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.

I know that this movie was adapted from the novel of the same name and since I didn't read the novel, I won't be comparing them. I enjoyed this movie because the development of Jae Hee and Heung-soo's friendship was well written, and the actors playing them have just the right chemistry to make it work. The story is centered around their friendship and before either of them found romantic love, they found each other. Two outcasts who found comfort and refuge in each other, they became each other's biggest support. Their characters also developed along the way as they grew mature and entered the working world, but their friendship stayed the same. And let's not forget that Heung-soo is a gay man, and in a society as conservative as the one in South Korea, I think this movie is good representation for the LGBT community because it shows the struggles that the LGBT community faces, and that there is absolutely nothing wrong with being a gay person who just wants to love and be loved.

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.

Watching the movie after the series is a bit strange. They changed a lot and compressed a lot and took out a lot. I know the story is based on some famous novel(s) so now I'm wondering what's in those novels because these two characters in the movie are giving me different vibes from the series, so my advice would be to separate them completely. It's just the bare bones of the series. There's a lot more of and about her here, whereas in the series she gets married pretty quickly and mostly disappears and there's less of him here. Be basically has two relationships, one of which is completely different from the series, although it's the guy he's kissing while meeting her. I am a little baffled by these changes and I don't understand the reasoning. But yeah, its heart is in the right place and these two here shine through the screen and their friendship is epic, which it wasn't in the series, so it is a nice watch on its own. It feels like it shows a lot more of the homophobia in Korea, but maybe it feels that way because it's compressed. He is a lot more unhappy and guarded than in the series, where he had a more bubbly personality, albeit still closeted. Nam Yoon-su ruined me.

So yeah, I keep picking at the differences, although I said I shouldn't because it doesn't help. It's a good movie. I enjoyed it. But damn Korean men are scary. And they gossip a lot and they bully and sl*t-shame. In and out of the office, at school, etc. Geez...