it is minus 3 degrees in seoul and fans havebeen waiting for hours to see their idols. the falling mercury does not seem to concernthe who's who of korea's pop music world. they arrive for another awards ceremony andcream for the cameras. you think k-pop stars are beautiful? yes, popular and beautiful! their dancing-- perfect. their face is different. big eyes
Dubai Waterfront, this is what sends young koreans into a frenzyand has taken the world by storm. catchy tunes and flashy performances by doe-eyed starletsand dapper pin-up boys. they rarely speak publicly about their penchant for plastic,but cosmetic surgery among k-pop stars is so rampant it is parodied.
you know i'm pretty, but with no surgery?you wouldn't know the difference. idols have all had plastic surgery, you call me 'plasticmonster.' plastic face. but the pursuit for perfection extends muchfurther than korea's entertainment elite. it makes me happy to think that i'll lookprettier after today, i am looking forward to my surgery. hwain has just finished high school, and hermother has given her a graduation gift. eye surgery. i hope it turns out well and she becomes prettier.when hwain looks at herself she thinks she is ugly. we don't think this way but she does.because every k-pop star on tv looks so pretty,
like a doll, she sees them as a standard ofwhat is beautiful. hwain will be going to university with newfriends and new opportunities. so we thought if plastic surgery will helpher feel more confident, maybe it is not such a bad idea. hello. hwain is about to undergo what is called doubleeyelid surgery. her surgeon, dr rhee se whan will create a second eyelid to make her eyeslook bigger. it is one of the most popular procedures here in korea. i'm told an increasingamount of teenagers are asking for this procedure straight out of high school, before they headto college.
so what i have done is puncture very smallholes where her second eyelid will be. the whole procedure is over in 40 minutes.hwain will spend a short time in recovery before heading home, and will return in aweek to have her stitches removed. k-pop stars and korean celebrities have influenced.if you look at a before and after picture of a k-pop star, you will see that they havegotten prettier. when people see the change, they want to be pretty as well. they wantto look as good as them. like hwain, gina, sally and laura are recenthigh school graduates, and have agreed to meet me to talk about image and plastic surgery. i don't think any celebrity has not retouchedtheir face.
we grab a few magazines and head to a nearbycafe. almost everyone gets it - especially in normalhigh schools. once people graduate, almost all of them get double eyelid surgery done. have you felt pressured to do it? i've thought about it. not in america, butin korea, there are so many more people who are talking about it. you think, "oh, shouldi get it done too?" two of the girls also went to high schoolin the us. they say surgery is driven by an admiration of celebrities. that is the difference. like, in america,you will say, "i want a skinnier nose." but
in korea, they say, "i want the eyes of whoever,i want the nose of whoever. please make my nose into the style of this star." who are we looking at here? they are 9 girls and they are in an idol groupcalled girls generation. have they had surgery? yeah. definitely! all of them - 100%! many, many, many plastic surgeries. many!every time they come out, they come out with surgery...their faces change. eyelid surgery can cost up to $2,000. if youcannot afford it, the girls tell me there
is another way of getting the coveted bigeyes. this is what koreans call the double eyelidsticker. i've never used it before but according to my friends, they said that it is the easiestand the cheapest way of making double eyelids. i took it off! so it looks like a half moon. yes! look at her eyes! this is the district of gangnam, home to k-pop'smajor entertainment companies, and it's also home to south korea's beauty belt - an areaof the highest concentration of plastic surgery clinics in the world, which caters to an everincreasing foreign clientele. so from here the entire street has more than300 plastic surgery clinics.
this street alone. yes, this street alone, each building hasmore than three or four plastic surgery clinics. artist eunjeong says the rapid growth of koreasplastic surgery industry is concerning, especially because of its connection to the entertainmentworld. they send people from the agencies, they canget discount and then from that, they can use their face for the commercial advertisement. even the subway has become a billboard forcosmetic surgery. they change their facial shape, they cut downtheir cheekbone, made their eyes bigger their face, their eyes change. they make big eyes,front and back, and they put some fat underneath.
