Obviousy she's had some work done, otherwise there wouldn't be so much controversy over some old photos. I think everybody changes over a period of 9 nine years but nobody looks like a totally different person without going under the knife so if you think she hasn't had work done or she still looks the same, you're delusional!

But come on, some of the comments above are just uncalled for. Saying "she looked really ugly" or how you're prettier than her "real self"... what horrible things to say. She looks different, yes but in no way was she ugly before. Maybe it's people and comments like that which drove her to have surgery in the first place

oh my, is that really her?or is that someone else? she looks totally different. okay, i wouldnt call her ugly but she was far from pretty. i mean, her eyes is always her biggest asset, but knowing that it was done under knife.... hmm... dissappointed.
and yeah..hmm.. nvm.

plastic or not...just admit it...be honest, it will lessen the commotion

I don't see that much of a difference, other than the eyes. At 17 a girl can still have baby fat! These low resolution pics don't prove whether she had surgery or not.

OH Please!!!!!!!!!! That Jang woman looks NOTHING like her former self either. Unbelievable--Java Beans, what the hell is wrong with you? Are you blind? How can you sit there and say "given that Jang's appearance hasn't changed that much". WHAT?? First of all, she has had a nose job, that is OBVIOUS. It is not even the same nose at all. Further, her eyes are most likely done also. I am more appalled by YOUR insistence that Jang looks "about the same" than I am by the fact that Lee Da Hae clearly had her entire face re-worked.

Both women are plastic, as are 85% of all women in Korea. It's pathetic.

Why has my comment been deleted?

surgery or not, is not the main issue, people!
Enjoy the quality of acting, not the physical appearance...
Ugly or beauty, is up to your own eyes to judge, do not simply condemn people on what they have chosen in life. Live with it! Get real!

SHE DEFINITELY GOT HER EYES DONE, JAWS SHAVED, AND FORHEAD IMPLANTED FOR A SMOOTHER ROUNDER...
I ALWAYS KNEW SHE WASN'T A NATURAL BEAUTY FROM THE START. YOU CAN TELL NATURALS FROM ARTIFICIALS.

relax man... just face it. this is what always happened when netizens found out before and after pics. especially when the actress denied it before. she obviously had eye and nose surgery.

OMG... I don't mind them having a little plastic surgery but that doesn't look like her at all. So disappointing... I thought that was her real beauty... Oh well... Korea has the best plastic surgeons! I think I'll go to Korea and have my face done too. ^_^

ppl do anything these days to bring people down don't know?

ITs the MAKE UP FOR GOD'S SAKE.SHE DID NOT DO ANY PLASTIC SURGERY,AND IM NOT EVEN A FAN !

People grow you know.Look how diff she looked during MyGirl's time compared to know due to the bad weight loss!she looks like she'll get blown away by the wind.

To me, jaw line, nose cheek still look the same, because I saw other photo as well, I work in cosmetic lines, so I know how make up can change people face. She did'nt lie, I tell you. This is beauty pagent, it was shown on the tv, not taken from personal blog etc, she's not stupid enough to lie about it.

I can't believe some people are saying she was not attractive, and even worse, ugly. Uhmmmm... didn't JB include in her post that Lee Da Hae won 1st place in the contest? I understand the criticisms, but sad to read the bashings. With uncalled comments like these, no wonder there are rampant celeb suicides. When they do commit suicide, netizens wonder "why did she/he have to do that?".. then either bash that celeb again or feel sad for her/his passing.

definitely the eyes and the nose. the difference is just so big..hmm..what else..she just grew her eyebrows..haha :)

@66

they pic you provided just proved to me that she definitely got a least one thing done(her nose)! so you say that she had a BIG nose when she was a teen but going into the pageant her nose looks noticeably reduced in size and finally now her nose it tad bit sharper? something doesn't sound right.
seriously people are in denial if they think she didn't get some cosmetic surgery. a fact is a fact. if she wants to lie about getting cosmetic touch-ups which a lot of celebrities lie about, then i guess she lacks in values.

@112
please, don't pretend to be miss innocent. it's not like you've never bashed anyone before or should i say stated your opinions.

She used to have a SQUARE jaw. so obvious.

The eyes are the only thing we can't change during plastic surgery

I'm sure she did something on her face.
Never like Lee Da Hae before. She is always so affected

but i think is kinda obvious that her eyes have become bigger rite?i mean noone can really deny that.

