BriarMoone
United States
"Romance" is a Very Teen Drama 101 Story
[Written/Watched Sep 28, 2019 on Letterboxd. Expanded 1/21/2021]
"Romance of Their Own" (unironically named "The Temptation of Wolves") is your usual bottom of the barrel (K-Drama) romantic fare for teens. (I have no doubts I would've loved this at fifteen or sixteen!)
Where the usual melodrama of a K-Drama would bring something to the table, the levels of saccharine high school antics that's played fatalistically straight here is a problem.
"Romance" isn't without its points. It's sense of humor (at times) is great, the schoolboy brawls can get brutal, but never fail to be entertaining. But the played-straight cool guy antics of the dudes (that would seem begin in a manga) fails to endear me to either male character. On top of that there's never been anything interesting about watching an indecisive teenage girl flip-flop over which jerk she wants be with in the end.
Soap operatic plot twists better suited for a television drama renders one of the characters ineligible in a story beat that just doesn't land the way the story thinks it should (you will roll your eyes). Teenage boys reducing girls to an object in an effort to determine who the best man is in the end, is irksome, and does nothing to add depth to the love triangle that dominates the film.
They grab her by the wrist, make decisions for despite her protest, and use other girls in an effort to make her jealous.. Other times they basically just abduct her in a show of manliness. It's all very nauseating, and I spent what little of the movie I watched (before I dropped it), wanting to whack both boys over the head with a bat.
"Romance of Their Own" (unironically named "The Temptation of Wolves") is your usual bottom of the barrel (K-Drama) romantic fare for teens. (I have no doubts I would've loved this at fifteen or sixteen!)
Where the usual melodrama of a K-Drama would bring something to the table, the levels of saccharine high school antics that's played fatalistically straight here is a problem.
"Romance" isn't without its points. It's sense of humor (at times) is great, the schoolboy brawls can get brutal, but never fail to be entertaining. But the played-straight cool guy antics of the dudes (that would seem begin in a manga) fails to endear me to either male character. On top of that there's never been anything interesting about watching an indecisive teenage girl flip-flop over which jerk she wants be with in the end.
Soap operatic plot twists better suited for a television drama renders one of the characters ineligible in a story beat that just doesn't land the way the story thinks it should (you will roll your eyes). Teenage boys reducing girls to an object in an effort to determine who the best man is in the end, is irksome, and does nothing to add depth to the love triangle that dominates the film.
They grab her by the wrist, make decisions for despite her protest, and use other girls in an effort to make her jealous.. Other times they basically just abduct her in a show of manliness. It's all very nauseating, and I spent what little of the movie I watched (before I dropped it), wanting to whack both boys over the head with a bat.
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