[Movie Review] 20th Century Girl is a sweet but somber first love story for any generation MGG

[Movie Review] 20th Century Girl is a sweet but somber first love story for any generation

by Dramaddictally

Netflix’s new young love romance 20th Century Girl is both a bubbly smile-fest and a bittersweet take on growing up. It captures the exhilaration and longing of youth, as well as the high emotions that accompany everything from friendships to first loves. Before it takes a melancholy turn in its final quarter, it’s a sunny day movie to sit back and summon that crucial moment when you had your first crush, no matter the century.

 
MOVIE REVIEW

The first standout feature of 20th Century Girl is its cinematography. It’s bathed in turned-up tints that feel like you’re flipping through Instagram filters, but this isn’t a complaint. It gives the whole thing a Candyland quality and makes it feel like a dream — which, it kind of is. It’s a memory of a time more than 20 years ago when the protagonist, NA BO-RA (Kim Yoo-jung), was in high school, worried about her best friend’s heart condition and later her own heart when she begins to fall in love.

We start in the present, where Han Hyo-joo plays the adult Bo-ra. She’s in Seoul but her father (Jung Suk-yong) calls her from Cheongju, where she grew up, to tell her she’s received a package. It’s a VHS tape of a 19+ movie that someone borrowed from her father’s video rental shop in 1999 and never returned. Along with it is an invite to an art exhibition.

Bo-ra sees the video cover and a funny memory comes back to her. The borrower was the boy who became her first love, POONG WOON-HO (Byun Woo-seok). Through this excavated artifact, we begin our journey into Bo-ra’s memory of how they met and got to know each other, and then how things ended up.

In a startling fast setup, we’re back in 1999 where Bo-ra is sending off her best friend KIM YEON-DOO (Roh Yoon-seo) for a stay in the U.S. to have heart surgery. Yeon-doo seems to be the type to have a crush a minute but the boy she’s just met before leaving is, to her mind, the one.

Bo-ra promises to find out everything she can about Yeon doo’s new crush while she’s away, and sets up an email account so she can forward Yeon-doo all the info. So far, the only thing she knows is the boy’s name is BAEK HYUN-JIN (Park Jung-woo). And, in under five minutes, we’re off and running on our hijinks for Bo-ra to make good on her word by following Hyun-jin around.

The next hour and a half takes place in the 1999 timeline and can best be described as bright — both aesthetically and narratively. Kim Yoo-jung is as funny, pretty, and energetic as ever, demonstrating the dexterous high kicks we’ve seen from her before in other work (I love how she always gets to take down bullies). Byun Woo-seok is just lovely as Bo-ra’s first love, pulling on the heartstrings and making me feel nothing but empathy for his character.

These two together are pretty dreamy and the story is at its best when they’re living through the high school realities of flirtations, rejections, and missed meetings. It all happens as Bo-ra secretly investigates the life of Hyun-jin and gets close to his best friend, Woon-ho, in the process.

Woon-ho helps Bo-ra get the information she’s looking for, but of course, this causes more than a few miscommunications about who likes who in our quartet of characters. As Bo-ra and Woon-ho slowly come to realize they like each other, the film basks in the simplicity of a time in life when everything is still unknown.

The first kiss is gratifyingly delayed by multiple mishaps and when it finally arrives it’s the sweetest, quickest, realest first kiss I can imagine. It might not make your heart flutter, but gladden, with its innocence and nostalgia — a reminder that a first kiss comes only once. The fast pace and effervescence of the film’s first half are exactly what the subject matter calls for.

The 90s setting, which is necessary for certain plot points, works by not distracting from the story. It doesn’t go overboard with set pieces or try too hard to contain its era, and escapes the tendency in movies about the recent past to caricature the time that’s being remembered.

Like any 20th century story, lack of ubiquitous cell phones puts it in its historical place. When Woon-ho waits all night in front of Bo-ra’s house because he can’t get ahold of her, I thought, that’s not just a plot device, it’s an accurate portrayal of the times. For those us of who were teenagers in the 90s, nothing characterizes it better than hopefully waiting around.

Mid-way through there’s a plot twist (I won’t reveal) that becomes predictable before it actually occurs but is still satisfying to see. Unfortunately, the film’s magic begins to taper after that. The friendship between the two girls, which frames the premise and allows the action to unfurl, ends up feeling a bit contrived. This dynamic then muddies the natural unfolding of the love relationships. I was taken out of the film and reminded that these kids’ characters were written by adults, which is too bad because the achingly sweet beginning completely sold me on the misadventures of falling in love for the first time.

The film’s final 25 minutes, which propel us along to the present, take an unexpected turn, transforming what we’ve just watched into a very different story. The tonal shift and added melodrama force a rethinking of the movie’s main point. What starts as a relatable first love story, ends up being a little too specific and loses some of its charm.

20th Century Girl is worth the watch for its beautiful first-half fun, even if it runs into angsty terrain after the twist. To fit neatly into a genre, the final stretch could have been left off completely. For those in a contemplative mood, it may produce sentimental tears. For others it will seem unnecessarily depressing, without being altogether realistic.

 
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