The discussion on “Lovestruck in the City” will be hosted by @Growing Beautifully (GB) and @Welmaris.
Some of you have signified interest in talking about this drama. GB and Welmaris have generously offered to give their time and to share their thoughts on the show.
gifs from yesdramas’ tumblr
Enjoy the show!!
Hi @pkml3, @Welmaris and Everyone!
Thanks @pkml3 for giving us a place to air our thoughts! I wanted to do a more ‘organised’ post, but have found myself writing random things that do not seem to flow well together. Oh well, I’ll just post what sounds more related together and see if my notes ultimately make sense.
Readers will probably know that this is a mock-umentary styled show carried on through interviews with 6 characters on their dating life, and interspersed with corresponding scenes to back up (or not) what they are saying.
I wasn’t sure that I’d like this show because I’m not a romance junkie. I like romances where they make sense in the plot, as in, there’s a sensible romance while a mystery gets solved. I I only sometimes go for something in the romance genre, for the romance alone, when I’m in the mood for it.
So embarking on Lovestruck in the City was a task overlaid with question marks in my mind. However I’ve found myself drawn first by the different style and presentation, then by the emotion (disgust and disapproval LOL as well as curiosity) and then into wanting to unravel the true attitudes of these characters.
On re-watch and re-watch, I discovered that I had missed interesting, quirky visual clues and cues and nuggets. As well as audio clues and foreshadowings in the OST lyrics.
So, I’ve ended up having ‘oh!’ or ‘aha!’ moments, which on top of the plot, is keeping me watching and re-watching, because I keep missing stuff!! I hope those who are watching will join us in giving us their thoughts as well! (✌ﾟ∀ﾟ)☞
#Growing Beautifully, Very happy that @packmule3 has offered this site. I like the format of this drama-half hour episodes as mockumentary. It gives us a chance to see how people perceive themselves versus reality. It also allows for returning to episodes for more detail. And I’m looking forward to seeing how the interconnected characters come together. There’s also just enough froth to balance out the dramedy. I loved the beach romance and our FL who allowed herself to throw caution to the wind for a limited time in a real change from her more buttoned up self. For her it was a fantasy that could not last and ultimately caused so much regret. I wonder how many people would do what the character did to break out of a life that proved unfulfilled and stultifying. And I originally tuned in because I’m as be Ji Chang Wook fan. He’s suited for this role and at least here hehas an age appropriate leading Lady. I just couldn’t bring myself to watch his last drama. Anyway, he plays a really decent guy-who is very sincere. So I’m on for the ride. And thanks again @Growing Beautifully and @Welmaris for hostingm
Episode 1
There are a few of angles from which to watch this show. We might consider it from the instructive point of view for eg in noticing the similarities/differences between men and women, or in what to be wary of/look out for in a romance. Show also gives us its chosen angle ie it poses a challenge to us viewers (which makes this very slightly interactive or a guessing game that we can play).
Since the viewer stands in the place of the camera and interviewer, we feel like the characters continually break the fourth wall in speaking with us.
We are to observe and listen to what 6 individuals claim they do/think/feel in the dating game and decide if they are truthful or not. The smooth juxtaposition of interviews with scenes to back up (or not) what the interviewees say, may ‘tell us’ or conceal from us if the interviewees were truthful or not.
On the one hand, the affairs of the main couple appear straightforward (and some say even boring), and those of the other couples are there by way of ‘comparison and contrast’, but on the other hand, it’s not clear what will happen as show teases us with hints that matters may not be all that they seem.
What I enjoyed, (especially with a re-watch), were the visual cues and clues. There are shows which display on-screen, text or written words (Start Up was one) which is a great idea and makes more of the show accessible for the hearing impaired, during voice overs. This one offers us the typed notes that were taken when the characters introduced themselves, and the questions that are asked them.
Among the quirky visuals: The golden arches of McDonald’s gets a changing face lift. The interview question: “Do you know which man or woman you are compatible with?” (the first ‘sex’ question) is plastered on the front of McDonald’s, but the ‘M’ in Mc spells out Man and then with the passing of a bus, shifts to ‘Woman’. A suggestion that dating (and sex) in the city is like fast food/take out, at least for some people.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AAdpxf7U5kXLWAW2p3YVjSQ7VmolldJy/view?usp=sharing
Aside from this, there was some pretty good camera work.
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Jae Won is at home and recalls his pain and incomprehension at why his relationship ended. We get to see him, from a distance, small and boxed in the frames of his house, still trapped in the hurt and memory of the time 1 year previous, feeling isolated and alone because he wonders if he did something wrong, when actually he had been a great bf.
Good editing is crucial in this show, and it is great. There were so many disparate scenes that are stitched together smoothly. The ‘interviews’ and scenes are interspersed with reactions from each of the characters who are told what an individual revealed about himself/herself and react accordingly. It’s played out well with the reactions coming on thick and fast.
Foreshadowing of the state of things to come came in both visual and audio forms.
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We get to see the main couple, Jae Won and Yoon Seon Ah (Eun Oh) sitting on their respective surf boards in the sea, and the difficulty they have in getting their hands to meet. When they finally succeed in holding hands, the waves washed them off their surf boards. An omen, if ever there was one. Since this couple’s photo ends up on the big billboard, we know that this is the couple we are all going to focus on and make judgments about in this series.
The songs where we could get the lyrics were also on point in foreshadowing or in telling us what is going on.
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One of the first up was from a British Rock Band, Rolling Stars’ “Hello, My Beach” (1978) The description says: “It’s blunt straightforward lyrics and intense melody stand out. Upbeat country song about a man’s wish to get his old lover back despite his resentment towards her.”
In Episode 1, Yoon Seon Ah (Lee Eun Oh) belts out very badly, the song that she wants Jae Won to sing along with her. The lyrics say:
“I couldn’t let you go
So even the time couldn’t take you away from me
Our memory together was deeply stuck like a thorn
I couldn’t realize that it was hurting me
The memory of you and our past love
Became a thorn piercing through my heart
I begged you to go
I wanted you gone forever …”
What is not evident until Episode 7 or 8, is that the song could have had a greater significance to Eun Oh. Nevertheless, it was another song that got played out in the lives of this couple.
So with these in mind, let’s watch or re-watch this show!
I really don’t like the FL in this one and the ML is a fool. But I really like the documentary format and the questions they brought.
