When the subject of plastic surgery appears in pop culture, finding a work that views it purely through a bright and positive lens is not easy. In dramas and films, plastic surgery is often utilized to criticize humanity's endless lookism or as a tool of ruin brought about by vain desires. It is a common cliché to depict the act of plastic surgery itself as dark and negative, only to conclude with the predictable, moralistic perspective through the protagonist's realization that "nevertheless, true beauty lies within."
This narrative tendency is largely similar in most countries, transcending the East and the West. In South Korea, the movie 200 Pounds Beauty is considered a unique case that elevated the subject of plastic surgery into a highly cheerful and positive comedy, achieving commercial success. Aside from that, in most thrillers or horror dramas, plastic surgery clinics are consistently portrayed as gloomy and secretive spaces, heavily depicted as taboo realms fraught with numerous ethical issues, such as side effects and identity confusion. However, the act of plastic surgery and the social standards applied to it are by no means issues limited to specific countries.
People often refer to South Korea as a "plastic surgery paradise" with a hint of self-deprecation, but looking at global statistics or the reality in other countries, the truth is slightly different. Generally, it is just that South Korea's plastic surgery medical system possesses an infrastructure that provides much more precise and superior medical services at a relatively lower cost compared to other nations. It is only natural that supply develops where there is clear demand, and the preferences for specific procedures or body parts distinctly vary by country. For instance, in South American countries like Brazil, which value physical curves, the overwhelming majority of plastic surgeries are reportedly focused on buttocks or body contouring rather than the face.
In this way, one of the reasons South Korea's facial plastic surgery and cosmetic procedures have developed so leaps and bounds is arguably the exceptional combination of medical surgical techniques with the delicate manual dexterity and precision stemming from Korean chopstick culture. As a result, patient satisfaction after surgery is extremely high, leading to a substantial scale of so-called "medical tourists" who visit Korea purely for plastic surgery or dermatological procedures. In connection to this, the fact that not only in Korea but also in neighboring Japan, quite a lot of the public are routinely encountering and agonizing over plastic surgery can be interestingly glimpsed through the Japanese Netflix original drama Downtime.
Usually, when you launch and access the Netflix app, the works that the platform heavily promotes or the hottest titles with the most viewing data are often displayed prominently at the very top of the main screen. Seeing that Downtime has recently been frequently exposed on the main screen of Korean Netflix, it means that the platform positively judged its completeness and box office potential not just for the Japanese domestic market but globally as well. Just a quick glance at the show's poster—featuring a doctor in scrubs and people wrapped in bandages—naturally gives a strong intuition that it is a story intertwined with plastic surgery clinics.
As the play progresses, it forms a bitter consensus that the social gaze toward plastic surgery is not much different in Japan than in Korea. Compared to the past, it is true that social perception of people who undergo plastic surgery or the act itself has become much more flexible and improved, but conservative standards sending an unfavorable gaze—saying things like "recklessly taking a knife to the face inherited from one's parents"—still strictly exist in unseen places. As flows from the lines of a character in the drama, the fact that among countless living creatures on Earth, only humans attempt to artificially modify their bodies rather than leaving them in their natural state leaves a quite philosophical resonance. There is also a positive interpretation that this is possible solely because humans possess a powerful emotion toward beauty and the highly advanced medical technology to realize it.
For some, plastic surgery is a fierce matter of survival that they have no choice but to opt for, much like reconstructive or burn treatment. Nevertheless, the reason the general public usually casts an unfavorable gaze upon plastic surgery is because they prematurely assume its purpose stems from a shallow perspective of merely satisfying outward vanity and wanting to look prettier than others. This cold and critical gaze is perfectly represented through the upright values of the protagonist 'Numata Fumi', played by Matsuoka Mayu. As an excellent surgeon, she extremely disparages plastic surgery, unable to understand why anyone would take a knife to a perfectly fine body for such a thing, and looks down endlessly on the cosmetic medical industry.
However, the values of the plastic surgeon 'Toyama Rin', played by Naka Riisa, who stands at the opposite extreme, are completely different. To Numata's sharp criticism that surgical operations are only for those who are physically sick, Toyama firmly retorts that she came to the perfect place at this plastic surgery clinic. She emphasizes that the people who voluntarily visit this clinic for plastic surgery simply lack physical diseases; in fact, they are all patients with sick minds. Behind those who make the massive decision to get on the operating table just to become a little prettier, there may be tearful stories of their inner selves getting sick and hurting due to extreme complexes about their outward appearance.
Unlike in the past, the concept of illness or being "sick" in modern medicine has expanded to a broader meaning that encompasses not only visible physical damage captured on X-rays but also mental agony like depression and plummeting self-esteem that gnaws at oneself. In reality, there are countless cases of people whose life trajectories positively changed 180 degrees by overcoming their long-tormenting appearance complexes and regaining lost confidence through successful plastic surgery. Among the drama's episodes, there is a poignant narrative of an aspiring voice actor, who repeatedly failed auditions due to her appearance, taking on massive debt to undergo plastic surgery. If one proactively overcomes their fatal flaws by borrowing the power of modern medicine, plastic surgery can certainly be a positive and valuable act from the perspective of mental healing.
The gaze toward doctors who perform plastic surgeries or the industry itself tends to be portrayed somewhat secularly and negatively in most medical dramas. Even attempts to forcibly rejuvenate and prevent aging using advanced medical technology are often depicted from an ethical standpoint as arrogant acts defying the providence of nature. This drama also depicts the ironic fate of the protagonist Numata, who dedicated her life's belief to life-saving surgical operations, getting caught up in an unexpected medical accident and inevitably transferring to a plastic surgery clinic. To pay off her family's debt that has grown uncontrollably massive, she falls into a highly realistic dilemma where she has no choice but to bend her beliefs and knock on the door of a plastic surgery clinic where she can make big money in a short period.
In the play, there are also biting stories criticizing the current trend of young doctors skipping proper, systematic, and grueling surgical residency training and heading straight into lucrative cosmetic procedures or plastic surgeries. As polarization in the medical field deepens, plastic surgery often seems to be depicted as a bitter realm chasing only commercial profit and making big money rather than a noble sense of mission dealing with lives, evoking a sense of regret. Interestingly, familiar Korean cosmetics stores, Korean signboards, and stories of teenagers enthusiastic about K-pop naturally permeate various parts of this Japanese drama's background screens. Rather than an intention to negatively highlight Korea's image as a plastic surgery powerhouse, this seems to be a device reflecting the natural status of Korean culture deeply rooted in current Japanese society.
Ultimately, this work is a masterpiece that forces viewers to think multi-dimensionally about the fiercely conflicting values of two characters—between the essential medical art of saving lives and the desire to create beauty—through the sensitive lens of plastic surgery. The medical term 'Downtime', meaning the period of resting while briefly disconnected from the world until the swelling goes down and one recovers after plastic surgery, is significant. However, I feel that the original Japanese title Plastic Beauty, which penetrates the desperate human nature trying to fill inner deficiencies with artificial beauty, pierces the essential message of the work much more intuitively and accurately.
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