k-dramatic
Italy
This review may contain spoilers
The road to self-esteem is full of dimples
After watching four depressing dramas in a row, I definitely needed something silly and with a happy ending. Most of all I needed something horny.
Someone suggested OMV saying it was full of skinship yet a bit problematic and, in the end, Shin Min Ah convinced me.
Oh My Venus! is indeed horny and silly but I didn't find it as problematic as it may seem at a first glance.
Yes, there are fat suits (Shin Min Ah is adorable even without dimples) and the discourse around body image, just like the whole "you can if you believe it" message are a bit too simplistic.
However, I feel like the underlying moral of the story is an uplifting one, nonetheless.
Shin Min Ah is Kang Joo-eun, this woman who was once Daegu's Venus and, for a number of reasons we just get a glimpse of (like the death of her father and a difficult workplace), has gained a bunch of weight and lost a bunch of self-esteem.
Her boyfriend of 15 years breaks up with her on their anniversary and she finds out he is dating her former friend. Said former friend was once very fat and is now very slim and, also, her new boss (and a bit of a bitch).
Joo-eun is, understandably, distressed by her life.
But fate rescues her in the form of an extremely fit and sexy man that soon becomes her personal trainer.
There is one exchange in these first episodes that convinced me this wasn't a chauvinistic male power-trip about saving women by making them hotter and thinner and it occurs when Joo-eun is venting to her friend about her former friend/boss and she says "I should've said that I was happy to see her. It's something I should've said, and it's not hard to say, why didn't I think to say that until now? Even if I couldn't tell her that she looks great and that she got prettier I should've at least told her that I was happy to see her. She is a friend I haven't seen in a long time. She underwent a total transformation and I turned into this. We could have laughed together about it. Why am I becoming meaner and meaner?".
She is acknowledging that her weight is not the root of the problem. She is so unsatisfied with her life to the point she has become bitter. And she doesn't want to be bitter, nor envious.
She wants to be able to laugh about her misfortunes with the friend she missed.
Joo-eun wants to regain control of her life, of the person she is and she wants to like herself again.
In a way, her body is the easiest starting point for this journey of self-rediscovery.
The aim of Joo-eun's transformation is becoming healthier, rather than looking as thin as she was at 15, and her personal trainer soon becomes the person she trusts her life with and to whom she will show the things she is ashamed of. He comes to know her at her lowest, at her worst and falls in love with her regardless of it.
While he takes care of her body (the whole concept of "your body is mine" is more cringe than cute for me, but I'm starting to think it is a trope in k-dramas), Joon eun will take care of his mind and show him the sweetness of life (mainly in the form of sugary food and lazy days he never allowed himself before).
They heal each other… except for when he refuses to see her for the whole year it takes to recover from a terrible car accident (she accepted his help at her most vulnerable and he can't accept to be seen at his weakest! … The mother-in-law tries to reason with him on this point in the last episode, though).
The main couple has outstanding chemistry and cute kisses and horny moments and, most definitely, carries the whole show. The other characters are not really developed but I liked the attempt at making a parallelism between Joo-eun and Soo-jin, whom still doesn't like herself despite having lost weight (this is to reinforce the message that the weight itself is not the reason behind unhappiness). I also liked that they apologize and make up.
The ex-boyfriend also proves not to be a total asshole. Another aspect I appreciated, in fact, is the lack of truly evil characters. We get only one scheming uncle whose every attempt at harming the male lead proves ridiculous.
On the other hand, there is no angst whatsoever and that is mainly because there isn't much of a plot to begin with.
The little bit of plot we get is absolutely ridiculous. For example, the scandal about (!?!) John Kim's double life as chaebol and fitness trainer, which becomes the reason he starts training Joo-eun, doesn't seem scandalous enough to ruin a CEO (I've come to learn that Koreans are easily shocked, though, especially if t comes to celebrities dating), nor it seems plausible that the slightly-evil uncle decides to embark in a kamikaze mission in order to provoke a car accident and kill said CEO.
In short, the plot is risible and, consequently, the pacing is uneven throughout the 16 episodes. The story could have done with half of them, really.
I like the ending. It felt realistic as the journey toward self-love is never-ending and there are ups and downs along the way. Also, pregnancy wreaks havoc on a woman's body. But Joo-eun looks happy in the end, even without her dimples.
