User reviews

This movie started off really good, the humor was great and the pace was perfect. Although towards the end it started to feel a little rushed and the quality of the humor started to decline as well. But other than that this was still a rather entertaining movie!

Despite few setbacks, still a unique romantic comedy in office environment. Park Hyeon-jin tried to tone down its sexual tendencies through some cute kinky moments. Seohyun & Joon-young took their roles seriously as dom and sub couple.

Review By Kamal K

Love and Leashes are definitely entertaining! It's fun to watch. Crazy good chemistry between Seohyun and Lee Jun-Young. The concept of BDSM and love was detailed. Even though BDSM was well explained and how it feels like to have a fetish and be accepted was well detailed, there was something lacking! There could have been more depth to it.

Going into this movie it was expected this would be less explicit more romantic K version take on a 50 shades topic. And it was comic and sweeter with a message about people being allowed their own private fantasy lives and yet still be normal people. The reveal to the office felt contrived. It's good when K movies push boundaries and covers different subject matter. Don't expect too sensational a movie and it's okay. The cast is okay fairly charming for a risque topic.

Always eager to watch some romcom that test a few boundaries I watched Love and Leashes until the very end. I saw the FL/ML frolicking on a comfy bed; she with Timotei wavy hair, he with a cutie pie smile on his face uttering "Saranghaeyo Ju-in", and I just sat there on my couch, thinking WHAT?!

Story

I thought I was going to see an office romcom with two colleagues exploring their sexual wishes. A BDSM version of the wonderful Korean phonesex romcom Whatcha' Wearin? (2012). A Korean edition with a few laughs on the hierarchy in Korean society, the perfect breeding ground for humiliation kinks, but what I saw was a sexual education class; a BDSM kiddy version with commercial incentives. This time no rings, shoes or designer bags, but collars, dildos, candles, leashes. I do admire the Korean business attitude, but really, I expected less toys, more arthouse, and creative kinkiness.

The Good

Love & Leashes isn't a BDSM romcom, it's a warm and sweet opinion on sexual self-exploration. Ji-woo does research on the internet, and the audience looks over the shoulder. Kinks are explained in voice-overs, distinctions are made between BD and SM play, we see the use of safe words, aftercare, and the whole shebang.

The Bad

What I personally wanted to see though, is the BDSM psychology. What makes it good to feel pain, why do people love to bound someone literally, is BDSM in our nature or is it nurture? There were some hints to the answers, but not much, and not really funny.

Overall

BDSM can be interpreted in romcom style, and there are good examples from more than 20 years ago. Try Pedro Almodóvar's "Tie me Up! Tie Me Down" (1989) with young Antonio Banderas; or Secretary (UK 2002). The only newness I could find in Love and Leashes was that it is Korean, with product placements in style.

I got to know about the term BDSM. Before watching this movie, I had no clue about it. For me it was creepy movie, but not that bad at all. Everyone has their own taste. Maybe it is not my type of movie. However,I love the movie's the ending.

This is probably the most accurate BDSM movie I've ever seen.

It's not cringe and toxic like Fifty Shades of Grey, which is actually a movie about abuse disguised as a fetish. Love and Leashes really shows the reality of the BDSM community in a light, educational and sensual way.

The film precisely explains the meaning of various terms like SSC, D/s, S/M... Shows various fetishes like wax play, trampling, humiliation play, pet play, shibari... Shows problems encountered by BDSM people as creepy abusers wanting to infiltrate BDSM, intolerant and conservative people discriminating against sexual freedom...

If you want to learn more about the BDSM world, this is the best movie for that.

I'm pretty bad at making paragraph so I'm just gonna make a few points(the good and the bad) here.

1) the acting was still off 2) very informative sex education, and the importance of respecting other's preferences so good moral value.

3) the scriptwriting was somehow still 'stiff' 4) fun to watch the chronicles, but the humor imo was still pretty weak or it's just doesn't reach my taste.

5) basic korean film "unrealistic coincidence" plot.

Anyway, maybe this is a good start for korean filmographies to be more open to genre like this. Since i know korea is still taboo about this material. I hope k-erotics will be better and wilder in the future tho.

It was a tough subject for Korea to take on and make it watchable with all the issue that come with this and they failed to make it watchable. The barking really was a bad choice not sure thats even a part of this ritual.

More innocent than you might expect from the description, this is a film about understanding and respecting your partner, as well as withholding judgment of others. A generally playful tone, good acting, and interesting characters are all pluses here.

The film's a lot more innocent than you might expect going into it, for better or worse depending on what you wanted... It's a pretty entertaining film, cute moments, some cute characters, and a decent plot (if a little rushed in the third act in my opinion). The themes and messages it explores are heavy-handed but nonetheless positive, and it shines a good light on this sort of relationship. It was pretty fun, not bad or amazingly good; there's not a lot to say about it. It was cute to watch with my girlfriend...

A new office worker who was rejected by his last girlfriend for being a pervert starts a master servant relationship with his coworker. The movie gives an oversight into the world of BDSM with a story mainly about the lead female initially being uncomfortable with the experience but slowly growing into her role. There is a voiceover explaining the terminology but as the movie concentrates on this aspect and there is no real character development I just found it not that interesting. Actors put in reasonable performances with the odd amusing moment.

