Everyone has the hots for seductive and hypnotic Eun-yung (Su-yeon Cha). Men send flowers, which she promptly discards. Hairdressers offer their services for free, which she not-so-politely declines. Strangers on the street snap photos of her, making her turn away, annoyed. Teenaged girls seek her autograph, which she tersely obliges but quickly sends them on their way. Her best –- and only —- friend refers to her as a “celebrity.” Eun-yung, however, is not interested in all the attention showered upon her. She wants to be revered for something other than her looks. This proves impossible because Eun-yung seems to cast a spell, albeit unintentionally, on everyone who crosses her path, including her best friend’s lover, Min-ho (Min-soo Kim).
Min-ho is obsessed with Eun-yung. He corners her on her way to the ladies’ room in a restaurant and professes his undying love. Or maybe it’s lust. Either way, she’s holding out for Mr. Right. Eun-yung tells Min-ho in no uncertain terms to kiss off. He’s beneath her. Min-ho won’t take no for an answer, though, and stalks her: he calls constantly, waits outside her building, and follows her around town, one day chasing her down and planting a kiss on her. The girl simply is not having it, but Min-ho refuses to accept this. Encouraged after seeing the doorman toss a load of flowers for Eun-yung into the trash —- and not finding the lily he left for her in there —- Min-ho fakes his way into her apartment. In the heat of the moment, he ends up slapping her around, raping her, and taking pictures.
Hence begins Eun-yung’s slow descent into self-loathing and insanity. It is clear that her beauty is an albatross, and this is reinforced after her rape. Following a humiliating experience with the police, she befriends a fat girl scarfing down fast food in a park. Eun-yung withdraws and embarks on a mission to make herself ugly. It doesn't work. The two cops assigned to help Eun-yung spend their time getting off on watching Min-ho’s videos and pictures of her. One of them, Choi, eventually becomes obsessed with her. He follows her around as her self-appointed protector and intervenes whenever she starts to go off the deep end. Choi’s obsession gets so out of hand, he ultimately devises an extreme solution to free Eun-yung.
Beautiful is not for everyone. To say most people probably will find it disturbing is an understatement. Comparatively speaking, this is not a violent film. The rape itself is left to the imagination, and even the few bloody scenes are not gory. What’s truly disturbing is how Eun-yung is treated. She’s blamed for being raped, as if her beauty caused it; yet she's worshipped because she’s beautiful. Men want a piece of Eun-yung all the way to the last scene, and Jaihong does a brilliant job depicting the downside of being pretty. Beautiful is a heavy, conflicting commentary. Maybe it's misogynistic, and perhaps it's tasteless. But it’s definitely provocative. BeautifuL leaves one with a lot of fodder for discussion afterward.