they implant hair. eunjeong knows the passageways well - theyinspired her to create an art installation on what she calls korea's obsession with beauty. they choose one or two types of very beautifulwomen, with an ideal face. and every woman tries to turn into exactly the same. this is my studio, and this work is from myexhibition body factory. every work in here comes down to the people losing their identity.that is why they treat their body as a product, they are losing the meaning of who they are. do you feel like that is happening as a societyhere?
yes. because i heard it described as a plasticsurgery obsession. do you think that korea is obsessed with plasticsurgery? i don't think it is obsessed with plasticsurgery but obsessed with the way they look. we are heading outside seoul's city to meeta man who's had several procedures done to his face on his jaw, his nose, his eyes. now,while it is true that more women get plastic surgery here in south korea, it is by no meansexclusive to women. a growing number of men are also getting surgical procedures. if you cut your jawline a bit, i think youcould be really pretty.
at just 21, hwan kim has had 17 proceduresso far. the number of times? i have done my eyes threetimes, my nose once, my chin, cheekbones, my squared jawline. and that's not counting botox injections andfillers. you don't want to show us the pictures? why? i'm embarrassed. shame, shame. this is what hwan looked like before he beganto reshape his appearance. i had a complex about my appearance, so themost important thing is when i met up with people i used to wear a mask or when i talkedto people, i'd always cover my mouth.
hwan has spent $30,000 on cosmetic surgery.and his friends want surgery too. my nose, cheekbones, chin and what else didyou say? botox! i want to get braces and shave down my jaw. night falls and the city streets come alive.hwan and his friends are getting ready for a night out. he says his cosmetic compulsionis paying off. now i have a lot of confidence in the wayi look, i want to meet people, i want to meet girls and i really believe this has been madepossible through plastic surgery. in another dimly-lit room on the other sideof seoul is a very different music world. playing tonight is an indie band called lovex stereo. its front woman, annie, has invited
me to watch them perform. she spent yearsin the pop industry signed to a mainstream entertainment company as a solo artist. inorder to make it big, she was told to change her sound, and her face. they liked my voice, but they didn't likemy appearances, so they wanted me to have plastic surgery here and there, like nose,my eyes. they occasionally talked about my teeth a lot because i have very - yeah, rabbitteeth. why did you decide against it? because i like my face. the band rehearses and records in its ownsmall rented space. each member has a second
job to support themselves - a small priceto pay, says annie, for creative freedom. some of the criticisms of k-pop has been thatit is a very manufactured industry. yeah, absolutely. it is. they kind of, youknow, recruit young kids, like 13, 14, and they make something - they kind of grow theminto - in a certain way, and cut them along the way, and make a group. here we go, this is the band! k-pop dominates much of korea's entertainmentnews. ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show,we are happy to have you here with us on showbiz korea time.
adrien lee hosts showbiz korea, a daily entertainmentshow broadcast around the world on korea's only english-speaking network. we have some k-pop news coming your way - bignews, actually. adrien also hosts his own radio show on koreanculture. he says even though pop stars get surgery to improve their prospect, talentstill plays a big part in the k pop industry. no matter how much plastic surgery you get,it will not make you a big star. you need to have talent. maybe on top of that, lateron you can add a plus alpha, with a little bit of plastic surgery, but that won't initiallyplay a big role for you to become a huge star. as he shows me around the network, we meeta group hoping to become the next big thing.
we just bumped into a group, coming into recorda show here at arirang. you mentioned stuff about the visuals, the looks. you can havea look - this is a new group. can you introduce yourself. one, two, three... purple, purple, purpley.hello, we are purpley! ok, there you go! great! that is how theyintroduce themselves. so many young people look up to them, andthink they are really attractive. good! we're very nervous, we hope to havea lot of influence on the younger generation. they tell me they have not had any surgery.but, as they walk away, i wonder whether that will change. 18-year-old hwain has returnedto her clinic a week after her eye surgery
to have her stitches removed. her eyelidsare still swollen, but she is positive about the result. are you happy with your surgery? yes. yes, i'm happy. and mum is also satisfied. well, double eyelid surgery generally makespeople prettier, i think hwain will look even prettier, more than i expected. ten minutes after arriving, hwain leaves withnew eyes. the first step, i'm told, to becoming beautiful.
