다시 보니 선녀 같다

Dah-shee boh-nee sun-nyuh gaht-dah

"Dasi boni seonnyeo gatda" is a meme originating from a scene in the 1993 Hong Kong film 'Flirting Scholar'. This meme began to gain popularity around 2018 in South Korean internet communities, primarily in the form of image macros. It seems to have been discovered and spread alongside other popular phrases related to 're-evaluation' that were trending during the 2018 FIFA World Cup. It has consistently been used and maintained its popularity, even being featured in a COVID-19 related parody by Daegu MBC in 2022.

This meme originated from a scene in the Hong Kong film 'Flirting Scholar' where the protagonist Tang Bohu (Stephen Chow) is initially disappointed by Qiu Xiang's (Gong Li) appearance, finding her unremarkable. However, when he compares her to other extremely unattractive women around him, he is amazed by Qiu Xiang's beauty, seeing her as a celestial maiden. The original line was "She's truly beautiful enough to applaud when seen this way," but a fansub translator's "super-translation" of it as "Now that I look again, she's like a celestial maiden" led to its establishment as a meme.

The core meaning of this meme is used when an object, person, or situation was initially considered not particularly outstanding or even bad, but is later re-evaluated as significantly better when compared to other, worse or inferior alternatives. In other words, it's not an absolute compliment but rather a metaphorical expression indicating the "lesser of two evils" or "relatively better" status.

This meme frequently appears in contexts where a specific subject or situation is re-evaluated by comparing it to others, across various fields such as games, animation, movies, and sports. It is not limited to a specific age group or gender and is widely consumed by the general user base familiar with internet culture.

• It was parodied in Daegu MBC news, metaphorically referring to the COVID-19 situation.

• There's a parody where the live-action adaptation of Pokémon's Pikachu was initially criticized as unappealing, but after the live-action Sonic adaptation appeared even more awkward, people used "Dasi boni seonnyeo gatda" to express that the Pikachu adaptation now looked relatively better.

This meme implies "relatively better" when compared to worse alternatives, rather than signifying complete positivity or praise for the subject. Therefore, using it when genuinely complimenting someone or something can lead to misunderstandings. Furthermore, in some communities, this meme has been criticized as misogynistic due to its origin in evaluating a woman's appearance. Thus, it's advisable to consider the context and the feelings of others when using it.