Movie Review: “20th Century Girl,” a heartwarming and heartbreaking story of teenage love

The movie “20th Century Girl” is truly one of the greatest romance movies I have ever seen. It’s a Korean film about a teenage girl named Na Bo-ra (Kim Yoo-jung) who tries to help her best friend Yeon-du (Roh Yoon-seo) find love by keeping tabs on her crush and reporting back.

The story-line is relatively easy to follow. The day before Yeon-du is supposed to fly to New York for heart surgery, she sees a boy she thinks is cute. She tells her best friend, Na Bo-ra, that she’s in love, even though her interaction with the boy was only seconds long. Yeon-du saw the boy’s name on the school jacket he was wearing and Na Bo-ra says she will find out everything about him and send Yeon-du email updates while she’s in New York. The name on his jacket was Baek Hyun-jin (Park Jung-woo).

Na Bo-ra is a very independent and strong-minded person. And before long, Na Bo-ra manages to meet Baek Hyun-jin and his best friend, Pong Woon-ho (Byeon Woo-seok) who are students at her high school.

There are some funny and heartwarming moments as Na Bo-ra tries to learn more about Baek Hyun-jin and gets to know Pong Woon-hu. It becomes clear that there is chemistry between Na Bo-ra and Pong Woon-hu and their scenes are filled with romantic tension. For example, when Woon-ho takes Na Bo-ra to his old house and they pick peaches off a tree, there was so much chemistry between them and the romance seemed so real.

The ending was unexpected and sad. Although I wish that “20th Century Girl” ended in a different way, it helped give more of an understanding of the film’s message and made it even better.

This movie was definitely one of my favorites and I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a romance movie whether they are or aren’t a fan of K-dramas. It will have you attached and in love with Na Bo-Ra and Woon-ho’s story.