it is minus 3 degrees in seoul and fans havebeen waiting for hours to see their idols. the falling mercury does not seem to concernthe who's who of korea's pop music world. they arrive for another awards ceremony andcream for the cameras. you think k-pop stars are beautiful? yes, popular and beautiful! their dancing-- perfect. their face is different. big eyes
Dubai Waterfront, this is what sends young koreans into a frenzyand has taken the world by storm. catchy tunes and flashy performances by doe-eyed starletsand dapper pin-up boys. they rarely speak publicly about their penchant for plastic,but cosmetic surgery among k-pop stars is so rampant it is parodied.
you know i'm pretty, but with no surgery?you wouldn't know the difference. idols have all had plastic surgery, you call me 'plasticmonster.' plastic face. but the pursuit for perfection extends muchfurther than korea's entertainment elite. it makes me happy to think that i'll lookprettier after today, i am looking forward to my surgery. hwain has just finished high school, and hermother has given her a graduation gift. eye surgery. i hope it turns out well and she becomes prettier.when hwain looks at herself she thinks she is ugly. we don't think this way but she does.because every k-pop star on tv looks so pretty,
like a doll, she sees them as a standard ofwhat is beautiful. hwain will be going to university with newfriends and new opportunities. so we thought if plastic surgery will helpher feel more confident, maybe it is not such a bad idea. hello. hwain is about to undergo what is called doubleeyelid surgery. her surgeon, dr rhee se whan will create a second eyelid to make her eyeslook bigger. it is one of the most popular procedures here in korea. i'm told an increasingamount of teenagers are asking for this procedure straight out of high school, before they headto college.
so what i have done is puncture very smallholes where her second eyelid will be. the whole procedure is over in 40 minutes.hwain will spend a short time in recovery before heading home, and will return in aweek to have her stitches removed. k-pop stars and korean celebrities have influenced.if you look at a before and after picture of a k-pop star, you will see that they havegotten prettier. when people see the change, they want to be pretty as well. they wantto look as good as them. like hwain, gina, sally and laura are recenthigh school graduates, and have agreed to meet me to talk about image and plastic surgery. i don't think any celebrity has not retouchedtheir face.
we grab a few magazines and head to a nearbycafe. almost everyone gets it - especially in normalhigh schools. once people graduate, almost all of them get double eyelid surgery done. have you felt pressured to do it? i've thought about it. not in america, butin korea, there are so many more people who are talking about it. you think, "oh, shouldi get it done too?" two of the girls also went to high schoolin the us. they say surgery is driven by an admiration of celebrities. that is the difference. like, in america,you will say, "i want a skinnier nose." but
in korea, they say, "i want the eyes of whoever,i want the nose of whoever. please make my nose into the style of this star." who are we looking at here? they are 9 girls and they are in an idol groupcalled girls generation. have they had surgery? yeah. definitely! all of them - 100%! many, many, many plastic surgeries. many!every time they come out, they come out with surgery...their faces change. eyelid surgery can cost up to $2,000. if youcannot afford it, the girls tell me there
is another way of getting the coveted bigeyes. this is what koreans call the double eyelidsticker. i've never used it before but according to my friends, they said that it is the easiestand the cheapest way of making double eyelids. i took it off! so it looks like a half moon. yes! look at her eyes! this is the district of gangnam, home to k-pop'smajor entertainment companies, and it's also home to south korea's beauty belt - an areaof the highest concentration of plastic surgery clinics in the world, which caters to an everincreasing foreign clientele. so from here the entire street has more than300 plastic surgery clinics.
this street alone. yes, this street alone, each building hasmore than three or four plastic surgery clinics. artist eunjeong says the rapid growth of koreasplastic surgery industry is concerning, especially because of its connection to the entertainmentworld. they send people from the agencies, they canget discount and then from that, they can use their face for the commercial advertisement. even the subway has become a billboard forcosmetic surgery. they change their facial shape, they cut downtheir cheekbone, made their eyes bigger their face, their eyes change. they make big eyes,front and back, and they put some fat underneath.
