This is probably a good example of self-centered American thinking. It defines 3 negative aspects of Korean teen's life: academic stress, suicide, single-standard of beauty and the resulting plastic surgery.
Be it negative or not, I do not consider those aspects as "problems" but "culture", whereas in any densely populated society there must be some form of pressure - food, water, spouse, competition, and just that in Korean society it's reflected in education, for teens.
Some American girls in this film contrasted the American view of beauty and that of Korean, saying that in America people just appreciate the beauty of themselves and of their friends but the Koreans don't. Which is untrue. American teens definitely care big time about their beauty, and they do suffer peer pressure from this. Maybe the girls in the film are just not aware of the American drama series "Nip/Tuck", which went on for 7 seasons throughout 7 years.
The filmmaker says:
"When I was in America I never heard that big eye is beautiful or small face is beautiful, and girls in Korea get surgery to become that ideal of beauty, even girls that are already naturally beautiful...em... it doesn't make sense...so I feel like if we can show those girls, give them idols or people who look up to you, who are a different style of beauty, then we can help convince them that, you don't have to have big eyes or ssanggeupul (쌍꺼풀) to be beautiful."
In the beginning of the film, the filmmaker says she wanted to make the film to "help reduce the stress students receive". In the end, she mentions that this film project (through awareness campaign) includes an initiative to buy cameras to give to Korean students to document their lives.
偶然間看到這個短片，拍攝者是美國女孩，裡面指出三個韓國青少年的問題: 讀書壓力大、壓力大導致的自殺、以及過於單一的審美標準而造就之整容風氣。
與其說這3件事是問題，我覺得就是文化罷了。
人口密度大的地方，生活就有壓力，如食物、飲水、資源、擇偶、就業等，對韓國這個東亞國家的青少年而言，壓力就是反映在教育體制上。片中形容韓國學生每日讀書16小時，我覺得沒那麼扯，聰明的學生用不著16小時，不夠聰明的用16小時也沒用，不管是前者的精益求精還是後者的勤能補拙，讀書時數總有個飽和點，16小時絕不是這個飽和點的代表性數字。
片中找來幾個美國女孩現身說法，說在美國沒有人認為美麗就等於臉小眼睛大、美國人懂得欣賞自己的美麗，囧，不知道"整形春秋"是哪國拍的，還可以拍7年咧。
整容是哪個國家都有的情形，只是普遍程度的差別；韓國要說特別在哪，就是韓國人整容都整得很像，似乎不怕別人看出來。是因為她們審美觀比較單一嗎? 不。我倒是覺得是因為韓國人血統較為單純，整容前已長得相像，整容後實在沒理由能長得太不一樣。
這個影片是典型美國人自我中心思維的實例，作者拍片的動機是"期待減低韓國學生的壓力"、方法論是以美國價值為基準做比較、最後就是清教徒的救世主義顯靈 - 這個project還是個募款活動，募得款項將用來添購攝影設備，提供給韓國高中生來記錄自己的生活，幫助他們認清自我。
(題外話 : 11:46分時的那句話好好笑，哈哈。)
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