Like I mentioned in my initial thoughts post, Lovestruck in the City is undoubtedly one of the most unique and entertaining dramas around. If I'm being completely honest, it's really more like a high budget web drama if you will. It was very engaging to follow the stories of our leads as if they were real people and the interview format gave a lot of heart to the series, making it feel very personal to viewers. Let's dive in.
SERIES RETROSPECT AND REVIEW (SPOILER ALERT)
The general idea of this drama is such. What do you think about love? Even though we're given six leads with differing love stories to follow, the point the director and screenwriters are trying to push across is that we're supposed to form our own views. By not only showing us all the different scenarios like a normal drama but also letting us understand things from the characters' perspectives by putting them through interviews, it helps us to grasp the situation better, thereby allowing us to decide whether what they're doing is right or wrong. In the same vein, the short episode length made it easier to follow the story, especially since the drama decided to jump around quite a bit between narratives while generally following an underlying plot.
What I find interesting is how the drama has used our six leads and their respective pairings to depict different stages and scenarios in a romance. In my initial thoughts post, I said that the leads were very separate from one another but boy was I wrong. We know that Jae-won and Kyung-joon are cousins but as we find out later on, there're even more connections. Eun-oh, Rin-yi and Kang Geon have been friends since childhood, and don't forget that because it's an important plot point. It's pretty obvious that the main focus is on Jae-won and Eun-oh, with most of the drama telling their story about how they first met, how they fell apart and finally how they got back together. I would say that Jae-won and Eun-oh are used to depict an ideal couple, one where they find their way back to each other even after many trials and tribulations. I felt the chemistry between our leads was very visible and they had lots of cute moments, huge props to Ji Chang-wook and Kim Ji-won for their stellar performances but what I will say is that some parts of their romance really turned me off. They have a very drama-like set-up, practically falling in love at first sight and entering a fairly serious relationship at that. However, what I didn't like is how both characters behaved after breaking up.
Very brief context here, Eun-oh took on the alias of Yoon Seon-a and practically changed her entire character in a journey of self-discovery. Throughout her initial fling with Jae-won, she never makes her actual past known to him and he's none the wiser. I can close an eye to that because she wasn't hurting anyone then. However, what annoys me is how she broke up with him randomly because she was afraid of revealing her true self to him. Both of them truly loved each other and that's made very clear to us throughout the series but if that's the case, Eun-oh should've trusted in Jae-won enough to come clean with him about her inner demons and her "dark" past. I'm almost 90% sure that if she had done this, everything would've been fine. Sure, Jae-won might've been a little miffed about being lied to but it definitely would've been better than most of the anguish he was put through. That was a bad move on Eun-oh's part. Worst thing is, even though she knew she was in the wrong, she kept digging a deeper hole for herself by prolonging their inevitable reunion and eventually unwillingly reveal her true identity to Jae-won, which hurts him even more.
I really felt bad for Jae-won here, he didn't deserve any of the nonsense that Eun-oh put him through. In many ways, Jae-won's love for Eun-oh practically blinded him. Yes he was angered by Eun-oh's seemingly random and unexplainable break up, and even though he constantly cursed at her, he never stopped loving her. He states in the drama that if she were to just reappear again, he wouldn't ask any questions. Of course, that was before he found out her real identity. I firmly believe that their relationship soured because she wouldn't come clean with him. Even after she broke up with him, if she had just come back and told him the truth, rather than having her secret revealed at a police station (won't explain this), Jae-won probably would've accepted her and loved her as if nothing happened. There're many instances in the drama where after finding out the truth, Jae-won constantly talks down to Eun-oh in a very passive-aggressive manner and while some might think that he's going a bit far because she had her reasons, I think all that anger is warranted. He definitely deserves that form of release after all the mental and emotional torture he's been put through.
Don't get me wrong, I think Eun-oh had legit motivations behind what she did (albeit on a dramatised level). She was cheated on by her fiancé, who had fathered a child with another woman while Eun-oh was on a business trip, and to make matters worse, she loses her job placing to someone with more spunk than her. Her end goal was to find herself and become a better person, and she explicitly mentions that many times throughout the series. Even after she sort of reconciles with Jae-won, she makes it very clear that she'll be prioritising herself and her number one goal is to love herself. It's something that makes a lot of sense and a very real struggle in the real world. I've mentioned this in some of my previous series retrospects but self-love is actually something people find very hard to achieve. However, even after all this, I find it doesn't warrant Eun-oh's treatment of Jae-won. Whatever it may be, at the end of the day the pair get back together and learn to accept each other for who they are. They represent what everyone should be like when entering a relationship, understanding the other party and learning to love them, flaws and all.