Hi @Old American Lady and @Sayaris, I’m glad to see you on board whether we like or dislike the characters 🙂
@Sayaris, I admit to disliking the FL too and am still full of disapproval, but @Old American Lady has a point. She was escaping from a stultifying reality and pain of her own. You’ll know of course that I deplore that she did so while dragging poor innocent Jae Won into it and causing him such pain.
Jae Won is a sincere, all-in guy. He gave his all and came up empty. His reaction was completely understandable. It’s hard to let go when there is no good reason for ‘why’ and no proper closure. The pain also lasts longer because the anger rises again and again at the memory.
@Old American Lady … Yes, I’m also a fan of Ji Chang Wook … ever since his Healer days, but that does not mean I like every character he’s played. This one seems more accessible to me and his pain tugs at my heart. I did watch Backstreet Rookie and was amused that the couple never get to ‘kiss’ on camera LOL. So they kept the ‘decorum’ of their vast age difference.
Yes, to the short format and how it lends itself well to re-watching. This thing about “self-perception vs reality” … it’s something I was thinking about, how the greatest liar was probably lying the most to herself.
@GrowingBeautifully I understand her reasons, she was betrayed by her boyfriend. But when she understood that Jae Won was really serious, she could say “No, I don’t want to marry a man I met 2 months ago”. I’m pretty sure everybody would understand. But she said nothing and just disapeared. She had the occasion to end this when she met him but again she didn’t. She lied to the Police… She had many occasions to be better but she chose herself.
I forgot that the drive folder was not shared. I’ll try to embed the screenshot of the quirky visual of McDonald’s golden arches here.
[googleapps domain="drive" dir="file/d/1AAdpxf7U5kXLWAW2p3YVjSQ7VmolldJy/preview" query="" width="640" height="480" /]
@Sayaris, same thoughts. What Eun Oh did was unconscionable. There is no excuse.
On top of that, it was bizarre, to go as far as she did, in order to ‘let herself go’, to soothe her own pain, etc. She was actually choosing to be unreasonable. She knew at different times that she was going to hurt Jae Won badly, but her selfish decision to never say ‘No’ or hesitate ie to be responsible for her actions, carried her to continue onwards when she should have stopped.
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From hindsight, we find out that she was on the rebound, reckless in her own wounded-ness, over-compensating in what she did (to forget? to comfort herself?), … callous about whomever it affected. She went overboard in living her life as the fictional Seon Ah – too cheerful, too unpredictable, making decisions on a whim. So we, the viewers are to judge.
How many victims are there? Who is truthful. Who in denial.
Hello everyone!
I haven’t read @GB’s comments because I saw that she had a *SPOILER ALERT*
I have watched episode 1 but I have stopped since I was watching several other TV-Series. I might give it a try now that I want to see something lighter.
Hi @Cleopatra, yes, to be safer, I left spoiler alerts. It’s best to at least watch Ep 1 before reading too much. Episode 1 gives us the premise and a pretty good idea of what will ensue.
This format of giving us the thoughts and rationale of the characters (or at least what they’ve convinced themselves are their thoughts and rationale) is interesting, since we do not have to guess what’s going on for most of them. Only in the case of Eun Oh, you may be spoiled as there is some unfolding of her backstory only in Ep 8.
I’m waiting to see if there’s more to Seon Yeong than just a mercernary young woman. I’d like to think that she’s deceiving herself as much as she’s convinced that she’s so cool with everything. More on that later, maybe. (ღ˘⌣˘ღ)
@GB,
I liked the mocumentary style. I will rewatch Episode 1, because I have seen it about a month ago. So as to remember little details here and there and I will come back to talk about it!
Hope you are having a nice day ahead!
Hi @Cleopatra, thanks, I’ve had a great day! I hope your day is good too.
Sorry, I have to make a correction, it is in Episode 10, rather than 8 that we get a bit of backstory on Eun Oh.
I’m trying to post some screenshots of Jae Won and Eun Oh since I was mentioning how I liked the visuals. Let’s hope everyone can access the links to see the screenshots.
I was saying that I like the visuals in this show, but I did not give any examples. So here goes…
I like what the director, camera people and editor have done here. These screenshots of Jae Won that tell us how trapped he is in his heartbreak. Although he operates as per normal, his ego has taken a beating and looks small, diminished by the way he was treated in the bad break up.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iqwE-SqB-wT92ibdpfd8IRUdSS4fnjB3/view?usp=sharing
If ever there was a way to break up, what he went through was definitely not it.
Eun Oh looks in through a pretty window, upon cameras, a reminder of Jae Won and her crazy break from reality. We don’t get to see her face, but she seems like an outsider looking in, at something that was once accessible, but is now beyond her reach.
She gave herself a 3-month working holiday, to be another person, to leave behind baggage, and to live with total abandonment, but she has returned with greater baggage and regrets.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JHM2wP8U9Gu_uY8C9NBSak2av9OUp7cL/view?usp=sharing
Show gave us a composite shot of Jae Won and Eun Oh both looking at items that are reminders of their 2 months together. He is looking at the model of a camper van and she is looking into a store of cameras.
It’s interesting that JW’s figure is bigger, higher and better lit. He has the moral high ground. By contrast, EO’s figure is smaller, slightly hunched, and more off centre, not in focus and lower. She’s also in a darker shot.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xwDe5gUyi5zAi8xAGnr1k2lytPkQ-s3I/view?usp=sharing
Whatever appearances might say,… as @Old American Lady says above … we can see this show through a lens of “how people see themselves vs the reality”, the image they convey vs what they actually believe.
I’d like to know if Seon Yeong/Sun Young actually believes what she says.
I found out today that this show has not 12 but 16 episodes!! I believe it’s been extended. On the one hand, that probably means it’s popular?? But on the other, will we get more in the plot? How about shall we get to know our side characters and get to like them?
There are possible side plots with the other couples, but show does not seem to be getting into them yet, and I’ve watched Episode 11!!
Omg!! There’s a love struck in the city thread here huhuhuh… ❤ it!!
My thoughts about the show
1. I love the style of the show the mock-u mentary style…
2. The characters are intriguing … especially the girl EO, why did she do that? Did she got heartbroken? There’s a lot of thinga I wanted to find out
But actually whatever is the ending if they will end up or not, I will take it
Omg!! There’s a love struck in the city thread here huhuhuh… ❤ it!!
My thoughts about the show
1. I love the style of the show the mock-u mentary style…
2. The characters are intriguing … especially the girl EO, why did she do that? Did she got heartbroken? There’s a lot of things I wanted to find out and yeah!
