Love and Leashes: Redefining Boundaries, Careers, and Hearts
When Love and Leashes premiered on Netflix in 2022, its mainstream portrayal of a romantic comedy featuring elements of BDSM and emotional openness served as an introduction to a global audience. At the same time, it began to reshape the public persona of the actors, Seohyun and Lee Jun-young. What began as an unconventional K-romantic comedy about love, trust, and control marked a paradigm shift for the actors, whose off-screen lives began to embrace the film’s motifs of courage and rediscovery.
A Narrative of Control, Consent, and Compassion
Love and Leashes centers on the character, Ji-hoo (Lee Jun-young), described as an orderly, gentle, and sedate young man of secrecy, who, as it so happen, relishes the feeling of being dominated. An unusual relationship based on mutual respect and the respect of personal boundaries is born when Cohen is Ji-woo (Seohyun), his new workmate who, due to a mix-up involving a mislabelled package containing a dog collar, unexpectedly reveals his secret.
What makes the film refreshing is its gentle tone. It does not sensationalize BDSM; rather it communicates, vulnerably and trust, the use of BDSM in the plot. The South Korean film industry is still somewhat timid when it comes to an open discussion about sexual subcultures predominant within its society, and Love and Leashes comes across as a gentle society.
Even with its playful exterior, the movie represented a serious emotional risk—for its actors, most of all.
Seohyun: From Idol To Icon of Courage
For Seohyun, formerly the youngest member of the K-Pop group Girls’ Generation, the role of Jung Ji-woo represented an act of defiance against the “innocent idol” image that had haunted her for most of her career.
After a decade of reputation-building through polished performances and wholesome public demeanor, the boldness of taking on a character that explores ideas of domination, consent, and intimacy cannot be overstated. There was nervous anticipation from the public about accepting a matured, sensual figure. However, Seohyun’s unfaltering confidence proved to be her greatest asset.
In her portrayal of Ji-woo, the character was more than a “sexy role.” To Seohyun, Ji-woo was a woman who had control—emotionally, intellectually, and ethically. This choice was praised by critics for the grace and empathy with which she illustrated emotional balance and equality. It was about neither the leather nor the handcuffs.
Seohyun has been described as executing each intimate scene with total attention to comfort and consent. In collaboration with her director Park Hyun-jin, she ensured that the rewriting of small pieces of the dialogue and movement helped make the interactions feel more like a partnership as opposed to a passive, performative act. In a subsequent interview, her co-star Lee Jun-young mentioned that Seohyun “made the set a place of trust” and that her professionalism “set the tone for how we handled delicate emotions.”
Thus far, the film’s release has been a turning point in her career. Seohyun went boldly into the role, in contrast with the anticipated retreat often associated with tackling more daring material. She has since built a reputation for incredible fearlessness in her performances, later starring in Jinxed at First and Song of the Bandits, and taking on high-stakes projects featuring intricate emotional and moral complexities in female characters.
Her interviews after Love and Leashes in particular were testaments to that self-assuredness. “I realized that strength doesn’t always mean perfection,” she explained in one, while speaking about her role. “It can mean honesty, even if it makes people uncomfortable.” This mirrored the character she played as well as her own development.
Lee Jun-young: Transforming Idol Stereotypes through Emotional Openness
While Seohyun was struggling not to be typecast as the “good girl,” Lee Jun-young—formerly part of the K-pop group U-KISS and now a solo artist—was dealing with a different form of typecasting. Before acting in Love and Leashes, he was focusing more on singing, and this role required him to confront emotional vulnerability in a way the vast majority of Korean male leads never have.
Ji-hoo, the character he plays, is a submissive and gentle man. He is self-aware and emotionally expressive. In a society where male leads are typically required to portray stoic protectors, this role was one that could easily have gone off the tracks. However, Jun-young played Ji-hoo with a humility and humor that, coupled with the understated warmth he showed, left many people in the audience shocked.
His involvement in shaping Ji-hoo’s sensitivity was behind the camera. In reference to the role, he said, “It taught me empathy. It taught me communication. It taught me those things that I carried into my real life.” “Ji-hoo made me listen more, even off-set,” he shared during a promotional interview. “I learned that strength can exist in surrender.”
The film gave Jun-young something rare in show business: credibility across two worlds. He wasn’t just a former idol trying to act; he became recognized as a genuine performer capable of tackling nuanced emotional roles. After Love and Leashes, he was cast in more serious projects like May I Help You? and Brave Citizen, where his ability to balance sensitivity with intensity became his signature.
Of course, the transition wasn’t without its challenges. Some conservative fans criticized the film’s themes, and Jun-young admitted to initial fears about how the public would perceive him. Yet, in the long run, it worked in his favor—he became a symbol of how male vulnerability could be dignified, not weak.
Bonds Formed Behind the Scenes
It was not just the story that set Love and Leashes apart; it was also the experience of the production itself. The two leads spoke highly of the respect and the open communication that characterized the set. Because of the delicate nature of the subject matter, the actors set certain boundaries and talked about scenes beforehand, making sure that there was a clear understanding of the expectations on everyone’s part.
Crew members characterized the set culture as a strong sense of camaraderie, almost therapeutic, as the process seemed to echo the film’s themes of trust and consent. Director Park Hyun-jin was said to encourage the cast and crew to perform “emotion check-ins” before pivotal scenes to ensure that any forced emotional injuries would not occur.
Even in lighter scenes, the sense of collaboration was clear. Jun-young, the reserved member of the cast, was responsible for most of the tension releases between scenes with his humorous comments, while the teamwork around him, and in particular with Seohyun, created a strong partnership that was beautifully rendered on screen.
After the Whip: The Legacy of Love and Leashes
Love and Leashes, when it became available on Netflix, became an instant global success, not for shock value, but for the film’s explicit representations. The film was not another “kinky rom-com”; it was about emotional literacy, self-acceptance, and the boundaries that accompany love.
For Seohyun, it shattered preconceptions, allowing her to stand as one of South Korea’s most mature, most thoughtful actresses. For Lee Jun-young, it opened up a new realm of emotional expression that audiences had not seen in him.
Their careers have since grown in different directions, but both credit the film as a turning point. It taught them, and their audiences, that vulnerability and power can coexist.
In the end, Love and Leashes wasn’t about dominance at all. It was about letting go—of control, of image, of fear. As the cameras stopped rolling, it seemed both Seohyun and Lee Jun-young did precisely that.
They didn’t just act the part—they lived the lesson.