Does one person really looks on the outside? Our lead here is Kang Hanna (played by Kim Ah-joong). She's a plus sized part time phone sex call center agent and ghost singer for a popular singer Ammy (played by Ji Seo-yun). She's got a huge crush on director Han Sang-jun (played by Joo Jin-mo) and she tries her best to be noticed. But then there was an instance that she overhears a conversation between Ammy and Sang-jun that she was just being used for her voice and this hurt Hanna so much. She decided to end her life that night but was pre-empted by a call from her phone sex regulars who happened to be a famous plastic surgeon. She begged him to transform her from weight loss and plastic surgery operations on her whole body.
She went on a one year hiatus without telling anyone that she would be undergoing such an arduous procedure. Ammy and Sang-jun were trying to find her as The former's career is on the line without her but to no avail.
A year past and when we see Hanna again, she turned into a slender and incredibly beautiful woman. Even her best friend Park Jung-min (played by Kim Hyun-sook), a back up singer, didn't even recognize her. Hanna wants to go back to her previous work as Ammy's ghost singer and with Jung-min's help, she auditions as Jenny in front of Sang-jun and Ammy. Impressed with her singing, instead of being hired as a ghost singer for Ammy, she was awarded a contract.
Jenny's first single "Maria" became a hit and they were having celebrations when Ammy bring's Hanna's (Jenny) father into the party. To keep her new identity as Jenny, she ignores her father much to the disgust of her best friend Jung-min. Even with her secret, Sang-jun was still able to discover that she really is Hanna. He tells her that they will still use her new identity Jenny and will still continue with her planned big concert.
With Ammy's doing, she tries her best to prevent Jenny's concert from happening. Even threatening to divulge her secret to the public and the music company executives were scared with the scandal it would create. Sang-jun would have none of it and still wants to push with the concert.
During her opening act, Jenny's father went in front of the stage and started dancing with her. A few security personnel accosted her father and she stopped singing. What happened thereafter was a big revelation of sorts. She confessed in front of the crowd that she isn't Jenny but is Kang Hanna, a plus sized ghost singer and she revealed that with the new identity, she couldn't remember who Hanna was. With Sang-jun's help, he played Hanna's old singing videos on the big screen. Her fans moved by her confession accepts who she was and began chanting "its okay".
The following day "Jenny" was a has been, with records and posters being pulled out from stores. But Hanna was a big hit, and she became a famous singer. All her Jenny records and posters were replaced by Hanna and her fans loved her.
From the title itself, you will immediately have an idea of how the story will be told. A plus sized girl falling in love with a handsome guy, then thinking that she won't be noticed, tries her best to slim down and undergo the knife to be beautiful. She thinks the guy is superficial and would only go with beautiful women. So expect a lot of situations that will show her oversized figure and what happens after the transformation.
Having said that, we did not anticipate how the story would be told beautifully and cleanly. Character development even with mostly comedic rendition would endear to us and hold us to an emotional state in the end. What we thought was a predictable story line gave us some roller coaster rides midway and a big drop was shown near the end. That drop gave us tears in our eyes as we felt Hanna's pain and vindication.
Kim Ah-joong really was the driving force in the movie and thank god she was spectacular here. She gave us a performance that would endear us for a long time. Joo Jin-mo played second fiddle here and he gave a decent acting for us. Wasn't the same level as Ah-joong, but it wasn't bad either. He gave us a smoldering presence that we can feel him from start to finish. A great support to our Ah-joong.
Another thing we liked with the movie was the presence of a lot of celebrities who did cameos along the way. We have Lee Beom-soo as a taxi driver, Kim Yong-gun as the company CEO, Lee Won-jong as a fortune teller, Ryu Seung-soo as a traffic officer.
To add credence to the movie, this one got lots of awards not only for Ah-joong but for the rest of the production. To kick you more in the butt, Ah-joong sang most of the songs here. Really, she sang 5 out of 11 from the movie soundtrack. This girl can sing.
So better watch this movie and add this in your playlist. Currently showing in Youtube, simply click on the thumbnail below.
