I had hoped to finish at least one or two reviews of shows I watched, but I just don’t seem to have the wherewithal at this time. Most of my focus has still been on trying to write fantasy fiction. I decided to watch this film on a whim after trying to watch “Do Revenge” and losing all interest in that film within the first 10 minutes because of how stupid the beginning was. This film was in stark contrast and serves as further proof of the rugged intellectualism and inherent curiosity of South Korean culture. This is perhaps the only time I enjoyed Netflix experimenting with and funding media. I’m genuinely surprised they don’t have a shop to sell films like this and “I Am Mother” because it seems like a waste not to. Netflix possibly wouldn’t have to rely on advertisements, if they had a shop selling the films available for streaming similar to Amazon Prime’s current model.

The best part of this film is that it commits to a realistic narrative of a person learning of and getting into the BDSM lifestyle and provides a fairly realistic narrative of self-acceptance for people with BDSM kinks. Moreover, both of the main characters are well-developed; the romantic attraction and foibles of their relationship feel very realistic too. I loved how the story explained the BDSM lifestyle through narration by first having the female lead research the information and then having her provide her thoughts to the viewers from the information that she learned while depicting the kink play. The awkwardness of their early experiences and public attempts at exploring their kink was incredibly well done with their reactions and the public reaction too. I can’t really delve into too many details without spoiling it. The sudden surprise and then indifference when their kink is accidentally revealed to the public, rumors from people they know floating due to what was revealed, and – perhaps best of all – the narrative being clear on the difference between fake Doms who attempt rape while lying about being part of the BDSM community and people inculcated in BDSM culture who use safe sex methods.

The reviews saying it sucks or compares it to 50 Shades of Grey do it a disservice. It really is a good, fairly unique premise and story that does a stellar job. The main cast is all believable, likable, and I felt myself invested and sympathetic towards both lead characters; the acting was top-notch. Of course, this story is for people who have an open mind and intellectual acuity towards consenting adults exploring their sexual kinks. Unfortunately, most Western barbarians are squeamish due to their Abrahamic upbringings whereby priests are taught to be forgiven for raping their congregation’s children due to the teachings of “forgiveness” by their child rape forgiving god, but consenting adults exploring sexual kinks is somehow vulgar or crossing some vague line of Abrahamic propriety. Anyway, the only real downside is that I wish Netflix had a shop where I could give them money to personally pay for the blu-ray if it had ever had a US release. Unfortunately, the only available copies for purchase of this magnificent cultural milestone of a film that proves the intellectual eptitude of East Asian cultures far beyond the barbaric nonsense of the Western film industry’s poor attempts and weak research of BDSM material is through websites like Ebay of Korean or Chinese versions.

Overall, this film is amazing and shows the superior intellectualism and cultural openness of South Korean culture when it comes to issues related to BDSM. It gets a 10/10 in my opinion.