Since the truth had been out, I wonder if it will change the mood of the series
Hi @Hyacinth, welcome!!! Yes we’re posting our thoughts on the show here. In case some folks are coming here before watching the episodes fully, we’re putting in SPOILER warnings for the episodes that we’re talking about. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Yes, the mockumentary style is a nice change. I like that we get to hear several points of view and also the rationale behind decisions. By Episode 10, you’ll learn more about Eun Oh to understand (but I don’t condone) what she’s doing.
I wrote a whole bunch that I’m posting below.
Some thoughts on Episode 2 and 3
These pertain to the red flags that warn against getting into a relationship.
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Synopsis of episode 2 from Wikipedia – Title: “How do you initiate your first sex?”
” The interview continues as the interviewer asked another question as to how do they initiate sex? The story of Jae-won and Seon-a unfolds that Seon-a teaches him to drive a camper and he teaches her surfing. They get close and have intense moments. In those moments he tells her that he loves her. In the morning Jae-won sees her with someone and feels used.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovestruck_in_the_City
I felt that Ep 2 continued the foreshadowing (omens and red flags) that started in Ep 1,of how JW and Seon Ah’s relationship was not going to end well. She was again unpredictable and behaved with license, as if JW had given her full permission to move his camper, when he hadn’t been conscious enough to do so. She got him to practise illegally, driving around the bends she drew on the ground. Although repeatedly confused and kept off kilter by Seon Ah, JW accepted her as weird and decided that he liked weird women.
He didn’t know that in the next episode she’d be the one driving him around the bend.
Her behaviour continued pretty reckless, and she decided that she was through with being afraid of, for eg., the water… and gets JW to teach her to surf.
Seon Ah : “I don’t care if my body is shattered because it is fun.” (But she brought this attitude into their relationship, and shattered JW.)
The kiss in the surf board workshop offered the most dramatic sign that they would crash and burn, when they were rudely shocked out of their romantic moment by the crashing of falling surf boards. Quite a number of portents, but no alarm bells rang for JW and these unnerving events were what paradoxically led to their first night of intimacy.
About to spend the night together, and failing to see the warning signs, JW confessed that he loved SA. She was taken aback. She could have and should have stopped at this point, but she smiled and JW thought she was on the same page with him, and that their night together meant that they had a future. (Poor straight-shooting and naive Jae Won.)
This is going to be long, and so I’ve broken it up into a few posts.
Continuing thoughts on Episode 3
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Synopsis of episode 3 from Wikipedia – Title: ” She drove me crazy “
“The discussion starts as to why Seon-a is ignoring Jae-won. Maybe it was just a ‘one night stand’. Seon-a is trying little bit of everything, like playing ukulele, roller skating, beach ball and surfing… Kang Geon and Oh Sun-young had a fling 5 years back. Jae-won, falling for her is puzzled by her aloofness. Finally Seon-a also develops feelings for him. The episode ends with both missing each other in the present.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovestruck_in_the_City
I felt that it is a pity Kang Geon and Jae Won do not get on. Their back and forth through the interview was a lot of fun (if anyone else had chemistry, it was them!!) and KG would raise pertinent points that JW ignored.
Seon Ah continues to confound JW, by ignoring him. The KG, Rin I and Kyung Jun are asked about it and are pretty smug. They think that they can judge the reason that Seon Ah blows hot and cold, both being friendly to JW as well as to other guys, speaking with him and then ignoring him by turns. They claim it’s because JW was disappointing in bed and that Seon Ah was blowing him off. However, we know from hindsight that they were only half correct.
She was blowing him off, but not for the reason they think. Seon Ah was not fully aware of it but the process of driving Jae Won crazy had begun.
Kang Geon asks Jae Won through the interview, a pertinent question: “Why didn’t you think it could have been a one-night stand.” But JW dismisses him as someone who had not had a date in 2 years, as if KG would not be qualified to make a valid point. JW was wrong.
Rin I : “Isn’t it because he told her that he loved her?”
KJ : “What’s wrong with saying that?”
RI : “It could have been too much.”
KG : “Sleeping together doesn’t mean you’re in love.” (That’s sad that it is acceptable to use people like objects.)
JW admits : “I do think I took it a bit too far.”
KG : “She just wanted to sleep with the guy, but he said, ‘I love you’. I would have run away too if I were a girl.”
My take on the should haves: The thing is that she should have run away at that point, when he sincerely confessed his love, and before spending the night together, because already from the start, they were not on the same page.
Of course Jae Won was too besotted, but he should have noticed at least 1 or 2 of the red flags that were flying in his face, but more of that below.
Continuing again on Episode 3
Meaningful intimacy should only take place when the couple can already share truthfully and intimately other aspects of themselves, and not just the physical. The basic premise for a good, lasting relationship was missing for JW and SA from the start. Well… to begin with, he didn’t even know her real name.
Seon Ah confirms that it was a one night stand : “Do you really need me to spell it out? Kissing each other the next morning like a long-term couple. That’s weirder.” (Meaning that their intimacy did not mean anything. And actually the answer to this question is ‘Yes’. JW was the kind of person who was emotionally intense and sincere, and he needed her to spell it out for him, but she didn’t.)
JW : “Why? It’s not bad for a start.”
KG : “I guess she didn’t want to start anything.”
Rin I : “There’s a solution to this kind of problem. … If she treats it like a one-night stand, then you do the same.”
JW : “I would have forgotten her if she wasn’t around, but she was. And you know what she did? She drove me crazy.” (And this she admits later in her thoughts.)
…
Seon Ah disappointed JW again by learning from someone else, how to do the bottom turn while surfing.
JW : “I was going to teach you how to do it …Well, …but you already know.” (He hides that he’s upset but Seon Ah can tell.)
He shades her face by holding his cap over her. A sweet gesture, since he is upset by her but still cares for her.
Seon Ah : “You’re angry with me right? Sorry.”
JW : “Yes, you disappointed me…”
SA : “Can I go over to your trailer later?”
Is she suggesting that they have another intimate tryst? Jae Won definitely interprets it that way. He is shocked. It sounds like she’s making up for disappointing him by offering him sex.
JW : “What’s the deal with you? Are you toying with me?”
She refuses to tell him what she is doing and instead of coming clean she says…
SA : “OK I’ll not come over, then.”