Javabeans, these are NOT newly released pictures and I really question your motivation for posting these here. You know that this will result in flame wars and bring out the bitchy haters and the loyal fans. You say that you want commenters to keep it nice but you make these posts every other week where you yourself fuel the kind of comments you say you don't want. Are you trying to generate traffic for your site? Why else would you post photos which have been in circulation already for a while and ignore the many photos of Lee Da-hae from her youth and make a post that is not news at all?

I think she has not had surgery.The eyes look like they're done but if you look at all the photos of Lee Da-hae the fans have posted here you can see that she looks pretty much the same after accounting for the aging process. Yes these sets of photos make her look different but if you look at her high school photos, you can see that she has simply grown into her face. But my opinion is irrelevant. There is no way anyone can say whether she has had surgery based on one set of photos and especially when her other photos show her looking the same as now.

But I am more disappointed in how you celebrity-bait on your blog. You do this often enough that I wonder why you create this kind of tone in your comments section. Yes, it is your blog and all that but there are many here who come to read good news not celebrity-baiting. There was Pop Seoul for that.

No wonder her eyes looked fold. Now that I see the old picture, I can distinguish Lee Da Hae then and now. She had fooled all this time :(

wow, she looks really different. Of course, you can still see that it's her but I think only because we know it's her.

I still prefer natural beauty. But I guess in Korea, it's really not a big deal anymore.

Going under the knife is very common among Korean celebrities or any celebrities for that matter. It is not surprising at all. What bothers people the most is when you lied about it and being so hypocrite. If you are upfront about your plastic face, people would appreciate your honesty and wouldn't make a fuss about it.

Be real people, she obviously had some cosmetic surgery done on her face. Some of her old pictures posted by her fans could have been taken after her surgery. In 2001, she was only 17 so technically she was still in high school. Actually after looking at her old pictures again, she still looks vastly different than she is discounting the age and the make-up. In those pictures her nose was flatter and her eyes were smaller too. Of course, the pictures are more appealing than the old pageant pictures.

If she truly didn't go under the knife, wouldn't she already posted something to clarify the accusation by the netizens by now? Anyhow, it's irrelevant whether she is natural or not, it's the acting that counts. I hope she can be more truthful though.

I agree with JB. She gave us all something to speculate about.

At the end of the day, we will still live (or die) no matter if LDH got the surgery done or not. Live and let live people.

for some people, looks never change.. for others, they never look the same in any of their pics. Diversity. Appreciate it!!

don't know what's with all the makeup but both girls seem to have smaller eyes in the pageant pictures. Must have pounded heaps of makeup on.
So I doubt it's surgery cos both girls still have the same bone structures and also, like previous commentors have stated, there are pictures of Lee Da Hae in highschool (i.e. before she entered in the pageant) and she pretty much looks the same as she does now, maybe just chubbier and without makeup of course.

umm, she just probably lost weight her cheekbones and chin is the same angle just not as much fat on it and she probably did those circle lens thingies that make her eyes bigger and rounder, alll celebrities do that now

my 2 cents? it's all the makeup and the waaaaaaay different palette of makeup in 2001. and a LOT of eyeliner.

honestly, i can still see her in both photos, although, yunno....
what's the big deal, either way?

@120 Train wreck

For your information, this is the first time I've ever seen these photos of Lee Da Hae (and I'm sure I'm not the only one). I appreciate that Javabeans has posted them because I would not have seen them otherwise, and I find the discussion of plastic surgery very interesting.

I can make up my own mind whether or not LDH has undergone surgery, and whether or not that changes my opinion of her as a person, and whether or not that will affect my opinion as an actor. Surgery or not, I still very much enjoy her performance in My Girl (which I was re-watching when this post came out) and I still very much do NOT enjoy her performance in Hello! Miss.

those who said it was because of makeup are blind or just too bias... how can circle lens make double eyelids and bigger eyes? even if she wore the same makeup she wore in the right picture, her eyes wont go bigger. it is very obvious she had surgery.

if i didnt read this blog, i would never know she had surgery. always thought she's natural before.

actually, i think a couple years or so ago, lee dahae announced to the public that she did get plastic surgery.
& i agree with birdscout; i dont really care about what she fixed or whatnot, i just like seeing her act, especially in my girl.

