Beauty Water

Discovered during the Gérardmer festival, Beauty water directed by Cho Kyung-hun on a screenplay by Jeon Byung-jin shows that Korean cinema is capable of competing with Japanese manga both in terms of violent scenarios and fluid and successful animation. In the same way, this horrific tale shows once again the shortcomings of our society in which we are constantly looking for a miracle solution to stay young and attractive. This search results here in an extreme gory overflow and a story reserved for an adult audience used to watching horror movies or manga for adults.

In a society inspired by today's South Korea and living at breakneck speed, finding a job and becoming a star implies not only having talent but also being wanted. Yaeji's overweight and unattractive life turns out to be a living hell. This makeup artist has a difficult life and still lives with her parents because she cannot find a husband and a salary large enough to earn her independence. In spite of her search for a solution to become attractive and a very popular youtube user, she loses all hope until she wins a contest that seems to be a hoax in the beginning. However, it must be said that not only does this liquid solution in which she has to take a bath make her lose all her excess weight but also allows her to reshape her face. Having become a real supermodel, she realizes that this remedy is not only very expensive but also has many undesirable effects. Wishing to keep her new look and her new life, she realizes that it has a price and that it is very heavy to pay .

Conceived as a true horror thriller, Beauty water surprises by its many violent body horror scenes that will remain in your memory long after you discover this film. The script successfully adapts an episode of Oh Seongdae's webtoon Tales of the Unusual and finds enough material to avoid any loss of rhythm and breath throughout the story. In spite of a rather standard animation and far from the quality of the big American animation studios, Beauty and the water scores points by the richness of its scenario, its numerous horrific scenes bordering on gore and above all by its rather realistic view of our current society focused on physical rather than intellectual criteria of beauty. Beauty and the water will not offer a happy ending to our great satisfaction and is a violent satire on the obsession of our current society for appearance, the quest for success and a paradisiacal life.

Beauty water
Directed by Cho Kyung-hun
Produced by Jeon Byung-jin
Written by Lee Han-bin
Starring Kim Bo-young, Cho Hyun-jung, Jang Min-hyuk, Moon Nam-sook
Music by Hong Dae-sung
Cinematography: Moon Seong-cheol
Edited by Cho Kyung-hun
Distributed by M-Line Distribution
Release date : September 9 , 2020 (South Korea)
Running time: 85 minutes

Seen on January 29, 2021 (Gerardmer Festival)

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