Lovestruck in the City (Initial Thoughts)

I've seen many many K-dramas over the past few years but this might be the first time we get something totally new and fresh. Another Netflix Original, Lovestruck in the City (or directly translated to How to love between men and women in a city) is a romance drama that tells its story by having our leads go through a series of interviews by an unknown party. These interviews are interspersed with normal scenes that are then weaved together to form the final product. Starring Ji Chang-wook (The K2, Melting Me Softly) as male lead PARK JAE-WON and Kim Ji-won (Fight For My Way, Arthdal Chronicles) as female lead LEE EUN-OH, this is undoubtedly one of the most unique concepts that a drama could have. While I've only finished episode 1, I feel like the inception of this drama could revolutionise the romance genre by breathing new life into something that's been done to death. Let's dive in.

INITIAL THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS (SPOILER ALERT)

While I don't watch them much anymore, I'm a sucker for Western sitcoms, especially those that utilise the character interview format. Stuff like The Office, Parks and Recreation or Modern Family all tickle my funny bone with just the right brand of humour. That probably explains why I think it's a really interesting move on the director's and screenwriters' parts to have this drama done in a similar format. It's super refreshing to see and I think it's genius because it really adds a sense of reality to the series. Instead of feeling like everything you're seeing is clearly fictional because you have an omniscient point of view, having our leads being interviewed makes us feel closer to them, as if they're real people that we can relate to. In fact it's made very apparent to us in episode 1 that the six leads being interviewed are "real people" and the whole premise of the drama is to learn about their dating life plus how people date in the city (just like the drama title). Because we're seeing things from their perspective, it makes us feel like we're in the characters' shoes and I think it's a really really cool concept. 

In truth, we actually know very little about any of the characters thus far. We only get a very brief glimpse into their private lives and relationships, and we pretty much know only their ages and occupations. Male lead Jae-won is a 32 year old architect and he gets paired up with Eun-oh, a 29 year old marketer. Based off their interviews, we know that Jae-won and Eun-oh's past relationship ended badly but we don't get any elaboration on it thus far. The whole episode focuses on how the pair meet, with surfing maniac Jae-won meeting Eun-oh at a beach. For whatever reason, she uses a false identity, Yoon Seon-a, and we'll probably get a better understanding of this in future. Our hero is pretty smitten with Eun-oh and despite the fact that he thinks she's crazy, he's inexplicably drawn to her wild behaviour. We really don't get much from this episode other than giving us the first looks at our lead couple and we can clearly see the budding attraction between them as they fall in love. Through the interviews, we know that even though they broke up, they can't forget each other. 

I mentioned earlier that this drama has six leads but we don't get too much information on the second and third couples. As of the present day, second male lead CHOI KYUNG-JOON [Kim Min-seok (Descendants of the Sun, The Doctors)] and second female lead SUH RIN-YI [So Ju-yeon (Dr. Romantic 2, A Love So Beautiful)] are a couple who seem to be in a steady relationship. Kyung-joon is a 29 year old architect who works in the same company as Jae-won (and in fact is his cousin) and Rin-yi is a 29 year old multi-job part-timer. Our second lead couple seem like the usual young bubbly kind of people and from what we've seen thus far, I expect a lot of cute scenes between them.

Our first and second couples all have some connection within their respective pairings (at least for the first episode), which is where the third couple differs. Third male lead KANG GEON [Ryu Kyung-soo (Confession, Itaewon Class)] is a 29 year old novelist who falls crazily in love with the women he dates but hasn't been in a relationship in 2 years. Third female lead OH SUN-YOUNG [Han Ji-eun (Be Melodramatic, Kkondae Intern)] is a 30 year old physical education teacher in a high school and has been in many relationships, referring to herself as a "serial dater". As of right now, both of them are very separate characters and seem to share very differing opinions about love and relationships. I think this will make for quite an interesting dynamic in future if (or maybe when) they meet. 

I find it really cool that thus far, while our leads might end up interacting with one another (like how Jae-won and Kyung-joon are colleagues), I have a feeling that they might keep the characters' stories fairly separate. Essentially, I don't foresee any usual K-drama love triangles or even squares, instead their individual love lives might be very self-contained. If they go ahead with this, it'll emphasise the anthology-like effect of the series and make it serve its purpose better of merely being an interview of six people about their dating lives. In many ways, this is almost like a "choose your own adventure" kind of deal as the director and screenwriters have left it up to us to come up with our own conclusions about the leads' love stories as well as love in general. There's a very personal touch to this drama and I think many people will enjoy it because of that. 

Ji Chang-wook really shines in romance dramas, with his previous works like Suspicious Partner and Melting Me Softly being excellent examples of his capability. He also does a very perfect exasperated expression and I hope we get a lot more of that in later episodes because it's absolutely hilarious. From what I've heard, many people are praising the chemistry between him and Kim Ji-won. Episode 1 only gives us a slight glimpse into their interactions so I'm very much looking forward to more. As for the other characters, it's hard for me to formulate opinions right now because we have so little to work with. If you really think about it, this is more of a web series than a "proper" drama if you will, considering the fact that instead of airing on a cable or free-to-air TV network, this drama airs on KakaoTV, an Internet broadcasting service. Not only that, the episodes are half the length of a usual drama episode, only having about 30-ish minutes of runtime each. Choosing to be a short form drama is a good call though, especially with the very "realistic" interview format they're going with. Shorter episodes will definitely enhance realism and also keep viewers engaged.

The interview format isn't entirely new to the K-drama scene, with Reply 1988 having used it in some form. However, this is probably the first time that it's used as the primary concept for a drama. As I type out my initial thoughts, the series is still airing, with its final episode to be released next Tuesday so thankfully I won't have to wait all that long and neither will y'all. I hope you'll join me in watching this series and together, let's find out what it's like to be Lovestruck in the City.