He’s stunned at her laissez faire attitude and now little she values herself.
JW : “Is that all you have to say?”
SA remains silent. (Yes a red flag. She will not answer or commit.)
Continuing thoughts on Episode 3
It becomes slowly evident that Seon Ah was desperately trying to live as intensely as possible, in reaction to her self-hatred. As the synopsis says, she tried a bit of everything from learning ukelele to surfing. On top of that, she even went hang gliding. However through all this, a certainty emerges that she was also doing all these activities to deliberately put a distance between herself and JW. However JW remained clueless and despondent.
At the first instance of hope, when Gyung Gu tells him that Seon Ah had rebuffed his offer to see the movie together, in favour of going with Jae Won, the latter rallied. He was like a puppy who’d been offered a biscuit and he started wagging his tail again.
There was another red flag here that JW also missed. If she’d said to both to him and to Gyung Gu that she was watching the movie with the other guy, then she might have been playing them both.
Red flags: For all her inexplicable behaviour, she gave no explanation, when it was perfectly within his rights to ask her. His problem, was that he never did ask her why until it was too late.
Her thoughts:
Before she met him on the way to see the rains – “I thought if I left it as a one-night stand, it might be better. … I knew that I’d hurt him.”
We see a collage of all the times she had deliberately stopped JW from getting closer or when she’d ignored him. Everything she did had been calculated.
Continuation of her thoughts:
“I did that on purpose. I pretended to be clueless. I thought it might be better if I left it as a one-night stand. But when I was lying in the shade that he made for me, this suddenly crossed my mind. (We see the back of her, in business suit, just arrived at Yang Yang, looking out to sea). ‘Think about what made you come all the way to Yangyang’. I came here because I hated myself. I hated myself, Lee Eun Oh.”
It cannot really be considered a full explanation at this point, however it does not excuse what she decides to do.
Continuation of her thoughts:
“I decided to leave the coward, Lee Eun Ho behind. I decided to do everything I ever wanted to do, rolling with the punches and following my heart. I always thought that I would live as if every day was a party. I don’t need to hold in my feelings.” (6:48pm on 2 October, Wednesday).
She ran to meet him way after 6.00pm, when he’d given her the 6.00pm deadline as a sign that if she missed it, she did not like him. She was late, but again JW did not see the red flag.
She hugged him and her thoughts were:
“Be it one night, ten days, or several years, I thought it would be okay was long as I was with him, because he never asked me “why”. See? He’s not asking me even now, why I ran and hugged him, or why I’m being fickle.”
She liked him, he was easy-going, she decided to follow her ad hoc rule to follow her heart, and use him.
— END of this round of thoughts! —
A Note About the Songs
A novel and interesting aspect of the mockumentary style or the documentary part of it, is that this show bothers to tell viewers about some of the chosen songs that go into becoming the OST. We get to know a little about the bands that performed the songs while we hear them in the background. One of these is in the post above.
And yes, the songs do tie in with the emotions/thoughts and enhance the show. They tell us what the characters are either ‘thinking and not saying’ or ‘thinking and saying’ or simply what’s going on.
Here are 2 of the songs from Episode 4.
blockquote>Beetlejuice – “Kiss me Kiss me” – a 4-member rock band formed in 1962 in Liverpool. This band was both artistic and popular even to this day, they’re still an inspiration to many. Unlike most of their songs, ‘Kiss Me Kiss Me’ is a song that openly talks about love. many Korean artists have covered this song.
The song was played as our couple lie in bed, waiting for the rain to fall. They play in the rain to this piece. The song plays again in this other scene in this clip. Most appropriately, they are asking to be kissed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KgARuYf3u0
Lyrics
“Baby I’m out on midnight crews,
With my open heart out
And the way my heart is looking for you
Said ‘I want you.’
Say ‘I need you.’
Kiss me (2x) wrap my arms around your body darling
Because you’re the one, the one that I love
Kiss me (2x) hold my hand
I see the look in your eye
Want me, hold me tender(ly)
All I need is your love.”
When they decide to ‘get married’, this is the song he sings as his marriage proposal.
Lyrics:
“It’s quite strange
I spend all day looking at you
I wonder to myself if I’m crazy
And then, I smile again
It’s quite fascinating
You entered my heart
Without a knock
You run around noisily
And make me feel flustered
I just can’t get you out of my head
Could you perhaps give me a room
In your heart where you can lock me up?
What do you think?
La la la la….”
After the breakup, Eun Oh (Seon Ah) is asked why she dumped him. She claims to have many reasons. She gave the 1st reason, then she was about to give the 2nd one, but stopped … and this song played. She never gave the reason in this episode, and I didn’t see who sang the song, and it was in English and Korean … so the few lyrics that I caught were:
“I have no words to say. I have no words …
I have no thoughts of you. I have no thoughts …”
Eun Oh had already been lying to herself before this, and the lyrics of this song were just more lies.
We see her on our screens as we zoom out, as a tiny person against a background of her home-office, disappearing through the door.
We would have guessed from Ep 4, that she really has been missing JW, that she does feel guilt and shame, and she looks and feels small when she thinks of the 2nd reason, that she cannot bring herself to admit, most likely out of embarrassment, because it would humiliate her.
Just thinking that they gave prominence to our ML’s feelings in the earlier episodes and the narrative was actually about his gaze, but notbreally her’s. Only after we learned about her cheating longtime boyfriend who impregnated his other lover in the hilarious scene at the architectual consult (where the coca cola product placement was used in an unusual way) could we learn about her motivation forher pre-off-the-grid three month trip and behaviors. I don’t think she was motivated to humiliate the ML. I just think she was scared to allow herself to feel for someone she had only just met. The fact thatshe is actually pining for him and thatvshe didn’t throw away the ring and that she had second thoughts about the surf board and that she went to great lengths to retrieve his ring speaks volumes.
So here is my controversial remark: Do we sometimes use the default setting ofvempathizingbwith the male lead over the femaleblead becausevwe’ve been programmed to do so. I think that only recently have more programs incorporated the female gaze, except for anything Jane Austen that was the precursor of the modern femalevgaze. Glad that we’re now getting the FL’s side ofvyhings,
Now hoping that the bumpy course of true love becomes smoothe and that the,soundtrack of same continues to enhance our enjoyment of the journey.
Hi @Old American Lady
I finally got down to watching Episode 12.