Female Empowerment Score 5/5
Someone suggested OMV saying it was full of skinship yet a bit problematic and, in the end, Shin Min Ah convinced me.
Oh My Venus! is indeed horny and silly but I didn't find it as problematic as it may seem at a first glance.
Yes, there are fat suits (Shin Min Ah is adorable even without dimples) and the discourse around body image, just like the whole "you can if you believe it" message are a bit too simplistic.
However, I feel like the underlying moral of the story is an uplifting one, nonetheless.
Shin Min Ah is Kang Joo-eun, this woman who was once Daegu's Venus and, for a number of reasons we just get a glimpse of (like the death of her father and a difficult workplace), has gained a bunch of weight and lost a bunch of self-esteem.
Her boyfriend of 15 years breaks up with her on their anniversary and she finds out he is dating her former friend. Said former friend was once very fat and is now very slim and, also, her new boss (and a bit of a bitch).
Joo-eun is, understandably, distressed by her life.
But fate rescues her in the form of an extremely fit and sexy man that soon becomes her personal trainer.
There is one exchange in these first episodes that convinced me this wasn't a chauvinistic male power-trip about saving women by making them hotter and thinner and it occurs when Joo-eun is venting to her friend about her former friend/boss and she says "I should've said that I was happy to see her. It's something I should've said, and it's not hard to say, why didn't I think to say that until now? Even if I couldn't tell her that she looks great and that she got prettier I should've at least told her that I was happy to see her. She is a friend I haven't seen in a long time. She underwent a total transformation and I turned into this. We could have laughed together about it. Why am I becoming meaner and meaner?".
She is acknowledging that her weight is not the root of the problem. She is so unsatisfied with her life to the point she has become bitter. And she doesn't want to be bitter, nor envious.
She wants to be able to laugh about her misfortunes with the friend she missed.
Joo-eun wants to regain control of her life, of the person she is and she wants to like herself again.
In a way, her body is the easiest starting point for this journey of self-rediscovery.
The aim of Joo-eun's transformation is becoming healthier, rather than looking as thin as she was at 15, and her personal trainer soon becomes the person she trusts her life with and to whom she will show the things she is ashamed of. He comes to know her at her lowest, at her worst and falls in love with her regardless of it.
While he takes care of her body (the whole concept of "your body is mine" is more cringe than cute for me, but I'm starting to think it is a trope in k-dramas), Joon eun will take care of his mind and show him the sweetness of life (mainly in the form of sugary food and lazy days he never allowed himself before).
They heal each other… except for when he refuses to see her for the whole year it takes to recover from a terrible car accident (she accepted his help at her most vulnerable and he can't accept to be seen at his weakest! … The mother-in-law tries to reason with him on this point in the last episode, though).
The main couple has outstanding chemistry and cute kisses and horny moments and, most definitely, carries the whole show. The other characters are not really developed but I liked the attempt at making a parallelism between Joo-eun and Soo-jin, whom still doesn't like herself despite having lost weight (this is to reinforce the message that the weight itself is not the reason behind unhappiness). I also liked that they apologize and make up.
The ex-boyfriend also proves not to be a total asshole. Another aspect I appreciated, in fact, is the lack of truly evil characters. We get only one scheming uncle whose every attempt at harming the male lead proves ridiculous.
On the other hand, there is no angst whatsoever and that is mainly because there isn't much of a plot to begin with.
The little bit of plot we get is absolutely ridiculous. For example, the scandal about (!?!) John Kim's double life as chaebol and fitness trainer, which becomes the reason he starts training Joo-eun, doesn't seem scandalous enough to ruin a CEO (I've come to learn that Koreans are easily shocked, though, especially if t comes to celebrities dating), nor it seems plausible that the slightly-evil uncle decides to embark in a kamikaze mission in order to provoke a car accident and kill said CEO.
In short, the plot is risible and, consequently, the pacing is uneven throughout the 16 episodes. The story could have done with half of them, really.
I like the ending. It felt realistic as the journey toward self-love is never-ending and there are ups and downs along the way. Also, pregnancy wreaks havoc on a woman's body. But Joo-eun looks happy in the end, even without her dimples.
Female Empowerment Score 5/5
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