20th Century Girl Movie Review: When I first began watching K-dramas and K-movies, the biggest drawing factor was the idea of having a happy ending regardless of how bizarre and unrealistic it would be. The endings were the charm, a reminder that while everything in life might feel like a mess, I know my on-screen Oppas are having a happier ending. However, this year, it seems like writers in South Korea are opting against the hunky-dory ending. A list of shows and movies has opted to have a more realistic, plausible conclusion to stories. The latest addition to this list is 20th Century Girl.
Starring Kim Yoo-jung, Byeon Woo-seok and Roh Yoon-seo in the lead, 20th Century Girl is a slice-of-life film set in the late 1990s in South Korea. The film revolves around a small-town girl named Na Bo-ra (Kim Yoo-jung) and her promise to her best friend: to keep a tab on her crush while she’s away for heart surgery. Bo-ra is loyal to her friend, ensuring to maintain enough distance from her best friend’s crush (played by Park Jung-woo) but also getting enough information on him. During this process, she falls in love with his best friend Poong Woon-ho (Byeon Woo-seok).
The spark is evident as they exchange glimpses over ice cream and pluck plums from a tree that Woon-ho planted with his father when he was younger. However, life takes a surprising turn when Na Bo-ra’s best friend returns, and a shocking revelation comes along.
20th Century Girl has its heart in the right place. It lets you revisit the memory of your first love with a dollop of nostalgia, makes you feel the butterflies in your tummy, and leaves you grinning almost every frame as you watch Kim Yoo-jung and Byeon Woo-seok create magic on screen with their chemistry. Their innocence is the foundation of this film and they make you root for them till the very last minute.
While the lead pair keeps you hooked, Kim Yoo-jung and Roh Yoon-seo’s on-screen bond also shines in the film. I wish it was explored a little more. If given a chance, I’d like to see them on a fun, friendship-based series together.
Kudos to writer and director Bang Woo-ri on the narration style. At first, you think that the film is being narrated from the perspective of Kim Yoo-jung’s Na Bo-ra. However, when the last scene plays out, you realize, you have been watching the film from the eyes of Byeon Woo-seok’s Poong Woon-ho, hence the title. A very smart way of telling the story.
The way South Korean films and shows portray small towns in the 90s through their shows and movies is something I’ve always been in awe of, and 20th Century Girl doesn’t disappoint. Vintage tinted visuals, cherry blossoms-covered gardens, and audio-visual mediums such as VCRs and school radio put together the perfect 90s setup for 20th Century Girl.
In all these Dopamine inducing narration and visuals, the film takes a turn for reality and that’s when the problem arises. While I have no problem with the film knocking us back in our senses, it is the way it is dealt with. Understandably, 20th Century Girl doesn’t want to delve into the past in an attempt to show that everyone has unknowingly moved on and also keep the run time short. So, instead of giving the answers via a conversation, they leave it to the audience to decipher the probable turn of events.
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This paves the way for discussion among viewers, but it defies logic to an extent. My first thought when the scene played out in which Na Bo-ra finds out about Poong Woon-ho’s fate, I wondered why didn’t even ask him once about the turn of events. It is the most human thing to do, right? The film attempted to try to ride past that question like it was nothing, but the elephant was too big to ignore.
Despite all this, I’d recommend 20th Century Girl if you’ve been craving a simple romantic Korean movie. The film brings back memories of Nam Joo-hyuk and Kim Tae-ri’s Twenty-Five Twenty-One courtesy of the sad ending, the unanswered questions, and the vibe but it still manages to leave a mark of its own.
The film is available on Netflix now.
