''Beautiful'' () is a 2008 South Korean film, and the debut feature of director

Juhn Jai-hong Juhn Jai-hong (; born 1977) is a South Korean film director. He directed ''Beautiful (2008 film), Beautiful'' (2008) and ''Poongsan'' (2011). Career Early life Juhn Jai-hong was born in Seoul, and began receiving vocal lessons in the third gra ...

. The film is based on an original story by

Kim Ki-duk Kim Ki-duk ( ; 20 December 196011 December 2020) was a South Korean film director and screenwriter, noted for his Idiosyncrasy, idiosyncratic Art film, art-house cinematic works. His films have received many distinctions in the festival circuit ...

.Lee, Hyo-won (14 February 2008)
"''Beautiful'' Shows Ugly Side of Beauty"
''

The Korea Times ''The Korea Times'' () is a daily English-language newspaper in South Korea. It is a sister paper of the ''Hankook Ilbo'', a major Korean language, Korean-language daily. It is the oldest active daily English-language newspaper in South Korea. ...

''. Retrieved 2008-12-06.

Plot

Eun-Yeong is a young woman who finds her beauty to be a curse, drawing unwanted attention from all kinds of men and making other women jealous. Nevertheless, she leads a relatively content life until she is raped by one of her stalkers, Seong-min, who then blames Eun-Yeong for the incident, saying, "I did it because you're so beautiful". Traumatized by her attack, Eun-Yeong tries to destroy her beauty, first by attempting to become obese, and when that fails by making herself unattractively thin. When her beauty does start to fade, she becomes alarmed and tries to regain it by wearing gaudy makeup and revealing clothes, her behavior increasingly destructive and unstable. A policeman, Eun-Cheol, watches her downfall with pity and sympathy, but eventually, he too submits to his lustful desires.

Cast

* Cha Soo-yeon as Eun-yeong *

Lee Chun-hee Lee Chun-hee (born February 19, 1979) is a South Korean actor. Career Lee Chun-hee made his acting debut in the movie ''A Good Lawyer's Wife'' in 2003 and has since starred in several big screen roles such as ''The Aggressives (2005 South Kore ...

as Eun-cheol * Choi Moo-sung as Detective Kim * Kim Min-soo as Seong-min * Lee Min as Mi-yeon * Bae Yong-geun as Beauty salon boss * Kim Seon-bin as Working man * Jo Seok-hyeon as Lavatory man * Lee Chang-min as Police station man

Release

''Beautiful'' premiered in the Panorama section of the 58th

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

,Paquet, Darcy (17 July 2008).
"Beautiful wins top prize at Fukuoka"
''Korean Film Council''. Retrieved 2008-12-06. and was given a limited theatrical release in South Korea on February 14, 2008, where it was screened in just five

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

theaters. As of March 31, 2008, it had received a total of 1,478 admissions,"Theatrical Releases in 2008: Box-Office Admission Results"
''Koreanfilm.org''. Retrieved 2008-12-06. and as of April 13, it grossed .
''

Box Office Mojo Box Office Mojo is an American website that tracks box-office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way. The site was founded in 1998 by Brandon Gray, and was bought in 2008 by IMDb, which itself is owned by Amazon. History Brandon Gray ...

''. Retrieved 2008-12-06.

Awards

''Beautiful'' won the Grand Prix at the 2008 Fukuoka Asian Film Festival.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Beautiful (2008 film) 2008 films 2008 drama films South Korean independent films South Korean drama films Sponge Entertainment films 2000s Korean-language films 2008 directorial debut films 2008 independent films 2000s South Korean films Korean-language drama films