I do agree that we will definitely sympathise or empathise more with the first wronged party to whom we are introduced. And then we have to wait and see if the show gives us the other party’s point of view. And then for my part, I’ll see if their reasons and behaviour mitigates my judgment of them.
I am not sure if the gender of the first person we meet, whom we sympathise with, has anything much to do with it. If I’d seen Eun Oh badly treated the way Jae Won was by her, I’d be on Eun Oh’s side. I’d be so full of resentment against the guy who played her, the way she played Jae Won. And of course the horrid Min Su who cheated on her deserves all levels of condemnation.
Well, I’ve watched and heard Eun Oh’s story … no matter how I look at it, and how I try to excuse Eun Oh, or how Jae Won forgives her, she will unfortunately remain the anti-heroine, even with some of my sympathy. I do feel for her, but I still cannot condone what she did, since she did it with full understanding and knowledge that she would hurt him.
Hating herself, changing herself and living wild and free is all well and good, but the line has to be drawn when another person is involved and can get hurt. The only thing that can be said to mitigate, is that she had intended to come clean in Seoul, but then she lost her nerve. Still she had gone ahead and allowed him to be hurt first … rather than stopping the deception and admitting that she was being ‘free-spirited’ on the rebound and in an act of over-compensation.
Perhaps her cowardice is now the issue … which she seems to overcome by becoming intoxicated *eyeroll*. But how then when she is sober? The next episodes will be good!!!
Well yes to more of the female gaze or the female point of view. 😉
Sorry, all, that I have been missing in action. I wanted to finish Misaeng 👍 and Start Up 👍 before turning my attention back to Lovestruck in the City.
I wasn’t sure I was keen on the story being told as a documentary. It’s been done well in horror with The Blair Witch Project and in humor with This Is Spinal Tap. The mocumentary concept is no longer new, so I worried LITC would bring nothing fresh to the format, and the format would unnecessarily complicate the storytelling. After watching 11 episodes, I still have mixed feelings.
One problem I have is the discussions the documentary subjects have despite not being together. I know the setup is that the documentarian contracted for the right to show footage from one interviewee to another; but my being more realistically minded, those conversations seem to bounce too quickly between the participants considering they’re supposedly not reacting to each other in real time.
Another problem I have is when our view suddenly flips from the documentarian’s view to the omniscient view. In a scene where both JW and EO are at Cheonggyecheon talking with their camera crews, then JW sees EO and takes off running after her, the camera crews are no where to be seen and we’re watching the action from the god’s eye view. This break in perspective was jarring for me.
One more gripe: I feel many of the scenes of JW and EO having fun together during their two months at the beach were cloying: teasing each other while drying hair, painting each other, frolicking in the rain, rolling down a hillside. I wanted to shout at the screen,”Yes, I get it, they’re cute together!” But where was the substance in the relationship? And perhaps that was the point: a diet heavy on sugar isn’t a healthy one.
I did notice that this show had the ML and FL jump into a physical relationship much, much earlier than is usually depicted in Kdrama. We also have secondary characters that are unabashed about having casual sex, drunk sex, sex within a long term but not legally binding relationship, etc. Is this Netflix pushing Kdrama in a new direction, or is it Netflix allowing Kdrama to depict couples in a less idealized, more realistic manner? I don’t know. but it sure is different to not wait several episodes before there’s the slightest bit of skinship.
All my complaints aside, I am overall entertained by the show and look forward each week to the new episodes. Now I’m going to stop writing and watch Episode 12.
Hi @Welmaris!!! You’ve been missed!
About the skinship. I am one of those who clutch their pearls at such *ahem* promiscuous behaviour. Just because they are young and lovestruck and in a city, does not mean that sex has to be so casual. A later episode got me pearl clutching as well when dating is considered an end it itself.
I’m thinking too that being a Netflix original sereis has something to do with this, and deplore that maybe kdramas are being made to be similar to Western dramas in how love and sex is treated.
Some thoughts on Episode 4
This is in 3 parts.
SPOILER
SPOILER
Synopsis of episode 4 from Wikipedia – Title : “What did she do with the ring?”
“Seon-a and Jae-won start their fast track romance. They dance in rain. He serenades proposal on phone and they stage a mock wedding. She asks him to extend his stay by one month. They exchange rings, the one he still wears. He wonders, “What did she do with the ring?”. Their romance ends when he is suddenly called back to Seoul by his company. He gives her his phone number and fixed a meeting point in Seoul to meet on Saturday. She never calls or meet. In present she contacts an old acquaintance for assignment for her own company O3. He is still wondering what wrong he did that she dumped him. Others think that she faked her feelings for him.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovestruck_in_the_City
The Start of the Breakup
Episode 4 Starts with JW and SA together in the camper, waiting for the rain to fall. JW asks her about the tattoo she has.
JW : “What does this mean?”
SA : “I bought it just because it was pretty. I no longer try to find any meaning in anything. That’s what it means.”
(It’s strange that JW never asks why she ‘no longer’ does stuff. It should have clued him into the fact that previously she hadn’t done things without meaning. However, we know that it’s precisely because he never asks why, that she decided to cling to him, at least as Yoon Seon Ah.)
JW : “I like that.”
SA : “Why?”
JW : “Just because. … I like your style, personality, I like every single thing about you.”
She is silent and thoughtful. He is happy and in love and unaware.
(Paradoxically, JW’s admission that he likes her starts her thinking that they should breakup.)
We see the same scene from her perspective, when she tries to explain why she dumped
him.
EO to the camera : “Why did I dump him?”
JW to the camera : “You know what’s the worst about these kinds of breakups? It’s not about missing her or the days I spent with her. You keep asking yourself what you did wrong.”
EO : “Let’s see …There are too many reasons.”
JW : “Reasons? I’m sure there’s none. I did nothing wrong.” (He’s full of self justification. In terms of being a bf he did nothing wrong, except that he’d been too reckless in love, too blind to ask the right questions.)
EO : “First, he doesn’t remember this. He’d told her after she’d spent the second night with him and while waiting for the rain:
EO: “I told you. The person in Yangyang wasn’t the real me. That’s when I thought, ‘I should break up with him. I should end this relationship here.’ ”
I agree with @Welmaris that one does not change one’s personality on holiday. One’s core is the same. Eun Oh thinks that the person she is, as Yoon Seon Ah, is a false self instead of thinking of this as her ‘other side’, one facet of her core self. It does not occur to her to embrace both sides, ie to accept that all facets of her are still herself. We can like ourselves or disapprove of ourselves, be serious or wild, but we are not being false while vacillating between these: we are who we are. Strangely, she does not seem to have discovered that, or she does not believe in it, because she thinks that she set out to deceive. But she’s probably wrong about herself.
