Love in the Big City

Love in the Big City is a serendipitous encounter that brings two kindred spirits who teeter on the fringes of normative culture together, exploring friendship, sexuality, and the comfort of being themselves at a pivotal time in their young adulthoods. An enjoyable, sometimes funny, trek through early twenties rebellion of vices, dating, hooking up, partying, and growing up. Ours protagonists find themselves both escaping from and finding paths of self exploration and reflection. Great to see two very talented actors, Kim Go-eun and Steven Sang-hyun Noh, on the same screen giving all of their energy to these free spirited characters.

The chemistry, the way of the two main actors develop and present their characters, the set, the plot twist, and of course the message they want to spread are so deep and cool! I cried and laughed while watching this, and I was drowning and carried away by the story and acting.

• This is NOT a romance that you can usually find in the romance movie, BUT you can definitely enjoy the learning process from the story
• This movie shows us the point of view from discredited people, so there will be some heartbreaking scene that i personally think for those common people that usually tend to be ignorant should be more aware and embrace more
• love is about peace, you can learn here.

I really appreciate how much heart and thought went into this wonderful story between these two kindred individuals. They lived through so much time during college and after college and stayed together as best of friends. I don't think I could ask for anything more from such a wonderful Korean romantic drama. I really appreciated the inter play between the characters and all the ups and downs they shared. I wish there were more romantic comedies that were brought to the US market that were as good as this film. The backdrop of Seoul Korea really added to the film. I look forward to seeing this on blu-ray when it is released for the US market.

The pacing of the film relatively smoother and natural, and isn't as dramatic unlike the drama. I'm not sure which is more more truer to the book as I haven't read it yet. The nuances between the protagonist and her friend is more developed here and is the major focus on the film, and the film very mildly and conveniently addresses the struggles of the gay community.

The film is still thoroughly enjoyable overall but lacks the emotional impact and rawness that was portrayed in the drama version. Many dialogues mute the protagonists voice and we fail to understand what is going on his head with all the situations around. Would very much recommend the drama over the film, but do give it a shot once you are done with the emotional turmoil the drama variant hit you with to tone down trauma!

The ML did show some reservations though at times in his portrayal of a gay character, or maybe it's the dedication of Nam-Soo-Hyun in the drama version which is speaking, but nevermind I just wished to address it. Would've liked if the core focus of the book had been more impactfully addressed.

The 2024 adaptation on love in the big city disappoints by falling back into overused Korean Drama clichés. The adaptation loses lot of emotional complexity anf depth that make the original novel impactful. While the two main actors have a solid performance, the film relies too heavily on predictable scenes and tropes. These elements undermine the story of the film and make it falling into a Korean drama clichés. The film misses the chances to explore more potential about showing the depth of the novel and the lgbt+ themes in more nuanced ways instead it opted for a tiring long film that falls into slow rythm.