I've seen many disturbing portrayals of romance, but this one takes the cake. Just reverse the genders of two main characters and you'll see it too. The heroine constantly harasses and embarrasses a boy at school, completely ignores that he looks uncomfortable and burdened by her advances, keeps pushing when he directly tells her to leave him alone. As if this is not disturbing enough, the girl turns into a cat every evening and goes to the boy's house and stalks him through the windows, comes into his room, spends time cuddling with him, kisses him, listens to his secret thoughts (watches him change too?). Of course the poor boy doesn't know that he is cuddling with a thirsty sexual predator. And the girl feels NO guilt about what she is doing. ZERO. She even says aloud that her plan is to find out secret things about her crush and use them to get close to him!
I've seen a horror movie where a stalker was doing similar things, but at least he got punished in the end, this girl gets REWARDED with a love confession. Yes, you've heard it right, when the boy finds out the truth, he isn't horrified as he should be, he finds it cute. The whole second half of the movie is dedicated to portraying every dubious thing the girl did as something nice and attractive. It was actually the boy's fault for not noticing her gentle soul behind her batsh** crazy behavior, she was just supporting him all this time by pushing and touching him at school and intruding into his private spaces as a cat. He was actually just afraid she would find out about his troubles, good things she was ignoring all his rejections!
Oh yes, it also helps that the story constantly guilt trips him into showing affection - first when the girl jumps from the roof and gets injured, then runs away from home after he rejected her, then when he is directly told he has to confess otherwise she will basically die (remain a cat forever)...
This movie could never exist with a male hero instead of a heroine. Everyone would freak out if a lusting boy stalked and forced himself onto a girl like that. Imagine his ghost in the body of a cat sitting between the girl's legs, licking her face, while she suspects nothing. Yikes. But when a cute girl is doing it, its okay. Her crush is so lucky, 10 star review!
The fact that the girl is messed up by her family situation, doesn't excuse her behavior. The movie acts like it is the boy who needs to change, not the girl, the girl is just in pain and needs to be understood. But pain doesnt make criminal actions okay, and *definitely* doesnt make them endearing.
Our society is determined to protect women's bodies, private spaces and right to refuse. And at the same time completely ignores that men can be victims of harassment and rape as well. The fact that this movie has so many positive reviews is frightening.
I've seen a horror movie where a stalker was doing similar things, but at least he got punished in the end, this girl gets REWARDED with a love confession. Yes, you've heard it right, when the boy finds out the truth, he isn't horrified as he should be, he finds it cute. The whole second half of the movie is dedicated to portraying every dubious thing the girl did as something nice and attractive. It was actually the boy's fault for not noticing her gentle soul behind her batsh** crazy behavior, she was just supporting him all this time by pushing and touching him at school and intruding into his private spaces as a cat. He was actually just afraid she would find out about his troubles, good things she was ignoring all his rejections!
Oh yes, it also helps that the story constantly guilt trips him into showing affection - first when the girl jumps from the roof and gets injured, then runs away from home after he rejected her, then when he is directly told he has to confess otherwise she will basically die (remain a cat forever)...
This movie could never exist with a male hero instead of a heroine. Everyone would freak out if a lusting boy stalked and forced himself onto a girl like that. Imagine his ghost in the body of a cat sitting between the girl's legs, licking her face, while she suspects nothing. Yikes. But when a cute girl is doing it, its okay. Her crush is so lucky, 10 star review!
The fact that the girl is messed up by her family situation, doesn't excuse her behavior. The movie acts like it is the boy who needs to change, not the girl, the girl is just in pain and needs to be understood. But pain doesnt make criminal actions okay, and *definitely* doesnt make them endearing.
Our society is determined to protect women's bodies, private spaces and right to refuse. And at the same time completely ignores that men can be victims of harassment and rape as well. The fact that this movie has so many positive reviews is frightening.