thank you, JB, for this article. It is interesting to a lot of people, and I know that I'm not the only person who was really surprised to see these pictures of Lee Dahae.

and, it's like #124 Imed said: she was 17 during the pageant, so the 'high school' pictures were probably taken afterwards. consider that the average age of entering college freshmen in Korea is closer to American age 19-20, she certainly had time to get some work done between the Miss Chunhyang pageant and finishing high school in Sidney.

others have mentioned that LDH has never released her childhood pictures. it seems obvious that there's a reason for this. imo, LDH's dishonesty on the whole matter is far more disturbing than having had surgery. while she's always been very pretty, she has also given off the impression of hiding things. for me, that's a turn-off.

It is possible she didn't have surgery...I remember my friends in college using scotch tape on their eyelids before going to bed at night to try to "train" their single-lids into double-lid ssangapul. I was really weirded out and I laughed as my friend cut pieces of tape to the precise shape to apply on her eyes. She said a lot of korean girls do it and I was surprised that it ACTUALLY WORKED for her, but she already had a half-ssangapul and wanted it to be more distinct.

So there is a possibility she didn't get actual surgery, but was able to alter her eye-lids with other methods. Oh, the pains women go through for a "pretty" face!

The only difference I see is the eyes. The shape and bridge of her nose looks pretty much the same, thought it is a bit hard to tell because of the grain before pic. And her face probably looks narrower now from loosing some babyfat as she's aged and getting skinner. She was very pretty before too, but could have used a better makeup artist.

Why does the public feel entitled to information over something so personal as plastic surgery? Its the actress's PERSONAL CHOICE, and if she wants to keep it private, so be it. Being a public figure doesn't mean the public owns her; they aren't entitled to her body and what she does with it. So what's all this moral outrage over her supposed lie? Regardless of how people reacted to other celebrities being up-front about their surgeries, people tend to be super-judgemental about plastic surgery (calling people "plastic," " "vain," drawing distinctions between "natural" and "fake") SO OF COURSE people feel enormous pressure to hide their surgeries. If plastic surgery was really such a non-issue, then people wouldn't feel the need to hide it.

Please! This is such a nonstory. "Leading to inevitable plastic-surgery suspicions"? People are in denial if they are still surprised to hear that someone went under the knife. Only things of interest would be if 1) a person denied it and later discovered to have lied, and 2) if a person really DIDN'T have any work done.

Only GOD knows the truth..
But i think everybody has right to do whatever he/she likes..

And yes, i noticed some differences between old Da Hae and recent Da Hae..

i'm being neutral here...no Bias anything

but it is look like 2 difference persons..

she obviously getting something done with her face..

but the thing about plastic surgery is.. if it come out as pretty as she does now..

they will get over it..

What a surprise, I thought she's a "natural". Had you posted a "guess who" using that pageant pic. I can't even tell, she's the now famous DH in those pageant pics.

There's nothing wrong with "beautification". A lot do same. If celebs, lots will get curious if true or not........some are brave to admit , some are not , those who dont want to speak up well..."silence means yes".
It matters, knowing celebs are naturally beautiful or not! the issue deserves being posted here. There are many issues like this before in many blogs...then and now pics of stars. As a fan I'd like to know too if my fave is natural or not...it wont affect my "fan shipping"..though I know it will make others look at my fave differently.

This made me admire recent celeb who did something and admitted..Solbi....though I think she dont need to "change"..and i hate the fact that she did...but I admire that she admitted.

I personally think she DIDN'T get plastic surgery because even though her face looks different, people looks change as they get older, my fat baby cheeks are now gone and all my pictures from long ago and recent are different. And when people become celebrities, they get lots of facial massages and more healthy beauty therapy. So her skin could have gotten better. As for her eyes, it seems to me, it's the question of her putting on thick eyeliner during the paegent and less or none at all on the recent pic.

