(machine buzzes)
(computer mouse clicking)
- [Rachael] This is weird, that's my bone?
That is so odd.
- Yep, the problem is that your ...
skin is a little bit,
you have some fat here and here.
So here and here.
- I'm Rachael Krishna, I'm
a reporter for Buzzfeed News
and I am morbidly fascinated
in the South Korean
plastic surgery industry.
Then I had the opportunity
recently to go to South Korea.
Seoul, in particular and
see what the actual process
is like for people.
(camera clicks)
I decided to go for a surgery,
basically I asked them
to change the shape of my face.
- Give me some head on ones.
(camera clicks)
- So we sent some photos
of my face, like front,
side, profile, to give the doctors an idea
of what they'll be working with.
(soft pop music)
- Now if you don't speak
Korean it can be very difficult
to know what kind of
service you're getting,
know what hospitals to go to.
And so DocFinder is a service which say
we'll help match you with a surgery,
we will find you a room
that you can recover in.
We will take a translator
there to make sure
you're not horribly ripped off,
and they can just hold your
hand through the process.
- Oh, hi!
- Hello!
- It's nice to see you again.
- Nice to see you again.
(makes kissing sounds)
(soft pop music)
- So it's a couple of days
since I sent off my photos
and since then I've been
sent some clinics to look at.
DocFinder recommended some
clinics so we are now going to go
and have consultations at two of them.
Going to get X-rays, going
to see what the doctors
would do to my jaw and let's
go, it's gonna be exciting!
(cars rush by)
(car doors open)
- We decided to go to two
clinics and have consultation.
They have a lovely cafe.
- Yeah.
- You go into both you
fill in the medical form.
Uh, not that I, I've
never had any surgery.
(speaks Korean)
- No, no this is all very new.
- No, never?
- Saying if you've ever
had plastic surgery before
just in case, you know, they do some work
and another part falls off
because of the previous surgery
or something like that, I don't know.
It's all kind of very
glamorous and makes you feel
very comfortable, very safe so far.
(camera clicks)
(bright music)
- So we're in the consultant's room,
we're gonna meet with a beauty consultant.
I'm gonna talk through what I want changed
and then the doctor gives,
puts the facts of the X-ray
together with my photos and the
beauty consultant's feedback
from what I said and then
makes it a whole picture.
- Yeah I've always thought
my jaw is quite heavier.
I don't really know what I
was expecting going into this.
(speaks Korean)
- My bite alignment is a bit weird.
I know that my jaw
protrudes for a while now.
It was very weird having
someone actually agree
and say that there's something
wrong with your face.
Usually you know, if you go to your mates
and you're like oh, I hate
my cheeks, I hate my eyes,
whatever, they'll be like
no, you're beautiful!
You know, everyone's face is different,
you should embrace your differences.
Sure, okay, thank you.
Then you meet the doctor
and the doctor's like the hardcore one.
(speaking Korean)
The doctor will look at your X-rays
and tell you what's wrong with your face
and be very frank about it.
- More wide, right?
- Uh-huh.
These guys kept going
on about symmetrical,
and they're like oh you'll
get your face symmetrical.
And I was like are faces
supposed to be symmetrical?
Aren't they supposed
to be a little bit off?
One of them was telling
me how my chin was weird.
I've never before
thought my chin was weird
and she was like yeah
your chin's off-center.
I felt like a few weeks afterwards,
after they went around that big screen
and was like this is wrong with your jaw,
I did keep seeing it in the mirror.
Maybe I was very naive going into this
but I've learned that plastic
surgery is really real
it's a very intense process.
A few years ago I got
some of my colleagues
to have their faces Photoshopped
by South Korean plastic surgeons.
Seeing the way it's
portrayed sometimes online,
seeing if it's like oh yeah, you know,
this K-pop star just got their face fixed,
it's way longer process than that.
It's way deeper.
There's getting a lump
lasered off your face
because it makes you feel a bit insecure,
but having your jaw smashed
in, your nose stuck together
so it fix certain way
really creeped me out.
And I know that for some
people it is a really big issue
and that they do save up money,
and they do want to get it fixed
and that's absolutely fine,
but personally for me it just reaffirmed
that I'm fine with not looking
like a perfect kind of model
and that I can have this interest
in this very intense industry
without ever putting my foot
into the pool and getting
involved in it in any way.
(upbeat music)
