Though it’s the usual stylish froth you would expect from a mainstream Korean movie featuring two of the country’s most popular stars, Love in the Big City manages to make a timely statement about the state of affairs for young Koreans with regard to dating and romantic commitment. The two main characters are stereotypical fictional constructs in their own way, but their interactions say something significant about the local brand of toxic masculinity and how it affects the lives of people who simply want to live their lives as they please. The female lead, Jae-hee (Kim Go-eun), is privileged and free-spirited in a way that grates on her fellow university classmates, especially the boys, who find her less than solicitous to their sensibilities. The only one who seems unmoved by her sassy attitude and flouting of social norms is Heung-soo (Noh Sang-hyun), who at first seems slightly annoyed. Eventually we learn that he really doesn’t care that much, because he’s gay.

A closeted gay, of course, an attribute that’s the film’s dramatic centerpiece. Both Jae-hee and Heung-soo are majoring in French literature, and they quickly bond over their interpretation of Camus, a writer who they admire for his iconoclasm. This common interest draws them together and Jae-hee, being both sensitive and nosey, almost immediately realizes Heung-soo is homosexual and is thus even more drawn to him as a friend and fellow non-conformist. Eventually, she invites him to move into her flat, where they create their own kind of semi-impoverished bohemia. The close juxtaposition of their lives puts each in stark contrast to the other’s. Though both are a little too fond of alcohol—Love in the Big City has even more scenes of bingeing than the average Korean feature—they manifest the loss of inhibition differently. Jae-hee would be called sexually profligate in a Western movie, though here she’s mostly just romantically indiscreet, and tends to hook up with guys who can’t handle her candor. Heung-soo is constitutionally paranoid about anyone finding out about his sexual proclivities, and keeps his affairs closely concealed, especially from his mother, who suspects her son’s leanings but refuses to accept them. Heung-soo’s disposition with regard to his sexuality has the opposite effect on his relationships than Jae-hee’s does for hers—he rejects lovers who get too close even when their intentions are sincere and understanding. He just can’t risk it.

Matters come to a head when one of Jae-hee’s boyfriends discovers she is living with Heung-soo, thinking at first that they are secret lovers and thus forcing Jae-hee to reveal that Heung-soo “doesn’t like women,” a statement that turns Heung-soo against her. It’s at this point where what has been implied becomes obvious: Jae-hee and Heung-soo can only be friends in this rarefied world they’ve created, a world that’s automatically delineated by Heung-soo’s fear of being outed. A friend told me that, in terms of social content, Korean films are about 20 years behind the West, and this movie would seem to confirm that opinion, but the central relationship, while steeped in cliches requisite for big budget Korean love stories, is so finely calibrated and the actors so invested in their roles that the movie’s statement hits home. Love in the Big City also projects optimism by showing how the two roommates move beyond their codependency into responsible maturity. 

In Korean. Opens June 13 in Tokyo at Toho Cinemas Nihonbashi (050-6868-5060), Toho Cinemas Hibiya (050-6868-5068), Cinemart Shinjuku (03-5369-2831), Toho Cinemas Shibuya (050-6868-5002), Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills (050-6868-5024).

Love in the Big City home page in Japanese

photo (c) 2024 Plus M Entertainment and Showbox Corp.