K-Movie Spotlight: “20th Century Girl” Glimmers With Its Nostalgic Fuzzy Feeling of Love

Soaring sweetly with its lovable youthful characters, 20th Century Girl brims with  familiar romantic youth experience.

A devoted friend finds love blooming for the first time in her life. Sharing those new feelings in her youth, her first love leaves a mark on her heart.

Marcie Line watched 20th Century Girl on Netflix 

Movie Rating:

This Silla Period Observatory In Gyeongju Is Featured In “20th Century Girl”

20th Century Girl Quick Plot Recap

Caring for her friend who went to the US for heart surgery, Na Bo-ra (Kim Yoo Jung) collects information on Yeon-doo’s (Roh Yoon Seo) crush whom she met in her mom’s uniform shop. Using the name Yeon-doo saw in the boy’s uniform, Bo-ra begins following Baek Hyun-jin (Park Jung Woo) to update her friend on details about him. 

Accidentally joining a club that Hyun-jin gave up pursuing, Bo-ra becomes close and falls in love with Hyun-jin’s friend, Poong Woon-ho (Byeon Woo Seok).

Hyun-jin confesses to Bo-ra, but he gets rejected. Just when Woon-ho and Bo-ra become sure of their feelings, Yeon-doo comes back and realizes that her crush all along was actually Woon-ho.

Keeping her feelings to herself, Bo-ra gets confronted by Yeon-doo who says she was willing to let go of her crush for her friend. Making up, Yeon-doo cheers for Bo-ra to chase Woon-ho who is about to leave for New Zealand.

Hyun-jin drives Bo-ra to catch Woon-ho, and the two confess their feelings to each other and say their goodbyes. Staying in touch by email, Bo-ra suddenly loses contact with Woon-ho in college. She later sees a package with a VHS and an invitation to an exhibit, where she discovers that Woon-ho passed away in 2001.

20th Century Girl Movie Highlights

Nostalgic Memory Trip Lane

Set in 1999, payphones are still commonly used and the internet is just at its beginning. Several items used in the movie may be unfamiliar to newer generations, but bring back children brought up in the 90s to their warm memories of the past.

The movie’s cinematography is similar to the Reply series and Twenty Five Twenty One. Moreover, like those series, it exudes the pure and innocent experience of love in one’s youth.

Exciting First Love Experience

Though we know what happens at the end, the first half of the movie was filled with captivating romantic scenes that would make your heart skip and feel fuzzy. Since the movie focuses on first love, viewers can feel excited from watching Bo-ra’s interaction with Hyun-jin and Woon-ho.

Bo-ra attracts Hyun-jin, but falls for Woon-ho whom Yeon-doo actually likes. This just creates the perfect recipe for a dramatic and eventful teenage love.

Familiar Heartwarming Romance

Following a well-used formula in romance movies, characters from 20th Century Girl exude sincerity through their eyes and gestures that can tug at the heart. The small moments together of Bo-ra and Woon-ho’s relationship buildup make up the addictive portion of the movie.

Serving closure for Bo-ra by the end of the movie, viewers may find themselves heartbroken. Nevertheless, in Woon-ho’s last video, it was still Bo-ra whom he loved.

20th Century Girl Movie Musings

Watching the depiction of nostalgic experiences and color scheme at the beginning, the first half of the movie really engages and indulges its viewers with cheerful emotions.

There are a lot of positive points in the movie which include the acting and cinematography. The romantic scenes were really heartwarming even though it was quite predictable how Bo-ra would keep her feelings to herself after Yeon-doo mistook Woon-ho for Hyun-jin.

Having that problem resolved, the movie tricks you into feeling secure about a happy ending. However, that’s not the case with Woon-ho’s death. The heartwarming story goes into a heart-wrenching one, which makes you yearn more for the main couple’s happy moments together.

Although it was not stated how Woon-ho died, it leaves an open interpretation of how it happened. The nearest assumption could be an accident, but it could also be for another tragic cause since it was emphasized how Woon-ho found happiness and smiled even just for a short time.

Similar to the nostalgic vibe of Twenty Five Twenty One or The Classic, 20th Century Girl claims its own unique touch in its plot direction that would make it memorable. Though Bo-ra wasn’t able to reunite with Woon-ho, she still found her closure knowing Woon-ho didn’t intentionally abandon her. The movie nonetheless made its viewers feel the familiar emotions of falling in love for the first time.

Relive Bo-ra and Woon-ho’s short but sweet moments together from 20th Century Girl on Netflix.

Photos: Netflix

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