Love Untangled review: A sweet and feel-good high school rom-com done right!

Starring Shin Eun-Soo and Gong Myung, Love Untangled hits all the spots for a charming story. Here’s why!

Love Untangled review: 2025 really seems to be the year for love triangles with Materialists, The Summer I Turned Pretty and now Love Untangled, we’re constantly torn between two teams. But unlike the first two titles, Love Untangled takes it down a notch with the toxicity and gives us a sweet digestible rom-com which was surprising and heartwarming at the same time! While most K-dramas are known to give us a happy ending, Korean movies, on the other hand, do not always have the same reputation. As someone who is still reeling from the horrors of 20th Century Girl, I was a bit on the fence about letting my emotions get the best of me with this one too. But as a hopeless romantic, there’s no way I could control my heart from fluttering as I saw the love story unfold. Give me a love triangle and throw a yearner in there and you have my attention!

Such is the story of Sun Nam-Koong’s Netflix original film! Based in Busan, in the 80s, the story revolves around Park Se-Ri(Shin Eun-Woo), acurly haired girl who hates the fact that she has curly hair. No amount of home remedies and straightening tactics could make her curly genes go away. Korea has always been a bit different than the rest of the world when it comes to beauty standards. Even in 2025, you’d rarely see a curly haired girl on the street. If you don’t have abnormally straight and perfect hair that never falls out of place, you don’t fit the norm. Sounds a bit sad, isn’t it?

Well, now imagine a societal expectation like this getting to a teenager. She doesn’t feel she could be anybody’s ideal type, definitely not Kim Hyun’s (Cha Woo-Min) - the most popular guy at school. Every girl has a crush on him but Se-Ri unintentionally grabs his attention due to a secret beach spot the two know about. The swimming in slo-mo, water dripping down his chest and this basketball playing hottie is an eye candy you cannot look away from. But at the same secret spot she co-incidentally meets Yun-Seok(Gong-Myung), the secretive new guy in school who only warms up to her. As she and her enthu-cutlet gang figure out the perfect way to confess her love to Kim Hyun, love confuses her in a way she didn’t expect. 

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Her new found friendship with Yun-Seok feels like pyaar dosti hai at its best and her love at first sight feelings for Kim Hyun makes you wonder who will get the girl in the end. But much like other teen rom-coms, this one only teases all the quintessential tropes without fully soaking and indulging itself into it. No unnecessary drama, no lack of communication, no annoying misunderstandings, and the female lead makes all the right decisions? (Yes Belly, I’m looking right at you!).

This one was a light hearted and feel good representation of a healthy love triangle and proof that it really does not need to be chaotic for no reason at all! The men are sweet, the women are level headed, the friendships are tight and even when things are not okay, it’s not raising your blood pressure, it’s all good in the hood and maybe sometimes you really need a binge like that! 

Beauty truly lies in the eyes of the beholder and it really is about who loves all versions of you at the end of the day. Love Untangled is a simple expression of that! About learning to accept yourself the way you are, even your most untangled, curly parts and feeling comfortable in it. Because true love would make you feel at ease, at home without wanting to put on a show everyday and maybe more than Park Se-Ri, I needed to see that too!

Love Untangled is currently streaming on Netflix!

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