Love Untangled

Story: Park Se-ri (Shin Eun-soo) inherited curly hair from her father. She curses her genes because no matter what she does, her hair just won't stay straight. She is secretly in love with her classmate Kim Hyeon (Shin Eun-soo), who often smiles at her because the two met by chance at the beach, where they both found the same secret swimming spot. One day, she tries to meet him again "by chance", but another boy falls into the sea while she is swimming, and she has to rescue the non-swimmer. The next day, the boy shows up as a new student in her class. His name is Han Yoon-seok (Haon-seok), and he's from Seoul. Because of his accident, he has a cast on his leg, so Se-ri and her friends take care of him. When Se-ri's rival, who also struggles with curly hair, shows up at school with a straight hairstyle, she asks her about the name of the hair salon that managed to do that. It's a new technique originating in Seoul. Unfortunately, it costs more money than Se-ri has. The hairdresser is actually Yoon-seok's mother. After Se-ri tells her how she saved her son's life, the mother promises to straighten her hair if she takes care of her son a little until he's out of his cast. From then on, Se-ri and Yoon-seok are inseparable. The otherwise withdrawn boy slowly opens up, and a special friendship develops.

Review: It's been quite a while since I've seen a rom-com from South Korea. Sure, Secret: Untold Melody" is also a romantic flick, but there the fantasy aspect can create a different tone that makes the film appealing even to those who don't want to watch clichéd romances. "Love Untangled" is exactly one of those rom-coms that is saccharinely sweet and predictable. Fortunately, I discovered that this isn't a problem at all when the execution is well done and there are occasional deviations from the norm. Likeable characters, pleasant humor, and excellent pacing make "Love Untangled" a surprisingly good romantic flick that deserves praise despite some genre clichés. I actually expected this romance to be a series on Netflix, perhaps because the trailer draws parallels to the countless romantic series available there, but the two-hour runtime suits the story much better. Everything feels crisp, without any major excursions into unnecessary subplots, which means it never gets boring.

One minor oddity might be the time in which the story is set. It's 1998. This may be due to the fact that nostalgia trips are always popular — and quite a few Korean series are set in this era — but it also has the pleasant side effect that we don't see any cell phones (apart from a few flip phones toward the end) including the numerous messenger messages. This makes everything seem a bit more lively. At school, not everyone is glued to their phones; instead, they joke around. The numerous individuals are thus likable, even if very few of them are given fully developed characters. Of course, everything revolves around Se-ri, but since her friends support her, they also appear in the spotlight every now and then. While one has to complain that they aren't portrayed more vividly, it doesn't seem so bad that the screenwriters didn't also dedicate subplots to them. After all, this way, the film doesn't feel overloaded.

The star of the film is, of course, Shin Eun-soo ("Vanishing Time"), who not only brings a lovable, yet also charmingly offbeat quality to her role, but also scores points with her physical performance, especially in the comedy scenes. The form of comic book/slapstick humor we find here can usually quickly become ridiculous, but the balance is just right, both in terms of intensity and frequency. It also helps that things don't simply get over the top. Instead, the individual characters bring fun to the story. Unfortunately, Gong Myung ("Citizen of a Kind") initially makes a somewhat uninteresting impression. It takes a while for his character to come out of his shell and we learn more about him. In fact, he doesn't fit the stereotype of the introverted nerd at all, and as we learn more about his childhood, his problems, and his nightmares, he gains several new facets. Furthermore, in many ways, the film also adheres to the stereotype of the sassy and dominant girlfriend who has her "partner" under control, but often enough, the story breaks with that very cliché.

"Love Untangled" also uses the ugly duckling paradigm, as Se-ri's curly hair is supposedly not the prettiest. Only, that's not necessarily true in the eyes of others, but in her own. Straight hair would simply give her more self-confidence. This allows the story to deliver just enough familiar elements to make you feel at home, while giving the old patterns a fresh twist. This is good filmmaking, if you don't want to take too many risks. Alongside these, there are also predictable scenes like a beautifully decorated place with lights in a park for a love confession, and other cute stuff that transports us into the world of a teenager without becoming too cheesy. Of course, the plot is completely predictable until the end. However, love interest Kim Hyeon could have used a few more rough edges to avoid disappearing into absolute insignificance, as happens at a certain point in the story. Moreover, everything is happening far too smoothly, which makes you suspicious and wonder about the typical crisis that yet has to hit our love couple.

In this respect, too, "Love Untangled" stays true to the established formula. Naturally, a crisis ensues, thankfully with a bit of originality, as there's no fatal illness involved, which would have turned the story into a drama. Without giving too much away, it would have been nice to have gotten more out of this part of the story. The way it is, it's crammed into the last 30 minutes, a good portion of which is, of course, taken up by the epilogue as well. Somehow, though, you are also quite grateful that this romantic comedy doesn't burden the viewer with unnecessary stress. "Love Untangled" is thus a successful rom-com that manages to be sweet without being drowned in clichés. A sympathetic protagonist, the nostalgic flair thanks to the 90s, and the sparingly but well-used humor contribute to the positive overall picture. You shouldn't expect excessive originality, but there's enough variety that it never gets boring. And that should appeal to more than just genre fans.

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