That included addressing the tensions between the American feminist objective of “being true to yourself” and the South Korean obsession with achieving the feminine ideal, all the way to surgically altering one’s appearance.Įdited excerpts from the conversation follow. Cha, who is based in Brooklyn, about the social and economic dynamics in contemporary South Korea. The power of “If I Had Your Face” is in its depiction of the unforgiving reality of Kyuri, Miho, Ara and Wanna’s lives - namely that self-acceptance often comes at great cost and beauty is the ultimate commodity. Cha confronts South Korea’s social norms, including its impossibly high beauty standards, its rigid social hierarchies, and its old-boy culture where business deals are done in “room salons,” the private establishments where attractive women serve men drinks. The result is “If I Had Your Face,” an unflinching look at how a quartet of friends, who all live in the same apartment building, and do not come from wealth or status, pursue their dreams and ambitions in the fiercely competitive South Korean capital. Cha over 25 years to flip the script and write a novel about four young women navigating early adulthood in modern-day Seoul.
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