Good Evening Friends!

I have a confession to make: I am a cinephile. Yes, I am a lover of movies! As such, I had to carve out a space on the site here for movie reviews and letting you all know about movies that are out there that you might want to watch too! Tonight we are diving into the Netflix movie, “Love and Leashes”.

This Korean drama caught my eye after it “teased” of having a female Domme and a male slave. I winked at the Captain and we snuggled up to watch it together. From an entertainment-only standpoint this movie has a cute storyline. Boy meets girl. Girl likes boy. Boy confesses about being a pet/slave and is into the kink scene. Girl is intrigued but plays coy at first. Boy pursues slowly. Yadda yadda yadda. If you’re into slightly steamy movies with a hint of romance this movie will be right up your alley.

From an educational standpoint and a representation of the BDSM lifestyle…. I toss this movie into the “50 shades” bucket of movies that tried to portray BDSM and just fell flat. Here are the cons of this movie (in my humble opinion):

• The most obvious error is that this boy asks the girl to be his master. But the girl has 0 knowledge about the lifestyle. She had never even heard about M/s let alone how to care for a sub and yet, with one google search she suddenly “knew” that she wanted to be a Domme. What?! Being completely inexperienced and ready to jump into an S&M relationship? Yeah, I think not.
• In most of the play sessions the pair are completely unskilled in how to go about using each implement and it shows… a lot. Her whips are clumsy. There is 0 aftercare provided (save for the one scene where she places ointment on an open wound she gave to the boy after whipping him so much), and during most of the play sessions the boy “tops from the bottom” by telling her what to do and how hard he wants it! It’s a bit cringe-y so if you do watch this movie, just pretend to not judge it from an actual BDSM point of view.
• There is 0 consent all around. This one is a huge error. The girl never asks the boy what his limits are. She “surprises” him by tying him up in bondage “to see if he likes it”. And we all know that any healthy M/s relationship (or D/s for that matter!) begins with a Dominant learning all about their sub’s limits, expectations, and desires. The two never communicate their wants, needs, and limits. She begins to test all kinds of toys on the boy without his consent. Then at one point the pair go out in public handcuffed to each other which completely shocks vanilla people sitting in a café around them! No… no…. just, no.
• Lastly, in one of the final scenes the couple gets “caught” by their boss having a play session at work. This is completely unrealistic in a real D/s relationship because a healthy Dom would never do anything that would put their sub’s job in jeopardy. As a result the couple (who both work together) are punished by going 3 months with no pay. And yet, in the midst of potentially getting fired from work they have a “realization” that they want to date and become a real couple!

I know I slammed this movie hard in the comments above but I just wanted to be honest about what the glaring errors are in the storyline and how it’s very far-fetched to a real D/s relationship. That said, if you’re looking for a cute, Korean movie that tries to entertain the masses by tossing about S&M words, give it a watch. I’m glad I saw this movie and satiated my curiosity. And now…. onto the next!

Much love,

~Penny x