While this drama's main couple ended up back together (presumably much to everyone's happiness), the couple that I thought would stay together didn't. I'm talking about second leads Kyung-joon and Rin-yi. Firstly, they were really adorable to watch and seemed really lovey-dovey. Having been in a relationship for 5 years now and having been friends for even longer, I genuinely thought this young couple could weather any storm but as is with most things in my life, I was wrong. It's no secret to the viewers that Kyung-joon has his worries about Rin-yi's lifestyle. While he has a stable career and a good amount of money (coming from an affluent family), Rin-yi continues to live a frugal and very much "hand-to-mouth" lifestyle, having worked multiple part-time jobs for many years and practically refusing to spend any money that isn't absolutely necessary, even on simple things like extra bedding. This all comes to a head when Rin-yi finds out that Kyung-joon has been lying to others about her lifestyle and instead of telling them the truth, he says she's a graduate school student (a suggestion that he's raised up to her before). She accuses Kyung-joon of not accepting her for who she is even after so long and breaks up with him.
This breakup hurt to watch because I didn't want it to happen. I should've known their romance was too good to be true. Both sides have very valid arguments. Kyung-joon has plans of settling down and marrying Rin-yi (although she doesn't share the sentiment), and wants her to realise that she can't continue living her life like this. He desires stability in his life and tells Rin-yi that she needs it in hers too, for she can't work part-time forever, without any job security. Rin-yi on the other hand, thinks that Kyung-joon is embarrassed and looking down on her for her way of life and even though she's content with herself now, he thinks that her life has no vision. Because of these differences, they break up. You know what's the funny thing? Both of them have very valid points (more so than Jae-won and Eun-oh). As someone who's more experienced about the working world (being a "corporate cog" and all), Kyung-joon understands that the world is a mercenary place and some form of stability is needed for someone to survive in the long term. If anything, he's very very pragmatic and also very correct. The realist in me supports his stand more because he only wants what's best for Rin-yi because he knows that at some point, she can't continue living the way she is now.
Rin-yi takes a far more idealistic standpoint, where she believes as long as she's happy with her lifestyle, that's fine and she can continue living like that. I agree with her that people need to be happy with what they're doing in life because that'll ultimately lead to success. Spending time and effort on something that you find a chore isn't a good thing (I know that firsthand), and will only drain you both physically and mentally. However, like I said earlier, Rin-yi is being very idealistic. When that idealism finally clashes with Kyung-joon's sheer pragmatism, there's bound to be a fallout and that comes in the form of their breakup. I like this line that Rin-yi uses to describe the end of their relationship, "if there's a reason to break up, then I think I should." As a result of their very different viewpoints, their relationship was bound to fail and Rin-yi realises that. It really pains me to see them break up so terribly though because I think they were my favourite couple in the drama.
We've seen the ideal couple reconciling and another couple having a horrible break up because of clashing ideologies but what about couples that end naturally or amicably? Well, we get that with third leads Kang Geon and Sun-young. Out of the three lead couples, this is the one we got the least screentime of but what we do know is that their relationship ended 2 years ago and Kang Geon hasn't dated anyone since, while Sun-young continues to be a serial dater by her own confession. From an outsider's perspective, they had a very toxic breakup, with Sun-young pulling the classic "return everything I bought for you" tactic. In fact, she uses this on all her exes. Although they've broken up for a couple of years, they still remain on somewhat good terms, meeting up occasionally. It's made apparent to us that both parties haven't moved on from their romance and still long for the other, and it makes you wonder what really drove Sun-young to behave in such a crazy manner.
