Portrait of a Beauty (2008) User Reviews (4)

The art of gender-neutral painting

[janos451 · 7/10 · 19 March 2009]

A lavish royal court spectacle, a compelling drama of love, strife, and betrayal, the new Korean film "Portrait of a Beauty" has it all: history, art, romance, adventure. The San Francisco premiere is today (3/20) in the 4-Star Theater on Clement.

As most recent works from the burgeoning Korean film industry, "Portrait" is expertly directed (by Yun-su Jeon, also responsible for the screenplay), and beautifully photographed.

Taking place in the 18th century, the story begins in the family of famous court painters, where the young son is trained to take his place among the privileged royal artists - but he lacks talent.

His sister, at age 7, is already so accomplished that she paints for him secretly. When the subterfuge is discovered within the family, the boy commits suicide, and the girl is forced to take his name (Yoon-bok), and live as a man. Rather than telling the plot of the movie, the story described so far is just the very beginning, the basis for a lengthy, rich adventure to unfold.

The hero/heroine is played by the unassuming but outstanding actress Min-sun Kim. Her character, pretending to be a man, rises to fame and fortune (as we are treated to picturesque scenes of court and town life), and then creates a new school of painting, focusing on female beauty.

If you think the "establishment" of "Die Meistersinger" are upset about a bold, unconventional newcomer singer, you should see what the constellation of court painters does and, more, tries to do to Yoon-bok. Apparently, Korean artists in the 1700's were quite physical in their discussions of the finer points of brush strokes.

And yet, the artistic-aesthetic clash is just a small portion of the story. Yoon-bok falls in love with a charming outlaw (Nam-gil Kim, in a fabulously athletic performance), so there is the problem of the supposedly male painter letting her intended lover into her secret - but without being exposed to the rest of the world.

That exposure of gender complicates things a great deal when Yoon-bok's elderly teacher realizes that his student is a beautiful young woman when not disguised, and then - don't give up yet! - a royal courtesan falls in love with Yoon-bok, the man.

If this sounds like a potboiler, yes, it is that, but if you expect a predictable Hollywood soap knockoff - NO, it is not that at all. Writing, direction, acting combine to keep "Portrait of a Beauty" on the right side of the track, not giving in to easy and cheap solutions.

Apparently, aspects of the film are based on history, but my admiration for Korean films doesn't give me sufficient knowledge on the subject. True story or not, this film is real enough in creating a first-class movie experience.

Nice visuals but lacks substance

[accordchiang · 5/10 · 13 February 2022]

This movie is like a beautiful painting. It looks nice, but somehow you just can't appreciate its beauty.

It is mainly a tragedy which revolves around the main character who goes by the name "Shin Yun Bok", disguised as her deceased brother. "Shin Yun Bok" is played by Kim Min Sun (now known as Kim Gyu Ri), who was not too bad in portraying the life of a female struggling in an era of chauvinism. The rest of the cast were not really impressive.

The movie was unable to make the audience feel for the characters. Perhaps the character development was ineffective. It does not have the impact of "Oldboy" or even "Tae Guk Gi", where one just empathizes with the central characters.

Other things I'd pick on are: 1) "Shin Yun Bok" looks too feminine in her disguise, where no one would believe she was a man; 2) the opening scene of the young "Shin Yun Bok"; 3) excessive sex scenes like the two models in the ring.

It is not surprising that hardly any viewers bothered to review this movie.

Tasteful And Beautifully Filmed

[deospam-04962 · 7/10 · 25 March 2022]

Lovely sets, costumes and cinematography set this apart from the usual softcore skin flicks. The protagonist Kim Gyu Ri is too beautiful to pass off as a man.

Plot is a little thin and staccato. Nudity is tasteful if sometimes too frequent. But if you see this movie as a celebration of sensuality then it becomes OK in context. One scene of 2 lesbian performers left me in stitches because one of them had such an obvious boob job. Overall marked up mainly for technical aspects and the beautiful Ms Kim.

Beautiful executed adult movie

[nofitatjam · 8/10 · 7 March 2022]

The main leads are indeed beautiful and as other K-movies, the adult scene were beautifully executed. You won't find disgusting scenes like in the western movies.

The actings are good. The story is quite interesting but too bad not very well explored. Should give more focus to all main characters and give depth to their emotional development, esp they got very good actors in this movie.