No lie, I decided to go see Love in the Big City because I ‘just wanted to see a good love story’. I had a certain expectation going into the theatre, so I was definitely surprised a few minutes in.
When Jae-hee (Kim Go-eun) and Heung-soo (Steve Sanghyun Noh) meet in university and bond over being outcasts, they form a deep friendship that rivals even the best romance stories. Together, they weather the storms of coming into adulthood in a city like Seoul, seeing each other through relationships, education and jobs, as well as the marginalisation they each face being who they are. Jae-hee lives in a freedom outside what is expected of ‘good’ girls, and Heung-soo is a gay man.
Directed by E.oni, and adapted from the Park Sang-young novel of the same name, Love In The Big City is funny, and sad, and all around heartfelt. Kim Go-eun and Steve Sanghyun Noh lead the film with incredible performances, both bringing a warmth that draws you to their characters and keeps you on their side through the twists and turns that their lives bring.
This film is going to make every young adult feel seen, but also give us something to aspire to. Young adulthood is a weird season of life to navigate, where you have to apply everything you’ve already learned, but also find out that there’s a lot you don’t know. I’ve learned, as I enter firmly into my late 20s, that having people in your corner not only helps you get through it but can also be what helps you grow while you’re in it. Jae-hee and Heung-soo are there to sit with each other in the ‘not knowing’ but also to push each other to be the versions of themselves they know the other can be.
It’s so beautiful to be seen by someone else and to see them in return and, while a lot of that rhetoric is usually reserved for romantic stories, Love In The Big City highlights just how much friendships provide that beauty as well. At the end of the day, Love In The Big City might have just been the love story I was looking for.
Love in the Big City is playing at TIFF ’24. For more information, click here.