they implant hair. eunjeong knows the passageways well - theyinspired her to create an art installation on what she calls korea's obsession with beauty. they choose one or two types of very beautifulwomen, with an ideal face. and every woman tries to turn into exactly the same. this is my studio, and this work is from myexhibition body factory. every work in here comes down to the people losing their identity.that is why they treat their body as a product, they are losing the meaning of who they are. do you feel like that is happening as a societyhere?
yes. because i heard it described as a plasticsurgery obsession. do you think that korea is obsessed with plasticsurgery? i don't think it is obsessed with plasticsurgery but obsessed with the way they look. we are heading outside seoul's city to meeta man who's had several procedures done to his face on his jaw, his nose, his eyes. now,while it is true that more women get plastic surgery here in south korea, it is by no meansexclusive to women. a growing number of men are also getting surgical procedures. if you cut your jawline a bit, i think youcould be really pretty.
at just 21, hwan kim has had 17 proceduresso far. the number of times? i have done my eyes threetimes, my nose once, my chin, cheekbones, my squared jawline. and that's not counting botox injections andfillers. you don't want to show us the pictures? why? i'm embarrassed. shame, shame. this is what hwan looked like before he beganto reshape his appearance. i had a complex about my appearance, so themost important thing is when i met up with people i used to wear a mask or when i talkedto people, i'd always cover my mouth.
hwan has spent $30,000 on cosmetic surgery.and his friends want surgery too. my nose, cheekbones, chin and what else didyou say? botox! i want to get braces and shave down my jaw. night falls and the city streets come alive.hwan and his friends are getting ready for a night out. he says his cosmetic compulsionis paying off. now i have a lot of confidence in the wayi look, i want to meet people, i want to meet girls and i really believe this has been madepossible through plastic surgery. in another dimly-lit room on the other sideof seoul is a very different music world. playing tonight is an indie band called lovex stereo. its front woman, annie, has invited
me to watch them perform. she spent yearsin the pop industry signed to a mainstream entertainment company as a solo artist. inorder to make it big, she was told to change her sound, and her face. they liked my voice, but they didn't likemy appearances, so they wanted me to have plastic surgery here and there, like nose,my eyes. they occasionally talked about my teeth a lot because i have very - yeah, rabbitteeth. why did you decide against it? because i like my face. the band rehearses and records in its ownsmall rented space. each member has a second
job to support themselves - a small priceto pay, says annie, for creative freedom. some of the criticisms of k-pop has been thatit is a very manufactured industry. yeah, absolutely. it is. they kind of, youknow, recruit young kids, like 13, 14, and they make something - they kind of grow theminto - in a certain way, and cut them along the way, and make a group. here we go, this is the band! k-pop dominates much of korea's entertainmentnews. ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show,we are happy to have you here with us on showbiz korea time.
adrien lee hosts showbiz korea, a daily entertainmentshow broadcast around the world on korea's only english-speaking network. we have some k-pop news coming your way - bignews, actually. adrien also hosts his own radio show on koreanculture. he says even though pop stars get surgery to improve their prospect, talentstill plays a big part in the k pop industry. no matter how much plastic surgery you get,it will not make you a big star. you need to have talent. maybe on top of that, lateron you can add a plus alpha, with a little bit of plastic surgery, but that won't initiallyplay a big role for you to become a huge star. as he shows me around the network, we meeta group hoping to become the next big thing.
we just bumped into a group, coming into recorda show here at arirang. you mentioned stuff about the visuals, the looks. you can havea look - this is a new group. can you introduce yourself. one, two, three... purple, purple, purpley.hello, we are purpley! ok, there you go! great! that is how theyintroduce themselves. so many young people look up to them, andthink they are really attractive. good! we're very nervous, we hope to havea lot of influence on the younger generation. they tell me they have not had any surgery.but, as they walk away, i wonder whether that will change. 18-year-old hwain has returnedto her clinic a week after her eye surgery
to have her stitches removed. her eyelidsare still swollen, but she is positive about the result. are you happy with your surgery? yes. yes, i'm happy. and mum is also satisfied. well, double eyelid surgery generally makespeople prettier, i think hwain will look even prettier, more than i expected. ten minutes after arriving, hwain leaves withnew eyes. the first step, i'm told, to becoming beautiful.