hahaha...those pics look kinda different....but...who's care...everyone wanna be pretty..i bet all girls wanna be pretty no matter what...but get plastic surgery....emm..depends on that person....i don't wanna judge her...cuz it's her right....but me as personal...i already thank to God for all God gives me...if i don't thank to God...i must the beast one!..so make ur self prettier with ur personality..ur kindness...or make up,...hahaa...
but i like lee dae hae..she's pretty!!!!!!yea she's really pretty,,no wonder if kang in suju loves her..hahahaahah

ldh fc pls stop overprotecting she did get plastic surgery

Hello people, you know what? Nowadays practically EVERYBODY in Korea has plastic surgery, whether it is the eyes or the nose or the jaw or the boobs. They do it. It is just a matter of whether you are lucky or not. If you are unlucky, photos of your past will be leaked and if you are lucky people will believe that you are 100% natural. So you see, we live in such a society. That is why looks ain't everything. You must also have the character, talent and attitude to survive in this ever-changing media. And it's not easy. That's where plastic surgery comes along. It will help you and assist you, like a secretary. But don't expect it to do all the work for you, cos' it won't.

just curious "dh", but isn't "dh" da hae? why are you against people protecting her?

she looks very different!!! i cant believe it. obviously she got it done. no wonder she looks like a doll now... used to admire it, but if its plastic.. nothing special about it.. everyone can look pretty with surgery.

i know its personal choice, but doing surgery to make u look pretty is simply ungrateful and greedy. i respect someone who looks moderate than someone who looks pretty but plastic.

thats why those who are real nature beauty are very rare and lucky.

This is getting ridiculous. Javabeans, I have to agree with Trainwreck here in questioning your motives for posting these pictures. I'm a frequent visitor to your blog, and I really look forward to your recaps and snippets of news, but this isn't news, it's a trashy tabloid article. Sites like Popseoul post articles like these around 20 times a week. You must have known what kind of comments it would engender:

a) I love LDH no matter what she does.
b) I hate her, and this just makes my dislike of her justified.
c) She's totally plastic.
d) She's a natural beauty.

and lastly, there's e) Why did you post this? What purpose does this serve? And: isn't it sad that people find this newsworthy?

I really think you are underestimating the average intelligence of the people who visit your blog. Which, to put it bluntly, is rather insulting.

Before you put up a post, shouldn't you ask yourself questions like "Is this important for people to know?", "Would I just be unnecessarily encouraging gossip and rumours?", "Would this article have detrimental effects on the career/personal life of the persons involved?", etc. For the above articles, it's safe to say that the answers to those questions are "No.", "Yes" and "Yes." I used to believe that you were a responsible blogger, and I still cannot stop myself from questioning what a post that has a heading like "LDH's old pageant photos" is doing on your blog.

At least sites like Popseoul and allkpop are unashamed, and don't pretend to be anything other than they are. According to me, this blog has veered away from its original intent.

@ #145 Chopper: Epic fail on comment ettiquette.

Your whole statement is ridiculous.

If anything, questioning how the masses would perceive any given topic and filtering one's own posts to make things smooth and easy is underestimating the intelligence of readers.

I question your motives for attacking a great blog which has thoughtful commentary on pop culture, sophisticated drama recaps and cool indie music.

JB's work helps bring art to the masses, and the posts are so enjoyable to read. People come to this blog b/c it offers something unique. If you need to rant like this, wait for Fridays to come around, and keep comments to the topic at hand.

Otherwise, keep your erudite musings to yourself.

@ #147 eunbit- i sooo agree with you ^___^

@145, Chopper:

Waaaaay off base.

First and foremost, regardless of what JB posts, it's her blog. If you don't like it, maybe go someplace else?

Second, it makes no sense to presume to know anything about this blog, JB's intent, or anything relating to her, and then to say that JB has veered off course. How can you possibly know anything?

Third, Eunbit is absolutely right. You fail tremendously in the etiquette department.

The fact that I am even responding to your post is not due to its merits of which there are none, but due to the fact that your lack of understanding and manners is substantial enough to get me to post. JB can defend herself and her blog just fine, but for her to respond is actually a loss on her part. I'm only sorry that she felt the need to respond at all.

Best for you to apologize, then come back as a new handle and mind your manners, else just go away.

JB,

As I do not expect any apology forthcoming from anyone, let me apologize to you for everything, really on behalf of everyone who has pissed you off.

I think that we, that includes me, have sometimes forgotten that your blog is your blog, and we are able to enjoy your blog only if continue to think it to be worthwhile.

We, and this includes me, are sorry if we have been rude or worse, and I hope that you able to overlook our lack of courtesy and respect to you this time. I can only speak for myself, but I hope that my sincere apology is able to generate some level of understanding in others, so that future flareups will be few and far between.

-Samsooki