Based on the web-comic 'Moral Sense' written by Gyeoul. Seohyun and Lee Jun-young are paired in this delightful feature about a young man, Jihoo, who has BDSM desires and a co-worker, Jiwoo, who discovers his secret and contractually becomes his master over a three-month period. Intrigued by the premise. I was open to exploring this storyline when I had the opportunity and I personally was not disappointed with the outcome as my expectations were exceeded. The amount of chemistry the duo had on-screen was my favorite aspect of the film as the dominant and submissive role playing performed by Seohyun and Lee Jun-young was not only convincing but thoroughly entertaining to watch. The audience can tell the cast members were having a blast through their performances. BDSM is showcased in a positive light and perfectly explained throughout the duration of the film. Specifically the relationship between dom and sub, warning viewers about predators and fake BDSMers, all without the use of nudity or explicit scenes. Making the concept educational and easy-to-follow for those who aren't familiar with a topic that is considered "taboo" amongst our society. The overall message that I gained from this release is that we will all have interests that will be controversial to others. At the end of the day, we are all human. Rather than demonizing someone for their differences. It's important to accept each other as we, which will ultimately help people accept themselves. This was a beautiful message conveyed to the viewer. Love and Leashes has to be one of my favorite romance stories of 2022 due to the amount of charm that it contains. With exceptional comedic-timing that makes the audience laugh-out-loud during scenes because of the precarious situations Jihoo and Jiwoo find themselves in. One of the sexiest films that we have received in quite some time. A guilty pleasure of mine.

IG: thecinephilereviews.

I didn't DISLIKE it so much as finding the pacing just too slow. Too many scenes felt like just too many scenes. I respect that they were going for and it's a sweet BDSM movie. Unfortunately I got bored and turned it off.

The Story Writer doesn't seem to know what he thinks when writing the story. They didn't maintain standard quality let alone perfection. Don't watch this if value your time.

I like how it started and the way it ended. Comic timing was good. I like how the movie wanted to potray the feelings of person doing this type of sexual activity. Story is good but it could be better. Otherwise, good movie to watch.

I started watching this movie because I was so curious since it's really rare to see movies like this published in Korea. I wouldn't say the movie was that bad but some scenes were a bit hard(?) to watch. I'm not saying it was disturbing but somewhat idk (it was like watching something I wasn't supposed to watch..????). Anyways, I LOVED Jiwoo though (wouldn't have watched the movie if it wasn't for her).

Had high expectations but fizzles out. Interesting start, hazy middle and a rushed ending. This is just lazy writing. There's no clear explanation on the male leads past or the heroine's intent. Ok, so she searches for answers online and executes them to the T, but when it comes to thinking on her own she is absolutely lost. Similarly the writers story telling quality. Did you just want to create a demo for bdsm ? Where is the story?

Honestly guys, this would really put 50 shades of Grey in the corner because let's be real, we all know how crap it was and we need to replace it, this is the better replacement. I really thought the actors were just great, Seo Hyun and Lee Jun Young literally looked like the characters from the Webtoon like their performance were *chef kiss". I really wanted more of the sexual scenes man but there ya go!

Y'all should check out the Webtoon, this kdrama or both, it's just fabulous 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

As is typical of an American film studio, the woman has to come out on top, or in this case, be the one inflicting the beating. Weak. Very weak. The story was soft, there was not much there, there as usual was a pathological fear of nudity, even though it was a modestly sexual theme.

Overall, not much here. It did not explore S & M in any meaningful way. Kind of a PG version of a theme.

A female coworker mistakenly open a package so finds out her male coworker is into (sadomasochism) S&M. They end up in an S&M relationship with a 3 month contract as Dominant and submissive.

It has some funny moments early on. Then it gets a little more serious though not heavy with a few light bits. It does use part of the story to inform the viewer that might be uninformed about S&M. The SM is definitely part of the story and characters. Unfortunately, a few scenes felt empty so seemed to drag.

The acting was good. Seohyun the female lead was excellent. Just wish the script had a little more to.it for them. The S&M was not very serious onscreen. That detracted a bit. They could have shown more without being more explicit. This movie played more like a standard Rom-Com that a young teenager could watch.

It was still an enjoyable movie but could have been better.

I think the movie was petty good.

It was fun to watch because it was funny and interesting, but what i liked the most is how it portrayed a pretty tabu and "heavy" topic in such a lighthearted way.

The BDSM scenes aren't to to sexual wich is really nice. It educates the watcher about BDSM, the relationship between dom and sub and warns the watcher that their are a lot of predators and to always be careful and aware of fakes. The movie does it in such a fun way i would recommend it to everyone.

You could definitely argue about the plot because its not the best and the storyline as well. The movie is definitely enjoyable but there could be more.. But i would still say that it's better than the most rom-coms where the characters fall in love in one day.. I would say that what happens COULD be considered realistic.

So yeah definitely recommend :)