"Stepping out of the comfort zones"
Literally, an actor makes their living through their outer image. Thus they undergo an endless changes and transformation in order to unfold their hidden charms. Recently, the female actors who had been hidden under the tag of being 'sexy' or 'innocent' took a critical counterattack to bring out their true charms.
Korea's No.1 sexy beauties Jeon Ji-hyeon and Kim Jeong-eun transformed themselves into free and easy-going characters without any make-ups; and the No. 1 innocent beauties, Son Ye-jin and Lee Bo-yeong brought out their strong femme fatale sexiness. The following is the stories of HOT ladies' transformations in their HOT movies.
■Sexy beauty → Innocent beauty
▶ "A Man Who Was Superman" : Jeon Ji-hyeon
In her film, "The man who was a superman" (CJ Entertainment Co., directed by Jeong Yoon-cheol) Jeon Ji-hyeon transformed into a TV station producer and took away her previous image of having the perfect 'S-line' body.
Many agree that the boyish attractiveness in Jeon Ji-hyeon was rediscovered in her loose T-shirt and pants without any make-ups and jewelleries. With black and white as the main style, other colours were excluded and a fashionable bracelet was replaced by a black hair band which has a functional advantage of tying her hair whenever she requires.
The costume designer, No Mi-rye explained, "The director wanted practical and humble costumes for his characters. In order to satisfy his request, the new clothes and shoes were reformed to look worn out. It was quite a hard process because even the worn-out-looking costumes look stylish on Jeon Ji-hyeon. But we were able to bring out the boyish charm in her".
▶ "Forever the Moment" : Kim Jeong-eun Kim Jeong-eun, who was known for her stylish sexy dresses on various red carpet occasions have turned into a handball player without any make-ups in her latest film "Forever the Moment" (MK Pictures, directed by Lim Soon-rye). Throughout the film, she only wears blue and red sport uniforms.
Even though she wears the casual clothes every now and then, she excluded all jewelleries and wore simple semi-formal suits in achromatic colours. Instead, some extra details were added on her uniforms to bring out styles in it. On a standard Adidas uniform worn by the existing players, the body contour line was added to emphasise the body lines. Also instead of adding various colours to the uniforms, only inner arms and the waist had the colour contrasts to emphasise slimness of the body.
The costume designer, Ko Hee-jung said, "Because Kim Jeong-eun has very stylish and sophisticated image as well as having long arms and legs, she looks fantastic even with just simple T-shirt. The gallant details were reduced and the simplicity was the key word in the designing process".
Instead of the extreme exposure, she emphasised the sexiness from various costume materials such as silk, glittering gold and spandex. Particularly, the variety of hair styles including pony-tail and long permed hair; and the nail arts enhanced the overall style.
The costume designer, Han Song-kyung explained, "In the film, there is a scene where Son Ye-jin wears a leather beret and a scarf, which was entirely her idea. Because she has the pure image of first love by many male fans, the focus was to emphasise the mysterious attractiveness within her rather than look for femmefatale sort of sexiness in her".
▶"Once Upon a Time": Lee Bo-yeong
The innocent beauty, Lee Bo-yeong transformed into a lean 'S-line' bodied sexy jazz singer in "Once Upon a Time" (Won Entertainment, directed by Jeong Yong-ki). As a jazz singer, the sexy and splendorous costumes were essential. Most of her costumes were made out of red, black and gold with sparkling pearl.
In the process of costume making, silk was the main fabric to be used to emphasise the feminine body line, as silk effectively brings out the body contours. And there were deep cuts at the back and the breast and hip lines were designed tight. Thus successfully bring out luxurious sexiness of the Hollywood female stars like Marilyn Monroe.
The costume designer, Yang Min-hye said, "The context of this film is 1945 and the modern boy and girl look of the time has similar sophisticated aspects of present contemporary styles. And I thought rather than wearing separated two-piece dresses, it would fit the time better if Lee Bo-young wear one-pieced dresses instead".
Korean )
