The Big Picture

Relive the exciting whirlwind of first love in
20th Century Girl
, a Korean film filled with relatable teenage emotions and nostalgic vibes.
Kim Yoo-Jung shines as Bo-ra, perfectly capturing the mix of endearing and embarrassing traits of a teenager navigating first crushes and friendships.
The film’s ’90s setting adds to the nostalgic atmosphere, with vibrant hues, iconic pop culture references, and romantic chemistry between cast members.

There is nothing more bittersweet than the feeling of nostalgia. Casting your mind back to a time when life was less complicated and reliving those flurry of emotions again, particularly when thinking about your first love. Teenage crushes in the media are usually catered towards the teenage demographic, but 20th Century Girl – one of the best Korean movies on Netflix – harnesses the powerful feeling of nostalgia to deliver this timeless adolescent love story, making the excitement of first crushes accessible to all generations. The film perfectly captures the light-hearted and all-too-dramatic moments of a first love, drawing on small relatable habits and ensuring tantalizing chemistry between cast members. Though the film is set in the ’90s, the cringy teenage protagonist and the world-ending teenage drama are nostalgic enough to lull anyone into a state of reminiscence. Nostalgia becomes the film’s defining tool that allows it to skillfully guide us through a roller-coaster of comical emotions, all the way to the unexpected ending.

20th Century Girl In 1999, a teen with a heart of gold begins keeping close tabs on a popular classmate as a favor to her smitten best friend.Release Date October 21, 2022 Cast Kim Yoo-jung , Park Jung-woo , Roh Yoon-seo Runtime 1 hr 59 min Director Bang Woo-ri Writers Bang Woo-ri Studio Netflix Expand

’20th Century Girl’ Captures the Nostalgia of a First Crush
20th Century Girl momentarily opens with an adult Na Bo-ra (Kim Yoo-jung) preparing for her trip back home to Korea and quickly melts into the past, where Bo-ra was still in high school. The year is 1999 and Bo-ra’s best friend’s heart is pounding wildly, not because of the heart condition she is about to fix with out-of-town surgery, but because she met a boy. As Kim Yeon-du (Roh Yoon-seo) prepares to leave town, she makes Bo-ra promise to investigate every detail about this mysterious boy named Baek Hyun-jin (Park Jung-woo) since he will be attending the same school as her. As a loyal and protective best friend, Bo-ra agrees, and so ensues the borderline creepy stalking that every high school girl is guilty of, yet is somehow justified with youth and true love.

Related If You Like ‘Lovely Runner,’ Watch Kim Hye-yoon’s Other Critically Acclaimed K-Drama Both series are based on webtoons and share many similarities apart from Hye-yoon.

Cue the first plot twist: while Bo-ra diligently studies her friend’s object of affection, she ends up being swept away in her own puppy love story with Hyun-jin’s best friend Poong Woon-hoo (Byeon Woo-seok). Every plot in the film is littered with nostalgic play-by-plays we can almost envision ourselves in, with furtively figuring out what your crush is interested in, feigning interest in those hobbies, perhaps joining the same clubs to become closer to them, or feeling a catch in your throat whenever they occupy the same space as you. Even the abundance of plot twists and turns becomes relatable, as each discovery is met with an overly dramatic response and questionable decisions that we know all too well from our adolescent years. It is very easy to get lost in the frivolity and nostalgia of the film’s atmosphere, making us forget the mature note in the beginning and thus leaving us vulnerable to the ending.

Kim Yoo-Jung Masters the Relatable Teenager in ’20th Century Girl’
Image via Yong Film

There is no better person to lead us through this nostalgic story than a protagonist who encapsulates both endearing and embarrassing traits of a teenager. Bo-ra’s excitement over having a crush is palpable, from her initial reluctance over liking someone who was standoffish and slightly rude to happily spiraling into love-sick bliss as she gazes out of the window of her parent’s store at Woon-ho. On the other hand, when she devastatingly finds out Yeon-do actually likes Woon-ho, not Hyun-jin, she makes the well-intentioned yet wholly infuriating decision to lie to her best friend about her feelings. Though she eventually learns that Yeon-do is perfectly capable of making her own decisions, her protectiveness makes her misguided actions feel heart-warming anyway. The idea of making ridiculous plans over trivial things lends to how teenagers generally try to find independence and navigate ethics through making these baffling decisions, becoming uncomfortably yet laughably relatable.

