Meep
A Quentin Tarantino worthy amount of Feet but not much else
This movie sadly turned out to be what I feared: A lame excuse to show some vaguely kinky scenes without truly showing the audience why the kinky stuff is even necessary for the story.
BDSM in "mainstream" media is often a thorny issue, movies like 50 shades of grey poisoning the well so thoroughly that every new attempt gets looked at with apprehension. Although Love and Leashes is not as terrible as 50SOG it is also not remarkably better or more tolerable as a movie which includes BDSM in a post 50SOG world has to be.
Our main characters start in very different positions with regards to BDSM, but due to a mishap (who the hell orders their sex toys TO THEIR WORK OFFICE anyway) their worlds collide and Jihoo and Jiwoo start a D/s relationship very quickly. Considering the fact that Jiwoo had pretty much *no* idea what BDSM even really was or entailed and Jihoo at least seems somewhat experienced, I thought this was very stupid, since Jiwoo didn't even seem all too into being a Dom, but whatever the plot has to happen.
The problem is with BDSM stories though, most people are not kinksters and so some care needs to be taken to show why the characters want to be in this situation for the audience to empathise and follow along with the story. I have to say the acting sadly let the movie down in this regard, although I don't think the writing helped, but pretty much all I felt through most of the BDSM scenes was second-hand embarassment and varying amounts of cringe. All of the scenes involving Jiwoo's feet or the puppy play made me recoil and as an audience I was never sure what the intended effect was supposed to be. Most often this was because I never felt any connection to the character of Jihoo, who I just found incredibly off-putting in his disregard for social cues or even social norms (mostly regarding the workplace), granted Jiwoo was only marginally better in that regard - please don't do kinky stuff at your workplace people, i mean what the hell.
After around the halfway mark I found myself disengaging from the story entirely because I was beginning to feel bored and just finishing it out of a sense of "well I'm almost done". The ending was ok if bland, but of course we couldn't even escape the usual narrative tropes in a 2 hr movie so the conflict and resolution also had a been there done that feeling.
I watched this on Saturday and I've already forgotten most of it, which should honestly tell you everything.
If you want to include BDSM into a movie, show me why it's necessary for the characters. BDSM doesn't necessarily have to be hyper sexual, but people don't usually do it without getting something out of it. This is a very *internal* process, so a movie has to be very attentive to giving the viewer insight into this otherwise it just devolves into awkward "shock value" material to gawk at.
BDSM in "mainstream" media is often a thorny issue, movies like 50 shades of grey poisoning the well so thoroughly that every new attempt gets looked at with apprehension. Although Love and Leashes is not as terrible as 50SOG it is also not remarkably better or more tolerable as a movie which includes BDSM in a post 50SOG world has to be.
Our main characters start in very different positions with regards to BDSM, but due to a mishap (who the hell orders their sex toys TO THEIR WORK OFFICE anyway) their worlds collide and Jihoo and Jiwoo start a D/s relationship very quickly. Considering the fact that Jiwoo had pretty much *no* idea what BDSM even really was or entailed and Jihoo at least seems somewhat experienced, I thought this was very stupid, since Jiwoo didn't even seem all too into being a Dom, but whatever the plot has to happen.
The problem is with BDSM stories though, most people are not kinksters and so some care needs to be taken to show why the characters want to be in this situation for the audience to empathise and follow along with the story. I have to say the acting sadly let the movie down in this regard, although I don't think the writing helped, but pretty much all I felt through most of the BDSM scenes was second-hand embarassment and varying amounts of cringe. All of the scenes involving Jiwoo's feet or the puppy play made me recoil and as an audience I was never sure what the intended effect was supposed to be. Most often this was because I never felt any connection to the character of Jihoo, who I just found incredibly off-putting in his disregard for social cues or even social norms (mostly regarding the workplace), granted Jiwoo was only marginally better in that regard - please don't do kinky stuff at your workplace people, i mean what the hell.
After around the halfway mark I found myself disengaging from the story entirely because I was beginning to feel bored and just finishing it out of a sense of "well I'm almost done". The ending was ok if bland, but of course we couldn't even escape the usual narrative tropes in a 2 hr movie so the conflict and resolution also had a been there done that feeling.
I watched this on Saturday and I've already forgotten most of it, which should honestly tell you everything.
If you want to include BDSM into a movie, show me why it's necessary for the characters. BDSM doesn't necessarily have to be hyper sexual, but people don't usually do it without getting something out of it. This is a very *internal* process, so a movie has to be very attentive to giving the viewer insight into this otherwise it just devolves into awkward "shock value" material to gawk at.
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