In this blog post, I’ll examine the themes of love, heartbreak, revelation, and revenge hidden behind the trailer’s lighthearted impression in the movie ‘The Purpose of Love’. I’ll also reflect on what the film defines as the “purpose of love,” focusing on the evolution of the two protagonists’ relationship and the subversion of traditional gender roles.

“The Purpose of Love”: That Subtle Allure

Not long ago, I personally experienced the film “The Purpose of Love”—a movie I’d only heard about and which was said to be so shocking—visually, aurally, and even tactilely. To be honest, it didn’t hit me with quite the intense shock I’d been led to expect, but instead, it gave me plenty of unexpected food for thought.
When a film resonates with an individual on a deeper level, it undoubtedly offers food for thought. This means the film isn’t easily forgotten, and it also gives the audience the opportunity to reflect on its own. Only then do we remember the film not merely as simple entertainment, but as one of the various elements that shape our own thinking.
That said, I certainly do not intend to shower ‘The Purpose of Love’ with endless praise here, claiming it is a “great film” on par with ‘Dead Poets Society’ or ‘Billy Elliot’, which had a profound impact on my life. Nevertheless, the reason I wish to examine this film closely is that there aren’t that many great films that have a profound impact on an individual’s life, and I also didn’t want to write a piece that simply heaped unconditional praise on a little-known classic or art film.
In fact, it would be more accurate to say that the reason I was strangely drawn to this film from the very beginning was instinct. The moment I saw the trailer—featuring actor Park Hae-il, who usually gives off a gentle and kind impression, delivering a barrage of cringeworthy lines like “Are you wet?” and “I’ll just leave it in for five seconds” with such nonchalance—I thought, “I absolutely cannot miss this movie.” I feel I must confess right at the beginning of this story that this was the biggest reason that drew me to the theater.
There’s a reason I’m starting with such an unusual confession. While I imagine there were quite a few viewers who approached this film—or intended to—with a casual mindset similar to mine, ‘The Purpose of Love’ is, in fact, by no means a lighthearted film.
Based on my experience as a student, when my only hobby was watching movies, I’ve learned that whenever a film tries to grab people’s attention by overly emphasizing just one aspect, there’s usually something fishy about it. For example, horror movies that dominate the summer box office often rely on critics’ reviews that repeatedly tout how “scary” they are. Yet, when you actually watch those movies, they’re often not very scary at all. The same goes for Korean comedy films. The more a movie emphasizes descriptors like “side-splittingly funny!,” the fewer scenes there usually are that actually make you laugh until your sides hurt.
Applying a rule I’ve derived from these experiences, ‘The Purpose of Love’—which placed an unusual emphasis on lightheartedness and playfulness—was, in fact, a film that shouldn’t have been taken lightly. And as expected, this film was by no means a light-hearted affair.

“The Purpose of Love”: The Real Story Beyond the Trailer

To help you understand the discussion that follows, I’ll start by introducing the film’s plot. This isn’t merely a formal procedural step. Understanding the film’s content serves as the foundation for the analysis to come, and I believe that the images conveyed to the public through trailers and various media fail to capture even half of the film’s overall content—let alone the messages it conveys.
Choi Hong (Kang Hye-jeong), a student teacher, is subjected to persistent advances from her supervising teacher, Lee Yu-rim (Park Hae-il), who suggests they sleep together. Yu-rim has a girlfriend—a teacher at another school—whom he has been dating for six years. However, even when Hong points this out, Yu-rim brazenly continues his advances, claiming he wants to “date” rather than “get married.”
At one point, Hong shares a story from her college days. A friend of hers had been dating a married professor but was eventually dumped; yet, because of the professor’s vicious behavior, she was branded by the school as a stalker who had relentlessly harassed him. Ultimately, her friend couldn’t bear it anymore and took her own life. Upon hearing this story, Yoo-rim dismisses it as a cliché and doesn’t take it seriously. However, it later turns out that what she thought was a friend’s story was, in fact, Hong’s own experience from her college days.
At this point, the audience might expect a relatively familiar ending: Yoo-rim, having learned of Hong’s pain—her inability to easily begin a relationship due to a hidden, painful past—comforts her and helps her heal, ultimately bringing their love to fruition. However, the film ruthlessly shatters these simple expectations and abruptly shifts into a bizarre series of revelations and a revenge drama.
Just as the two are growing closer, a scandal involving Yoo-rim and Hong begins to spread across the school’s online bulletin board. Among students and fellow teachers, Hong is eventually treated as a “dirty woman.” Yoo-rim, stepping in to resolve the situation, discovers that her girlfriend—who had been suspicious of her behavior—was the one who sparked the incident. She tries to smooth things over by claiming it was merely a misunderstanding caused by the intimacy between a homeroom teacher and a student teacher.
However, Hong—who had been socially ruined and branded a relentless stalker due to a lie told by a professor she had dated in the past—watches Yoo-rim’s attempt to resolve the situation and suddenly stands up. She then claims that Yoo-rim used his position as a teacher to sexually assault her, and that she is, in fact, the innocent victim.
Thus, Hong once again becomes the “poor, pitiful woman,” while Yoo-rim is branded a “monster” in the eyes of the world. After some time has passed, the two begin dating again—perhaps just like they did at the beginning, or perhaps in an entirely new way.