The fast pace of 20th Century Girl also enhances Bo-ra’s relatability as a teenager, especially as Yoo-jung’s performance quickly flits from one emotion to another as each snappy plot twist comes around every ten minutes. It mimics the way we are likely to remember our adolescent past, in quick snapshots circling all the major events and ground-breaking emotions, rather than in a cohesive flow. Yoo-jung handles each shifting moment effortlessly, with wild expressions etched onto her face to dramatize the teenage experience, as exaggerated as we are likely to recall it.

’20th Century Girl’ Keeps the ’90s Within Reach

With the film set in 1999, there is no avoiding the ’90s paraphernalia and references to iconic Korean pop culture littered around the set. VCRs, pagers and outdoor phone booths regale the screen, embellished with references to the Y2K crisis that was a hot topic at the upcoming turn of the century. Naturally, this mis-en-scene deeply contributes to the film’s nostalgic atmosphere, with some of us growing up in that exact environment. This also comes down to the rich and vibrant hues of each scene, where the saturation and contrast are cranked up to create the technicolor nostalgia of a whirlwind first love. It is also this clarity that makes us forget that we are simply witnessing Bo-ra’s memory, emphasizing how she is essentially reliving each cascade of emotion and drama.

Despite the overt ’90s setting, 20th Century Girl doesn’t feel limited to those who have grown up in this era, and still feels open to all generations. Though this is highly attributed to the timeless first crush romance, the cinematography also plays into this. The camera becomes an extension of Bo-ra as it is her memory we are reliving. Consequently, the camera is as in love with Woon-ho as Bo-ra is, often lingering at his indiscernible expressions as gently and delicately as Bo-ra does. Another memorable moment is the wide shot of Bo-ra and Woon-ho’s silhouettes against the vivid blue sky during the cherry blossom festival. This marks the point where Bo-ra realizes her feelings for Woon-ho as he teaches her how to film, with the wide shot making the touching moment feel suspended in time, almost capturing it as a snapshot of a memory would. It is the emotions wrapped up in these visuals that make the film timeless and accessible, allowing anyone to indulge in the nostalgia of feeling those butterflies for the first time.

The Romantic Chemistry Between the Cast Is Nostalgic

The nostalgia is also pulled off by the chemistry between cast members, especially within Bo-ra’s relationships. Bo-ra and Yeon-do flawlessly encapsulate the bonds of girlhood while growing up, from the playful and obsessive talks about crushes to the more mature discussions of boundaries that we all inevitably face. Then we also have the pleasure of watching Bo-ra’s frustrating arguments with Hyun-jin as she determinedly fends off his advances and eventually cultivates a tentative friendship with him. And we can’t forget about our two romantic leads, as their petty banter gradually transforms into affectionate gestures and romantic intensity under a plum tree. Their relationship radiates a tenderness and soft innocence that seamlessly fits into Netflix’s growing catalog of wholesome romances, allowing us to bask in their cozy chemistry.

As such, 20th Century Girl uses nostalgia to harness our emotions, taking full control over them to lead us to a conclusion which has been the source of debate among critics. It has been panned for its “incompleteness,” as the details of the future of many characters are left out. But it has also been praised for its ambiguity, with critics claiming it reflects the final stages of a coming-of-age story, where life takes everyone down separate paths. Either way, the film certainly does a wonderful job at making us woefully unprepared for the finale’s curveball, emphasizing the power nostalgia and memories can have over audiences and leaving us to recollect our own first love.

20th Century Girl is currently available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.

WATCH ON NETFLIX