Love and Leashes is a very bold Netflix movie from conservative South Korea

Love and Leashes

Love and Leashes | 2022 | Park Hyun-jin | Romantic comedy

Love and Leashes is not just another South Korean romantic comedy. The film is daring in the broadest sense of the word. For most K-dramas, the romantic climax has always been a kiss on the lips, until Netflix released this slightly explicit film in February for Valentine’s Day.

With fear glued to his bones, Jung Ji-Hoo runs through the company where he works. Two people with similar names in the workplace cause a major misunderstanding, when Jung Ji-Woo receives a package when it was meant for her colleague Jung Ji-Hoo. Curious, Ji-Woo opens the box without any suspicion that it is not hers. Her fingers curl around the spiked black collar before she holds it up. Ji-Hoo’s shock-covered eyes are wide open as he runs into the office. Lies scrape through the maze of his tongue, and he says the collar is for his three-year-old poodle, when the collar is the perfect size for his own neck. She neither judges him nor treats him differently. This makes Ji-Hoo think she is also part of the BDSM community and asks her to be his master.

In South Korea, skinship is appropriate. This means that the characters hold hands in episode 5 and in episode 16 which is usually the last one, kiss each other. Love and Leashes has BDSM play as its storyline. In that country, people who are in that community are seen as perverts who are not supposed to live an ordinary life. The right to respect, love and a job are taken away from them. That’s why K-pop fans were surprised when it was announced that Seohyun from Girls Generation and Jun Young from U-KISS will star in it. Two idols who have held a pure image for years have gone for a change.

The film based on a webtoon story is more warm-hearted and amusing than explicit. The scenes where the play is in progress are portrayed in an extremely cinematic manner. The use of color and camera work are most artistic in those scenes. The creative attention that has been given to these shots hide some moments where you will shudder with discomfort, but the subject has been handled with respect and understanding. The information is clearly brought out by the research Ji-Woo does to understand the BDSM concept. For a country that shows nothing beyond a kiss, Love and Leashes is a good start to breaking the conservative and letting others in their values.