An Unusual War of Revelations, or a Revenge Drama: From the Perspective of Romance

It would be a huge mistake to think of this film as merely a “light snack”—a simple, typical romantic comedy where two people bicker before eventually falling in love, spiced up with provocative dialogue and acting. Hong’s completely unexpected revelations completely transform the very nature of the film.
When reinterpreted through the lens of romance, an interesting shift becomes apparent. This is because the revelations completely reverse the positions of Yoo-rim and Hong within the story. After the revelations, Yoo-rim becomes so frightened that she can no longer easily approach women. In contrast, Hong approaches a frightened Yoo-rim, wraps his arm around her shoulder with a warm gaze, and asks, “Want to sleep with me?”
Although Yoo-rim initially approached Hong simply wanting sex, after learning about her wounds, he begins to reach out to her sincerely. Now, rather than merely satisfying his own sexual desires, Yoo-rim hopes to become someone who can protect Hong from everything that causes her pain. Yoo-rim has come to infuse sex with genuine love.
Hong, too, gradually opens her heart as she sees Yoo-rim soothing her wounds and trying to understand her true feelings. Through Yoo-rim, Hong heals her wounds and begins to approach him with sincerity. Eventually, by the latter half of the film, she has changed so much that she can unhesitatingly ask Yoo-rim, “Want to sleep with me?” first. Hong has finally come to infuse sex with love.
The event that serves as the decisive turning point for both characters’ transformations is Hong’s “revelation.”
Knowing Hong’s painful past, Yoo-rim had no choice but to be helplessly caught in the web of his lies. She couldn’t allow him to be socially ruined twice over. Ultimately, Yoo-rim chooses to take the fall herself, sacrificing her own reputation to protect Hong.
Meanwhile, Hong, witnessing Yoo-rim being socially ruined by his own lies, feels guilty and simultaneously develops a desire to make amends to her. The “revelation” becomes an opportunity for Yoo-rim to truly embrace Hong’s wounds and add love to their sex life, while for Hong, it becomes a chance to heal his wounds, fully open his heart to Yoo-rim, and add love to their sex life.
In the end, the two reunite at the bus stop—as if by magic—and begin a new romance on the day the first snow falls. This conclusion might lead audiences to think that their initial preconceptions weren’t entirely wrong. However, Hong’s exposé, which took place prior to this, completely reversed the power dynamics between the two. Since their relationship restarts under these circumstances, it’s difficult to view this film as one that simply follows the formula of a typical romantic comedy.
Rather, ‘The Purpose of Love’ is a film that faithfully incorporates the necessary elements within the basic framework of the genre while attempting slight deviations to create a thrilling sense of suspense. And these deviations can also be examined from another perspective.

An Unusual Exchange of Revelations, or a Revenge Drama: From the Perspective of Gender Roles

Let’s now examine the film from the perspective of male and female gender roles.
In our society, there is an expectation—particularly regarding issues of sexuality—that women must display a more demure and conservative attitude than men. Women are required to align their behavior with these social expectations. If a woman’s sex life is exposed to the public, she is likely to face severe criticism and pressure.
While men’s sexual scandals are relatively easily forgotten or fade from public attention, women’s sexual scandals rarely fade from memory; they are repeatedly brought up over long periods and often become the target of condemnation. This difference alone gives us a glimpse into the sexual standards and criteria our society has applied to women. The phenomenon of women’s sexuality being easily commodified is also undoubtedly linked to these social attitudes.
Hong’s past in the drama illustrates how deeply a woman can be misunderstood and wounded by unequal and prejudiced social standards, and how difficult it is to recover from those wounds and return to everyday life.
However, Hong ruthlessly shatters the second set of social standards thrust upon her. The incident that most clearly reveals this proactive change is the “revelation battle” mentioned earlier.
That said, Hong does not believe that the exposé she orchestrated was the right thing to do or even a natural course of action. She feels guilty toward Yoo-rim, who was socially ostracized in her place because of Hong’s lies. At the same time, she begins to feel genuine love for Yoo-rim, who understood her pain and even accepted being cast out of society on her behalf.
Looking at the structure of a typical romantic comedy, it is common for a woman to receive protection and help from a man, be moved by his actions, and begin a new romance. This may be the result of fixed gender roles—accumulated over many years in human society—being reflected in the narrative.
This structure is also linked to the interpretation that it is based on the “hero’s myth” found in countless other films. The hero’s myth—in which a prince sets out on an adventure, overcomes all manner of difficulties, rescues the princess, and ultimately wins both her and her kingdom—remains deeply embedded even in the stories being created today.
However, ‘The Purpose of Love’ introduces yet another twist to this typical heroic archetype.
In this film, the man—who is typically in the position of rescuing a woman from her pain, opening her heart, and helping her begin a new romance—is, in fact, the one who is wounded by the woman. He is then healed by her, opens his heart, and begins a new romance. This reversal of gender roles also begins during the “revelation scene.”
This interpretation becomes even clearer when examining the scene that perfectly captures the reversal of their gender roles.
It’s the scene where Choi Hong and Lee Yu-rim sit across from each other drinking. The camera, which had been capturing the restaurant’s overall scenery, gradually zooms in to focus solely on Choi Hong and Lee Yu-rim.
Yu-rim asks:

“What else have I done wrong besides liking you? Why did you toy with me?”

Hong replies:

“I liked you, too. Should we… sleep together? Let’s sleep together. I want to sleep with you.”

At that, Yu-rim explodes with emotion.

“You crazy bitch. Ever since you, I can’t trust women, and I’m too scared to even date anyone. You’re the one who made me this way.”

Hong says to Yu-rim,

“That’s why I’ll take responsibility.”

Yu-rim says again,

“Don’t even think about toying with me.”

Dawn breaks, and the camera pans out to show the hotel where the two spent the night from a distance.
If you were to read only the dialogue without knowing the film’s plot, it would be hard to believe that Yoo-rim’s lines are spoken by a man. In this scene in particular, Choi Hong is consistently positioned at the center of the frame to highlight the reversed gender roles. In contrast, Lee Yoo-rim appears blurred beside Hong, or only the back of her head is visible, making it difficult to clearly see her face.
The man continues to sob in this state, while the woman comforts him and is the first to say, “Let’s go to sleep,” without hesitation. This goes beyond simply placing the man and woman on equal footing; rather, it shows the woman taking the lead in the relationship.
This scene reverses the traditional gender roles within the typical structure of a romantic comedy, where a man and woman who have overcome various obstacles finally begin a beautiful romance. Through this role reversal, the film introduces yet another twist to the familiar romance formula.

“The Purpose of Dating”: A Love Story That’s Anything but Lighthearted

“The Purpose of Dating.” In fact, viewers who went into the movie expecting a lighthearted experience may have been quite taken aback. It’s also true that audience reactions to the film weren’t entirely favorable. Some viewers even expressed strong discomfort with the film.
However, setting aside the fact that promotional efforts that overemphasized the film’s lightheartedness actually fell short of audience expectations and sparked resentment, it isn’t hard to see that the film attempted a somewhat unconventional approach to “dating” and to “love”—a concept so central to our lives that it’s no exaggeration to say it is everything.
With its blunt dialogue that sticks deep in the mind and its unique, non-stereotypical characters, the film weaves together various stories based on these intriguing elements—yet, in the end, it does not set out to tell a completely different story. Even though it attempts a few deviations from genre conventions through its revelations, the ultimate message it conveys never strays from the themes of romance and love.
If the transformations of the characters in the film directly reflect what the work intends to convey, then the purpose of romance as depicted here—whether viewed from the perspective of romance itself or gender roles—is the “transformation” of the two people who have fallen in love.
The man begins with sex and adds love, while the woman begins with love and adds sex; through a process of understanding each other and healing each other’s wounds, they mature and grow to resemble one another.
These two characters seem to represent the women of this era, who are becoming increasingly confident, and the men who can no longer survive in this day and age by clinging solely to patriarchal norms. By candidly depicting their journey of change, the film broadens the audience’s perspective on romance and love.
That is the conclusion I reached after spending a considerable amount of time reflecting on the film ‘The Purpose of Romance’.
In fact, the “purpose” of something is like a crystallization in which a person’s experiences and values are infused, ultimately forming a unique identity. Similarly, the “purpose of romance” is likely a crystallization formed as one’s own thoughts and experiences regarding love and romance accumulate and blend together.
Everyone’s thoughts and experiences are different. Therefore, the purpose of romance also takes on different forms depending on the person. That is why we do not necessarily have to accept what this movie conveys as the one and only truth.
However, just as there are countless forms of love, this movie is meaningful in that it tells one story among the many possible purposes of dating and provides us with an opportunity to reflect on it together.
We constantly gain experience through various paths, mature based on those experiences, and ultimately forge our own true selves. Just as that process itself is important, watching the film ‘The Purpose of Dating’ is meaningful in that it provides an opportunity—whether brief or prolonged—to seriously reflect on what love means in the life we’ve lived so far.
Perhaps dating is, in any direction or form, a process of transforming oneself.
The purpose of the relationship between the two characters depicted in this film also does not seem to be a superficial conclusion reached after a brief moment of contemplation.