Movie Review – Love & Leashes

I had the house to myself last night, and so I started perusing through Netflix to see if there was anything good to watch. That is harder than it sounds, as Jess and I share a lot of similar likes in movies/shows, and so I didn’t want to watch something that was already on our lists of things to watch. After a few minutes of searching, I stumbled upon a movie called “Love & Leashes”, which is a South Korean romantic comedy about two co-workers who engage in a contractual BDSM (Bondage Discipline, Sadism, Masochism) engagement.

Jess and I aren’t into BDSM by definition, but after I watched the trailer, I thought it looked interesting enough to give it a watch. So I did.

In the movie, the sub is a new employee at an office who is fairly well read on what being a sub is all about and really desires it. And the Domme, is an established employee at the office, who has a straightforward and no-nonsense approach to her work, and to life in general. That said, she is TOTAL a n00b when it comes to the world of BDSM. But because of her natural traits, she quickly learns how to dominate well.

I don’t want to get too much into the plot, in case any of you want to watch it. But I’ll give my quick two bits about it. Keep in mind, I’m an easy critic when it comes to movies. A movie really has to suck, in order to me not to find any enjoyment out of it. That said…this movie was OK in my book. As it is a South Korean movie, it was filmed with the actors speaking Korean, so in the US, it is presented with English voice overs. We’ve all seen voice overs before, and you get used to it a little as the movie goes on, but…there still is a little oddity in the mouths not lining up with the words from time to time. But that is a very small critique of this movie and fairly easy to overlook.

There were some very corny scenes, but there were also some funny ones, and to be honest, some very sexy scenes. There is a scene where he buys his new Mistress some red pumps, she tries them on, and asks him, “So, should I step on you?” There is some more dialogue followed by her proceeding to carefully, but very intentionally step on his back. As she is stepping on him, she asks, “Does it hurt much?” To which he painfully responds, “It’s killing me.” She continues to push her heel in, but sensing his pain, she asks, “Want me to stop?” And he quickly replies, “I’m so happy…it’s you.”

Later that night, when they are both back at their respective apartments. He takes his shirt off and admires the marks on his back. This kind of resonated with me as any time I’ve been spanked by Jess, I will always look at my backside and “admire” the marks whenever I’m getting into the shower or getting dressed, and there is a connection I feel to her, even though she is not right there with me.

Anyway, when his Mistress gets to her apartment, she is reminiscing the events of the evening as well, and once again puts on her new red pumps to walk around her apartment. Then later, when she is lying in her bed, (but with her shoes off), she starts stepping on the wall with her foot but visualizes that it’s his back she is stepping on. The editing showing them in their respective apartments after their date was very well done.

There are a variety of BDSM scenes, most of which are short, but pretty hot. Some wax play, a little foot worship, feather play, whipping, and more. There is even a scene that includes humiliation, which I found a bit “weird”, but…Jess and I are not into that at all, but I know there are many who are, and so those viewers may find that scene quite enjoyable.

Regarding the BDSM scenes…nothing goes into TOO great a detail. Again…it is a romantic comedy, not a porn film. 😉

Like I said, I don’t want to give too much away for those who will end up watching it, but the main reason I was compelled to write a blog post about it, was an exchange of lines in the movie, that were (IMHO), the best dialogue in the whole movie. It takes place after a short whipping scene, where she whips his bare back with a leather or rubber flogger. After the whipping, the scene cuts to where she is tending to the whip marks on his back, and they are talking about his BDSM fetish desires.

She asks,

“Do you really enjoy all this pain and suffering?”

to which he thoughtfully replies,

“It hurts…but I feel so alive, you know?”

She continues with,

“I don’t get it.”

– which he immediately takes as her position on his fetish desire. But then she continues…

“I mean, if it makes the person you like feel more alive, why can’t you do it for them, you know? It’s not like it’s anything bad.”

Wow, what a great exchange! As we’ve stated time and time again…we hear from many of our readers who want to get their significant other to at least entertain the idea of spanking them. The same line/concept could be used for that request too, right?

Although I would caution…while this may spark a potential line for your arsenal when talking to your S.O. about this very thing, perhaps a better play is to watch the movie together and let that part come up within its own context. Then after the movie, you could reference it.

The movie is more complex than what my “review” is covering, and has multiple storylines, but when this part in the movie came up, I immediately knew I wanted to write about it to some degree, to share with our readers.

In closing, perhaps citing this as a “movie review” is a bit of a reach. But…that concept and exchange of lines was significant enough for me, that I thought it could be helpful to our readers who are trying to communicate with their partners, about their desires to try adding spanking to the relationship.

And a friendly reminder, that if your partner is totally vanilla, than perhaps it is best to start off talking about fun spankings, and getting some momentum in that first, before delving into something a little more heady such as DD or FLR.