-yeon ("For Eternal Hearts", 2007), while very pretty, doesn't exactly conform to contemporary standards of beauty in contemporary Korean society. Then there is the beauty's antithesis, a girl friend that painfully struggles by getting a second nose job and expensive haircuts.

But all in all, Eun-yeong leads a relatively content life and values her charms until one of her stalkers rapes her. "I did it because you are so beautiful", he tells her. "But you're worse , you've raped my heart". Traumatized, Eun-yeong curses her looks, and tries to destroy them. Determined to become obese, she starts overeating, but when that fails, she decides to become unattractively thin. So instead of eating "cocktails" with chunks of butter and ice cream with a dash of mayonnaise, she takes diet pills, forces herself to vomit and jogs until she faints.

"Beautiful" makes a point about the sometime grotesque lust for beauty. Also, the film slaps you in the face with it, leaving you dumbfounded by the horrors of sexual violence while ruminating the elusive nature of beauty how it cannot be possessed or abandoned.

A miserable girl because of her irresistible beauty.. Is her beauty the Blessing? Or the Curse? There is a girl, Eun-young, who is not happy for her breathtaking beauty. She gets lonely and exhausted from the stares from men and jealousies from women. One day, she gets raped by one of her stalkers, Sung-min and hears the terrible words from him. I did it just because you are so beautiful. She believes that she was raped because of her cruel beauty and starts to kill her beautiful looks. And there is one guy who runs after her?

Audio Format:	DD 5.1 Surround, DD 2.0 Stereo
Video Format:	Widescreen 1.85:1 (Anamorphic)
Languages:	Korean
Subtitles:	English, Korean
Country Made:	Korea
Region Code:	3
Year Made:	2008
Running Time:	88
Special Features:	- Commentary - Director's Short Film "Calling You" - Interviews (2) - Deleted Scenes - Poster Shootings - Trailer - Behind Film Festival

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