man, sometimes, korean media pulls the most shippable m/f dynamics for the very reason most western media is unable to do that.
mantis 2025 is a good example of this. the main m/f dynamic in the movie is so shippable bc the heroine would not be different if she was a man, neither would be her relationship with the hero.
why is this a good thing? bc their obsession and yearning with each other has nothing to do with them being opposite genders. this "de-gendering" is almost never happens in the western media, now when there is a romantic aspect to a m/f dynamic.
in such cases, there is always additional layer to the yearning the characters have for each other, and romantic feelings are beneath this layer, a sort of subtext. in mantis, this other layer is "competition".
i can think of only a few examples of the western media that does that. thunderbolts* where bob and yelena's yearning is a subtext beneath them mirroring one another comes to mind, ofc. spuffy too.