Her motivations are actually quite interesting, for she states that she just wants to know that she's loved. We don't get much on Sun-young's backstory apart from the fact that she's very lonely after her mother's death. That's enough though because with this little bit of information, we understand her relationship criteria. When she laments about her mother's death to her exes, all of them merely sympathised with her in a fairly detached manner but Kang Geon was the only one who actively placed himself as her pillar of support by saying that whenever she thinks of her mother, she should call him. To Sun-young, he was just different and that's why they loved each other, and still continue to love each other even after breaking up. You're probably wondering why she broke up with him even though she clearly loves him to bits and the reason is twofold. At surface value, Sun-young's jealous of Kang Geon's close friendship with both Eun-oh and Rin-yi but apart from that jealousy, the real reason was that she didn't feel loved by him.
I think it's a huge shame that their relationship ended the way it did the first time because of this misunderstanding and Kang Geon's inability to express his emotions properly, which is why it's a very cathartic moment when they make amends by the end of the drama. Even though they don't get back together, Sun-young finally accepts that it's time for her to move on and tells Kang Geon that she won't meet him again. It's a bittersweet moment because even though she says that she's moving on, we can see it pains her greatly to finally cut ties with the only man she ever really loved. While they aren't a couple again, they've let their relationship end amicably and on good terms, with Kang Geon not ruling out getting back together. He tells Sun-young to go out and date, and if she ever gets tired of it or can't find anyone right for her, then she can come back to him. In many ways, Kang Geon is a very mature character and even though he loves Sun-young, he's willing to let her fly freely to forge her own path.
The drama has taken a very realistic approach in showing us these different aspects of entering a relationship and I felt very personally invested in their stories. Apart from the interesting stories, the acting from the cast also played a huge role in pushing the drama forward. I especially liked Ji Chang-wook's performance and like I said before, I really hoped this drama would give us some of his exasperated scenes because his outbursts are bonkers and absolutely hilarious. I wasn't disappointed because the absurd nature of his love life gave us so many gut-busting moments with male lead Jae-won. Hilarity aside, the emotion he brings across in his character's darkest moments was just outstanding and you really feel for Jae-won. The rest of our leads gave stellar performances as well and I was very pleasantly surprised by Ryu Kyung-soo, who I had only seen as an ex-gangster in Itaewon Class. He was a very rough-around-the-edges character in that drama so seeing him play a more sensitive and softer character in this drama was very enjoyable. The cast's relatable acting allows viewers to put ourselves into the characters' shoes and empathise with them.
It would be remiss of me not to mention the drama's most "important" supporting character, police officer Oh Dong-sik (played by SHINee's Choi Min-ho). Because he was so well-received, they even extended the drama by 1 episode to bring the total to 17 episodes (strange number), with this extra episode having Dong-sik as the main focus. In all honesty, he doesn't really play a big role in the drama, only making small appearances here and there. We do get some room for his love story though because he reveals that he hasn't had his first love yet. His romance story revolves around him and up-and-coming actress Hae-na (played by Hong Su-zu), who everyone fawns over for being pretty. Hae-na has feelings for Dong-sik but he's completely unaware of it, instead thinking that they're just really good friends. By the end of episode 17, we don't really know if they've entered a relationship even after they share a kiss (initiated by Hae-na), although Dong-sik is shown to look favourably upon that kiss. It's not a very big plot line for the drama but was probably just inserted because people liked Min-ho's character.
Moving forward from this drama, I think that the interview concept is something that can be used in future. Not only is it very unique, it adds a personal touch to the characters and makes them very relatable. Most importantly, the director and screenwriters can insert PPL (aka product placement) into the drama without it being seemingly forced. In fact, there are specific moments in the drama where the interviewer has the leads show a drink brand to the camera or use a specific product. In most dramas, the characters have these products woven into their daily lives as part of the overarching story but with the interview format of this series, it's a very "real" advertising ploy that is believable because it's not forced into our faces. It's genius.
From what I know, Lovestruck in the City is the first addition to the multi-part series City Couple's Way of Love and while there's no official confirmation yet, I do hope we get a season 2 with the same cast but this time focusing on the other leads. We can still follow Jae-won and Eun-oh as they embark on the second part of their romance but I would like for us to focus on how Kyung-joon and Rin-yi deal with the aftermath of their breakup or even whether Kang Geon and Sun-young get back together. Who knows, Dong-sik and Hae-na may even become leads in the next season? There's a whole realm of possibilities out there for the future of this series and I can't wait to see what we'll get in time to come. Thanks for reading.
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