Her reaction to JW saying that he loves her as she is, brings on the opposite effect. Instead of giving her the joy of being accepted, she sees it as his loving ‘another person’, who is not herself. It did not occur to her that she could have told him, that she was just showing another facet of herself.
If she’d given him a chance, it was likely that he’d have been willing to get to know all sides of her and to have accepted her. However, she might have been right as well, to think that JW might not have accepted her, as discussed in the section on the Architects’ Argument below.
She had said that there were a lot of reasons why she dumped him, but we get to hear only one. We can guess at another reason from what she says later.
The Architects’ Argument
JW has been stubbornly rejecting the design of a house that the client has already approved. He keeps telling Kyeong Jun to throw away the architectural model of the house, but he does not come up with a new design to replace it. His boss, who is his father, catches him running off after another argument with KJ, over the same house and drags him back to office. Their argument might be a metaphor about his attitude to romance.
Dad: “How many times have you changed it. You should have found a constructor and started construction by now!”
JW shows Dad part of the architectural model : “Look here. Bugaksan Mountain would be on this side. The stairs should be here for them to admire the view as they go up and down.”
Kyeong Jun : “We’ve reconfirmed that the mountain is seen very well from the upstairs living room.”
Dad : “The client says the design is great as it is.”
JW : “He doesn’t know what’s better. We know more about models, so we should advise him.”
Dad : “Then you should have done a better job from the start. Did Bugaksan Mountain suddenly move to this town this month?”
JW : “How could I have when I had no previous experience?”
The mountain was the unchangeable factor. If his focus had been that the mountain should be visible from the staircase, then he should have started designing around this concept, with regard to the mountain’s position. However now that the design had been approved, he finds himself dissatisfied. Should he change the design now, other rooms would have to be shifted.
JW seems to be someone who gets stuck on a concept and refuses to budge. With his architectural drawing, he could change the design multiple times. With Seon Ah, he liked her unpredictable, exuberant and reckless personality. However he had no previous experience of her. He forgot that he could only have known her partially in a short few weeks, but that he’d forged ahead to ‘marriage’ prematurely and designed his home without noticing where the mountain lay. Unfortunately, Seon Ah was not an architectural model that could easily be thrown away and rebuilt.
His father’s words rang true. He should have done a better job of knowing Seon Ah from the start. Who she really was (the mountain) did not just spring into being in the time that he knew her. The mountain could be seen from the upstairs living room, and her silences, her questions, her fickle behaviour and odd statements about herself could have clued him in to something deeper that was going on with her, but he was like the house owner who felt the design was great as it was. It was a bit late of him to reject the architectural model, but since the house was not yet built, it was not a ‘doomed or dead’ too late.
Seon Ah’s Motive
To the interviewees’ speculation that SA had faked her feelings for JW in order to get something or to steal from him, JW is adamant in protesting.
“That’s not true. Her feelings for me were genuine. She was completely honest and passionate. I didn’t think I could be more loved by her. You know what? She knew no middle ground. No one loved me as much as she did.”
We see the irony, because JW was actually right but was later made to think the same as the interviewees. The impression of Seon Ah that the events had given was wrong. The interviewees could only judge from what JW told them. They were wrong that her feelings were fake and that she had approached him to steal.
JW could have trusted more in his judgment, because he’d spent the 2 months with SA. But the wrong impression prevailed, because she really had held on to his cameras, and she had called and lied that she was stealing them, and she’d used a fake name. Sadly, JW lost confidence in his own judgment and lost faith in Seon Ah because of this.
Seon Ah’s motive: she had none except to just live ‘wild and crazy’, to be as unlike the ordinary and boring Eun Oh that she’d been. She should have not included JW in her ‘wild and crazy’, or at least she should have told him that there was lots more to her than met the eye. However she had not been in the right ‘head space’ to admit that, and his sudden recall to Seoul made it too late for her to explain. However as in the case of the architectural model, the house had not been built yet, therefore there was hope.
I thought a really important concept for Eun Oh was that she was “ordinary”. That seemed to be a spark for her change. For example when she chose Wonton soup rather than the recommended dish at the restaurant. She rebelled against the fact that most “ordinary” people chose the recommened dish. What i didn’t understand was why she had not eatern for a week? Her phone call (from a pay phone?) to her mother was heartbreaking. I didn’t understand why she threw her mobile phone away. I can see why she was so traumatised: moving to a new city with a boyfriend already introduced to her family (I think he says something to her about being ordinary or clueless – not getting the job that she had applied for). I feel sorry for her. I am willing to suspend belief that no-one would have reported her as a missing person. I am enjoying the series.
I loved Missaeng and Reply 1988.
jo3edc
@Josephine Tedesco
I believe we’ve watched up to Episode 12, and so we’ve seen the backstory of how Eun Oh became Yoon Seon Ah.
Yes… the ‘stigma’ to her, was that she was too ordinary. She had faced betrayal at the hands of a very horrid boyfriend who had unfairly and harshly put the blame on her for the breakup by accusing her of being annoying, boring and ordinary. He said “You’re too boring and ordinary. I feel suffocated when I’m with you.”
To your question:
She was so upset after the harsh breakup, that she wanted to be left alone. We see already, the propensity in her to be unpredictable and extreme in her reactions. Instead of just putting her phone which rang more than once, on silent mode, or switching it off, she threw it away. So her transition to a reckless and extreme Seon Ah, is not as out of character as one might have thought.
Because of her unwise move of throwing away her phone, she did not get the message that her job was cancelled. There had been both she and a real Yoon Seon Ah who were left to vie for the single job position. When she found out that between the exuberant real Yoon Seon Ah and herself, the former had been selected for the job because by comparison, she was too ordinary, her self-esteem was doubly battered. The company staff explained to her: “We wanted a new employee who was full of vigour, determination, and new energy. Your answers were too ordinary.”
This reinforced the fact that she was ‘not good enough’ as she was. She was being rejected again, for being herself, because she was naturally introverted and not a go-getter.
A natural immediate reaction (and I believe it’s the same with many people) to heartbreak, can be to isolate oneself and to suffer a loss of appetite. She holed herself up in the motel where no one could find her, and probably hardly left her room. Some brokenhearted people binge eat, some are ok food-wise, and some starve themselves. In the week before her new job started, EO had been practically starving herself.
