It's Friday here in Malaysia and I decided to start a new trend. Or should I say a new habit where I get to write about the recent movie that I had just watched earlier and I am hoping to start doing this for every Friday. I call it, Friday Flick Review and for tonight, I am here to present my own take of Netflix's latest South Korean movie - Love and Leashes starring SNSD's Seohyun and former U-KISS Lee Junyoung. Spoiler alert for those who is about to read this.
So let's start from the very beginning - the story is based on a famous Korean webtoon called Moral Sense where it involves, Jung Ji Woo, an ambitious young woman who works in PR Department of a large corporation and Jung Ji Hoo, the new manager that is appointed to the PR Department and has a secret fetish for BDSM. The story began when Ji Woo, accidentally received Ji Hoo's package where she later learned of his secret fetish. A few incidents later, Ji Hoo proposes if Ji Woo would be his master as he has an interest to be the submissive one. Ji Woo agreed out of curiousity and soon the two began their interesting relationship for the period of three months.
Now, what do I think about this movie? Truthfully, my reason to watch this flick is entirely because of Lee Junyoung. U-KISS has always been one of my favourite K-pop group and since Junyoung became a part of the project group UNB, he became my bias and immediately stole my interest. This was not the first time Junyoung had acted as even before UNB happened, Junyoung was a part of a South Korean witty series, Avenger's Social Club. So yes, he was a big part of the reason why I wanted to watch this movie. Seohyun is also not a rookie in acting. I loved her in Scarlett Heart and also Weightlifting Fairy, Kim Bok Joo but I don't remember her playing a lead role or a role similar to someone like Ji Woo. Ji Woo in this movie is one very interesting character. I honestly love her spiciness. She is a hardworking yet very sharp with her tongue. Well, when your boss is a misogynistic a-hole, you learn to have a sharp tongue. Ji Hoo on the other hand, aside from his secret fetish (and his good looks) there is pretty much nothing interesting about him.
The story follows these two individuals, who decided to try out a temporary relationship that surrounds the world of BDSM, where Ji Woo is the master and Ji Hoo is the submissive slave, simply put. Unlike Ji Hoo, Ji Woo (damn, their names is confusing me) has no clue or knowledge about BDSM. Nor does she one who would pass judgement on those who have obsession for that. That was what attracted Ji Hoo about her, she was easy and humble yet charismatic. Interested with Ji Hoo's idea, Ji Woo decided to try it out and soon she made her research about BDSM and slowly adapted to being the master. Soon, she realizes that her feelings are growing on Ji Hoo and courageously asking him on a date. Unknown to her, Ji Hoo is fearful of falling in love again especially with Ji Woo who is now part of his fetish relationship, which is not supposed to be romantic. This is due to his recent relationship where he decided to share his fetish but his ex-girlfriend is not into the idea at all. She is actually disgusted of it and of him too. Although, it is pretty obvious he also was catching feelings for Ji Woo. Quite honestly, the story started off good but by mid movie, with all the scenes of them switching between the two leads in the office during day time and their secret lives in the night time, it was starting to get boring.
The climate begins when it was their final night foreplay as per of their contract, Ji Hoo's ex-girlfriend decided to surprise him with a visit to his apartment where she disrespectfully humiliated him, even though there was no one there to see it, but it hurts what she said and things get a little awkward as she left and cross paths with Ji Woo just outside of his place. While I expected something more dramatic to happen...it didn't. The only dramatic happened was when Ji Woo pushed Ji Hoo away when he made out with her and they ended their time together with Ji Woo walking away and cried her eyes out at home. Couple of days later, almost all hells broke loose when a secret recording of the two, in private time together, were shared via e-mail (accidentally) by Ji Woo's assistant to the whole corporation. And here is where we get a glimpse of reality, which I will elaborate soon. Both of them were sent for a disciplinary hearing but they were let off with warning, I guess because well, they really didn't harm anyone but in some sense it was quite indecent. In the end, it was as expected - they got together still working in the same corporation but the one good thing that came out of it is that they or Ji Woo got a small revenge when she with the help of her assistant, released 'indecent' recordings of almost all the top people of the corporation including her misogynistic boss.
If I have to comment about this movie, the storyline is a bore but that is because this sort of storyline is not really up my alley. However, if I were to be more open and less personal about my views, I would say this movie is cute. It is light, warm and fuzzy. Yes, with the concept of the story involving BDSM, believe it or not, there is nothing too intense that was provocative at all. Most of it are done quite tastefully but almost everything about this movie is pretty expected which is why, I wasn't thrown off my skin for it. The acting though, I don't see much flaws. The two leads were convincing in their roles and the emotions delivered were just right. Did it pushed their talents to the limit, I don't think so. I lvoe Junyoung and I know Seohyun can really deliver but these two characters, it didn't push the envelope for them. I have seen them done much better.
What I really like is that small bite of reality - that no matter where, in this world, women are always criticized more than men and men, or most men, would take this opportunity to criticize women - hence misogyny. Ji Woo was not only hardworking but she is good with her work but she is continously criticized by her boss because she was vocal. She is not afraid to share her ideas and some men, especially those with big egos, don't really like when women performs slightly than them. I mean those kind of men can't stand if a man does better too, let alone a woman, right? So, of course when the recording of Ji Woo and Ji Hoo were leaked, the amount of criticism towards Ji Woo was just exactly what is happening in the real world. Wherever she goes, women will whisper behind and look down on her and men will joke and tease with no care what their words could do to the person on the receiving end. Things got more real during the disciplinary hearing when the men conducting the hearing were questioning her indecent act and her motives and barely pose much question to Ji Hoo, who the viewers, and he knew, that he was the one who initiated the idea. I'm not quite sure if the director was trying to indirectly highlight that issue but if she did, as much as it was done well, I wish more could have been done because this unbalanced culture is really another contribution to toxic office environment.
All ends well though. Would I recommend this movie to others? Maybe on days when things are just easy and simple. Or when one wishes to just have a good laugh and a simple appreciation of a good movie. And maybe a less explicit idea to learn about the world of BDSM. Love and Leashes is not an intense movie nor is it a touching one. It is really just a lighthearted movie meant to brighten up a dull day. Love and Leashes are now available on Netflix.
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