Netflix levels up their Korean content with their recent film entitled Love and Leashes, an adaptation of the webcomic ‘Moral Sense’ by Gyeowool.
Released last February 11, the Netflix film Love and Leashes wowed everyone with the strong chemistry of Soohyun and Lee Junyoung portraying the characters Jung Ji Woo and Jung Ji Hoo. This is truly a groundbreaking attempt by Netflix to showcase dramas and films with bolder characters.
Characters
- Soohyun as as Jung Ji Woo
- Lee Junyoung as Jung Ji Hoo
- Kim Bora as Hana
Synopsis
Two company employees having almost the same name had an unusual contract relationship. Jung Ji Woo (played by Seohyun) finds herself falling for her co-worker Jung Ji Hoo (played by Lee Junyoung). Even if she started to see him as a man, Ji Woo still can’t express her feelings towards Ji Hoo.
One day, Ji Woo accidentally took a package for Ji Hoo and when she opened it, she saw a leash of Ji Hoo that he uses for S&M use. With no other options left, Ji Hoo admitted his S&M fetish to Ji Woo to explain why he had this kind of leash. As Ji Woo already developed feelings for Ji Hoo, she did not judge his surprising secret.
As Ji Hoo is touched by Ji Woo’s reaction, he asked her to be his master. Then on, they entered a contractual three-month relationship where they will have role-playings once a week and will practice play, pleasure, and pain having Ji Hoo playing the submissive role.
The S&M fetish of Ji Hoo
I’ve read reviews about this drama before watching it and insights are mostly divided. Some are fond of the fact that Netflix gave this kind of romance genre a try but some find it gross that they tackled this kind of fetish publicly.
But for me, I still enjoyed the show as they showcased the S&M or Sadomasochism in a matter where judgements aren’t purely based on society’s standards of keeping ‘fetish’ personal but showed it to us based on a first and second persona point of view narrations.
Seohyun and Lee Jun Young away from their sweet maknae images
Soohyun and Lee Junyoung in Love and Leashes are both far from the sweet images they have as Kpop idols from Girls Generation and Ukiss. Since this is an adult drama, I didn’t expect to see both of them in mature roles together but surprisingly, it worked out so well that I am somewhat hoping they’ll have a mid or full-length drama together soon.
Junyoung’s portrayal of the character Ji Hoo
It may sound bias because I am a fan of Lee Junyoung but his portrayal of the character Jung Ji Woo really gave justice to the film. We know that it is hard to showcase a drama with the theme of ‘fetish’ but it is nice that they gave us scenes where S&M doesn’t look like it is harassments or abuse.
Overall, I am glad that both Jun and Seohyun are the leads in this movie because I don’t think I’ll be watching it if the leads are different for it will surely give a different vibe.