After the job fell through, she must have decided to just get away from the pain. She took a bus ride that brought her to Yangyang. She was dressed for office in a staid black and white suit and high heels. Most unsuitable for a sea side holiday spot.
At Ra Ra’s Ramyeon, Ra Ra assumed from her clothes that she’d go for Ramyeon. When EO hears that: “Most ordinary people get that”, she changed her order. But it went beyond that, she wanted to change herself.
EO : “I’m not ordinary.”
Ra Ra : “What?”
She suddenly decided that she was not going to be considered ordinary any more. And so she chose Wonton Mian. That choice manifested her decision to have a ‘personality’ makeover.
I found it sad that not only did she take on Yoon Seon Ah’s name, but she tried to look like her and behave like her. However I still feel the person she was inside did not change, only the externals were different.
The issue will be getting Jae Won to recognise that the fake Seon Ah, is still in the real Eun Oh, that the different external things do not matter, because the interior person was the same.
if I remember correctly, in earlier discussions Eun Oh did not get much empathy. So much we t to JW with remarks about how he was fooled.ittle mention if how he was an adult. I honestly was peeved because it seemed to me that in a blog populated mostly by women, the women seemed blinded by the male lead’s feelings. To me it seems that they were ready to throw Eun Oh under the bus. I really think we all may want to rethink our views if women’s motivation in light of the way we might have been socialized. Did Eun Oh remind some if you if the “bad girls” of our youths who were fast as maybe shaved their legs and plucked their eyebrows early, grew breasts and wore bras early and even got their periods early- mm along them women while other age cohorts still played with bras. And if they got pregnant out of wedlock, whose fault was it. I could go on and on but I think we need to examine our own attitudes about women’s behavior before we attribute blame. Eun Oh experienced real trauma and in the end she was true to herself and in all probability scared of her experiment and in live with our hero.I know we are “bitches” but we need to fight some if our old socialization that also kept women as men’s property using the virgin whore dichotomy.
Hey everyone,
I haven’t read your comments since I am on Episode 1.
@GB I haven’t managed to watch any further. So, I will comment here when I have something to say!
Hi my dear @Cleopatra! Sure thing. Whenever you can manage to watch, do come and give us your thoughts.
I find the show interesting because we get to hear all the protagonist’s thoughts. They are convinced about their own realities or think that they are right, but we are the omniscient (or almost the omniscient) viewers who can see how they are perceiving and interpreting. We too are not always given the full picture, therefore, we need to step back from time to time to look at the bigger picture and see if we need to adjust our judgment (and lenses). I wish I could discuss more with you without spoiling the show for you.
See you again!
So I stopped at episode 3 because I couldn’t quite get into the show at first but decided to catchup because of the interesting comments made after I spoke about Ji Chang Wok on the Im Siwan post. And also seeing the comments here.
I do think the flow of the show takes a while to get into. But a lot happens in 30 mins, makes me more convinced that the average kdrama episode should definitely not be 1 hour long.
One thing I’ve noticed is that we don’t get more than 2 angles of a shot. I guess that makes sense since for a documentary there wouldn’t be too many cameras following a person. I’m also not missing the slow-mos and multiple angles you get in typical dramas, always thought they were overkill.
Now about the plot, Jae Won is so foolishly in love I honestly cannot hack it. I’m quite a logical person even when it comes to the matters of the heart so the whole premise of meeting someone and being married in 2 months flies over my head. I also dislike this ideology that I believe is perpetuated by shows that marriage is a thing just between the 2 people. I disagree, I believe it is a family/community affair. You do yourself a great disservice if you marry someone without finding out about their family, friends, upbringing, background e.t.c. Obviously there are nuances; if the person is orphaned, not so close to their family. But no one is truly alone in this world so you should be meeting someone who was in their life before you. Now the daily living of married life THAT is between the two individuals, deal with your fights yourself and seek outside, unbiased – even better professional- views when necessary.
For me, both of them opting to get married with careless abandon is major red flags. They both make decisions without real thought processing and that’s bad.
Eun O is so selfish and even though she is redeemable, I don’t like her and I think her behaviour is just red flags all over like @GB has so rightly pointed out. I get that she was hurt and wanted to be free but she could have told Jae Won numerous times that the pace was too quick. All this could have been avoided if she’d spoken to him honestly. I’m really trying to understand her. What was her plan? If Jae Won hadn’t suddenly gone back to Seoul when would she have told him the truth? Did she ever plan to?
A while ago Packmule spoke about the importance of marriage counselling, I believe it was for the DDSSLLS couple?🤔 I think if these two get back together they definitely need some form of counselling.
The long term couple are cute but I wonder what their flaw/issue is. The other lady Sun Young, she’s just hypocritical. How can you ask for your things back during a breakup but don’t return what they give you. As to whether or not a guy and girl can just be friends, I think it’s possible as long as you establish clear boundaries and intentions. If a significant other has an issue then it’s either boundaries are becoming blurry or he/she is insecure. In this case she was definitely insecure.
I wonder how the rest will react once they find out Lee Eun O = Yoon Seon A.
@Old American Lady,
I hear your point but I believe the participants like us didn’t get the full story but only Jae Won‘s side of things. I don’t think anyone could have imagined her story, that she was rebounding. And even now I know why Eun O did what she did I still don’t blame her any less. She could have experimented being carefree and different and learning to stand up for herself, sure why not. But there were many points in time where she had the opportunity to stop the train wreck and didn’t and that’s what I don’t like. And I also don’t buy this idea that I sometimes see being pedalled in shows that learning how to be a more confident person is linked to sexing strangers. I don’t think being sexually liberal will always result in discovering yourself, sometimes it’s the opposite.
They are definitely big to be blamed for the situation but Eun O more so.
@Esst3, I am really finding the harshness toward Eun O by somany cimmentirs off putting. From the time I grew up in the 1950’s and 60’s, it seems that it has, until secindvwave feminism, been the women’s fault for hurting the precious guy. Why are women’s feelings and fears dimished. Why can’t a woman explore her sexuality? Does a first experience of someone being adored,even if she’s not truly being herself, and wanting more, prove someone has poor character? Could our hero possibly be a cad? Why is it HER fault? I really think our doubters should examine some role reversal. And thaink about what HE got out of it? During my childhood and adolescence we were told men had no control over their genitalia. If we even looked pretty and flirted,but had no intention of following through with the guy, we were, pardon the word, cick teasers. So, you can’t have it both ways.
