Next 365 days of female self defense

This holiday season was like the others. After some busy months in work, I finally took a break to relax and enjoy the time spent with Tom. Those two weeks involved the casual watching TV, cooking and eating some traditional goodies, visiting relatives, and going for some romantic walks. After being bored of all the staple Christmas fairy tales and family movies on national channels I suggested we watch what Netflix offers. “Now it is my turn to choose”  I insisted when I spotted the movie 365 days in the selection. I was curious because it seems to be such a paradox; I heard from my colleagues how awful and cringey the movie is, but strangely, somehow it is still one of the most successful Netflix movies worldwide.

I thought there must be something to it so why not watching it. Tom obviously was not that happy, he wanted some action or comedy, but I convinced him there are some hot sex scenes in it. If you have not seen it yet it is a Polish erotic drama. The plot is simple: a young Polish businesswoman Laura is kidnapped by a young Sicilian mafia boss Massimo who gave her 365 days (not a short time) to fell in love with him or he let her go. Of course, he is an extremely handsome, rich, and powerful alpha male (otherwise the whole premise would not fly right?) who always gets what he wants even the heart of any girl he desires. The plot was simple and predictable but anyway, spoiler alert!: after some of her initial resistance, a passionate attraction gradually develops, she drops her nice but boring boyfriend, and finally they are getting married. One can easily understand why this movie created such a fuzz.

I admit that although the script and dialogues sucked, there was some chemistry between the two characters and sex scenes were daring. But I was quite disappointed, throughout the entire film I wished for a more unexpected change in narrative or a twist in the plot. Why Laura could not show her bravery, and quick-thinking in combination with self defense skills to get rid of her overconfident and arrogant captor. It would be so satisfying seeing her turning the tables and by using his fragile masculinity against him to put him to his knees. There were so many instances in the movie this could easily happen.

For instance, there was this tense scene in the shower when both are naked. Massimo shows his typical controlling and dominant side (and his male parts), Laura provocatively teases him with her looks. At some point, seeing her being interested in his penis (or testicles who knows😊), he orders her to touch it. Her hand slowly moves along his torso towards his crotch. I immediately thought to myself that if she attended Linda’s course, she would know how to use that instance his confidence betrays him and his greatest weakness is exposed, to unexpectedly ‘touch’ it in a way he would never forget and so teaching him the important life lesson not to kidnap a woman.  

A naked man behaving like this put his testicles at great risk  

In the following sequence she decides not to continue with the play, turns around and leaves, he grabs her by the neck and pulls her towards him to kiss her. At that moment I just wanted to scream out of my lungs “Knee his f.cking balls!” Luckily, I did not, I did not want to upset Tom, last time he already angrily commented in a similar situation that the Linda’s self defense course had some very bad influence on me. Anyhow, the creators missed the opportunity to show an example to follow providing an empowering experience for women with a moral ending that even if a man is an attractive wealthy mafia boss, he still has sensitive testicles and must carefully safeguard their male vulnerability, otherwise kidnapping a woman can go wrong. That was my take on this 'cinematographic gem', if you know any other movies which could have had a similar twist, please feel free to share it in the comments.

I hope this following 365 days 😊 I will be able to contribute to this blog as much I want (hope this year won’t be that busy at work), there are still many techniques I want to communicate and to continue giving some more glimpses on the Linda’s course. Wendy