K-Pop Crossover: Horror Director Lary Love Dolley Looks Under The Knife for K-Pop Plastic Surgery [EXCLUSIVE]

Lary Love Dolley calls herself a "DIY/guerrilla filmmaker." She is a horror writer, director and actress who isn't afraid of transformation. Using makeup and sometimes a little prosthetics, Dolley can become really quite ghastly.

No, none of these transformations are permanent. But the scream queen knows drastic plastic when she sees it, and she sees it in K-pop.

"I enjoy watching others get plastic surgery procedures and transformations, like K-pop stars Brown Eyed Girls and Park Bom for example," Dolley told KpopStarz exclusively.

Rumors that K-pop stars are going under the knife abound. There's a whole website devoted to "K-pop Surgery." They picked on IU's nose job; used their powers of deduction on G-Dragon of Big Bang's nostril reduction and hit Sunny from Girls' Generation in the forehead with implant accusations.

Just last month, KpopStarz reported that ZE:A's Kwanghee has become a spokesmodel for Korea Plastic Surgery.  People who have never heard a single K-pop song have heard of K-pop plastic surgery.

The director saw the mainstreaming of plastic surgery as an artistic opportunty. 

"This interest lends itself well to horror. I wrote a script called 'Pumped.'  It's a love story," Dolley deadpanned. "Psych. It's a horror about plastic surgery."

Dolley did extensive preparation for the work, not just writing the screenplay, but plotting its direction in a very realistic photo shoot.  

"On movie and photo shoots I usually do my own makeup since I have these particular concepts in my mind and feel well versed enough in makeup artistry to execute them. I can do beauty and horror makeup," she said. 

"I have a preoccupation with watching plastic surgery procedures," she explained. "Korea, like America has a high rate of cosmetic surgeries."  


The New Orleans artist ain't just whistling "Dixie." Ten years ago most Koreans who got plastic surgery were in their 20s and 30s. By 2011, South Korea's Ministry of Education had to write and publish a book warning high school students about "plastic surgery syndrome" because some survey from Korea JoongAng Daily found that 41.4 percent of teens were "willing to have plastic surgery for beauty."

"Being in the entertainment industry, you notice how common cosmetic surgery is and now it's not just reserved for the wealthy or famous," Dolly agreed.

Dr. Sharon Lee, who brought her research on cosmetic surgery in South Korea to ''Around the World with Oprah'' documented how plastic surgery can start as early as high school because it is seen as a  "means by which to access power in Korean society.''

"One of the main driving factors in the Korean plastic surgery boom is K-pop, so many people want to emulate their idols," said the filmmaker. "Now all you need is a surgeon. Not everyone admits to the work but some K-pop stars admitted being familiar with the sharp side of a scalpel like Kwhangee from ZE:A and Goo Hara from Kara."

"For entertainers like K-pop and Hollywood stars it's this big open secret," Dolley said.

Yet Chocolat swears they "are 100% natural beauties." Miryo promises she always belonged in Brown Eyed Girls and ZE:A's Kwanghee denies that he hasn't been able to drink alcohol since he got plastic surgery.

"With such an interest in horror and plastic surgery it is no surprise that a couple of years ago I came across the Korean horror film Cinderella," Dolley said. "In the 2006 psychological horror film, plastic surgery takes the main stage in the plot. Without giving too much away, the story is of a surgeon (Yoon-hee), an orphan she adopts (Faceless Girl) and Yoon-He's own daughter (Hyeon-su) who takes center stage as she begins to heal, causing the Faceless Girl to be neglected (hence the title Cinderella) In an ugly turn of events a tragedy ensues and a ghost wreaks havoc on the Yoon-hee's patients causing much terror."

"Cinderella is less tongue in cheek and more scalpel in cheek as it points the mirror back at the surgery obsessed culture to see the ugly root of such a fixation. It does not condemn those preoccupied with modifying their appearance but does question such motives. The film is a haunting mix of satire and horror," Dolley proclaimed.

Lary Love Dolley's short horror "Ectoplasm" will air on American Horrors. 

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indie films
world news
plastic surgery
horror films
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