I guve creditvto Eun Ho for acknowledging her limits. And our guy was living HIS fantasy too. He got to have great sex with an attractive woman,who he thought was a free spirit meaning, perhaps, he could do what he liked because she would accept the behavior. And during the affair, he was on vacation, but she was working as a waitress. She needed the job and was responsible to her bosses. He was onvacation and actuallycaused her a conflict because she had to work at the time he told her to meet him(almost like an ultimatum). And lets get to the marriage. It seems to work on the beach, but do you honestly believe it would work once they got home, given the fantasy elementb of the relationship, even if she told him the truth. She would be lookingbfor work. Hevwould be designing buildings. In his real life, he does have a prickly side andbis a bit of a snob, given his liquor collection. And if you lookat his beautiful home, if whe didn’t live up to his standards of design and cleanliness, heaven help he. Cintrast her living arrangements with his. Very telling.Real life would have gotten in the way. She knew it. And if you look at it from her point of view,shwpe was actually being kind to him.
And let’s look at the cultural differences in marriage in Korea. Apparently, even now, women are ruled by theur in-laws. Filial relationships are male/male family dominated. Wasn’t there a bestseller in Korea about a woman, gone too soon that pointed out all of the inequality women face in Korea, that created quite a stir? Please do take some time to give some love to Eun O. And think about how some of you would react,after throwing caution to the wind, if you lived in Korean culture. (And look at all of the K Dramas where the wife had to kow tow to the inlaws-kimchi duty comes to mind and how family opinions of those they felt beneath them can be so toxic).
@Old American Lady, I’m glad you mentioned the differences in JW’s and EO’s homes in Seoul. JW’s is traditional Korean, which makes me think he has a nostalgic character. And for all its beauty with natural wood in the structure, it has a non-personal feel. Sterile. Like living in an architectural magazine. EO’s home/office is filled with evidence of the lives it shelters. The furnishings were tossed together with functionality in mind: it serves the residents rather than being a showpiece. It is a riot of shapes and colors, but it isn’t because of hoarding or filth: it’s two people living and working in a small space.
Based on what they say in the interviews, I believe EO has a more realistic sense of self than JW. From the beginning JW makes claims about himself that he either asks the interviewer to agree with as if he’s doubting himself, others who know him disagree with when they see his interview, or we later see his actions contradict. Although I dislike that EO caused JW pain by cutting him out of her life so abruptly, she was clear in her mind why she wanted to separate herself from him. I just wish they’d given honest communication a chance, but where’s the drama in that?
@Old American Lady, I think the show you were trying to think of was the 2019 film Kim Ji-young: Born 1982. The book on which it was based was controversial in Korea because it was considered feminist.
Old Lady> I don’t think what you’re saying has any rapport with EO’s decisions. She tried to be a new person because she was hurt. Then, she was too deep in her lie and she chose to run away. It’s all. Nothing forced her to accept the marriage or the relationship. I don’t think people love the ML character neither, he’s a fool. But he suffered for nothing and it’s unfair.
@Esst3 @Welmaris @Old American Lady @Cleopatra @Sayaris @Josephine Tedesco @Hyacinth
After Yangyang
The Jae Won and the Eun Oh we are watching in the interviews, have both changed from the people that they were before Yangyang.
We do not have much information on JW before Yangyang, but he was a lover of surfing who’d been learning to make his own surfboard from before. I’d put him down as a happy, confident sort of person.
However after Yangyang,JW’s pretty much lost confidence in himself, especially in the relationship/romance department. He has been constantly wondering what he did wrong/if he did something wrong, that brought about the breakup.
He is not sure if he can trust his interpretation of what a romance is, of his ability to please a lady, of how to understand the breakup. When he sounds diffident or asks for assurances about himself or in the area of relationships, this could be why.
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
Eun Oh Before Yangyang
I find that there’s a contradiction going on with SA/EO or perhaps in the course of the interviews, she starts off believing something about herself and then comes to a realisation of who she is.
We seems to hear her say that she’d been lying, that she agreed everything she was as SA had been fake. She also accepts the accusation of the same from JW. But by the end of the series, she has realised that the person she was as SA, and the EO after Yangyang, were not two different people after all. However she does not declare this but leaves the misunderstanding unresolved.
The past Lee Eun Oh had been afraid of water and had not tried many things. She had been introvert, retiring and reserved, conservative in appearance and possibly a little diffident. She likely did not share much of her private life and even in Episode 12, she’d refused to make her private life public.
In Yangyang, EO as Seon Ah did and learnt a whole bunch of things that EO had never tried before.
– She got herself a part-time job
– She curled and coloured her hair and changed her wardrobe. (A no-no for employees in a big corporation).
– She got herself some tattoos, directly inspired by the original Yoon Seon Ah.
– She became the life of the party at the parties thrown by Bin and Ra Ra.
– She picked up daring activities like surfing, roller skating and hang gliding.
– With Jae Won, she learnt how to use the camera, surf and to ride a scooter.
– She was unconventionally open about her love life with strangers.
She was pushing her conservative limits, trying to break through the barriers that had kept her quiet and conventional, and accepted.
She initiated the intimate relationship with JW, then tried to push him away because at that time, she did not want to enter into a new commitment. However she’d told JW that she was throwing caution to the winds, she wouldn’t hesitate anymore or say no to new things. To keep her word, and to be true to her new persona of SA, she broke convention by running out of her part-time job to be with JW, she danced in the rain and agreed to ‘play marriage’ with him.
Eun Oh After Yangyang
– Instead of settling for a job in a corporation, she started her own business.
– She bought herself a car
– She dressed how she liked and not in formal office wear.
– She forced herself to go out to meet people and get work.
When her ex-manager met her again, the former noted that she was very different.
– She looked different and was almost unrecognisable.
– Her style had changed drastically. EO claimed that everything about her had changed, but this was a short cut to saying that the obvious and noticeable features were different. Her core self was the same.
– The ex-manager notes that she had become eloquent, which tells us that she was usually quiet and not outspoken in the past.
In Episode 6 we see EO incensed with KG for forgetting to pass a call for her company, O3 to her. He had hung up on her prospective client. EO was aggressive and punitive, determined to (I don’t want to go into the topic of violence and how this scene is maybe supposed to entertain us) make KG pay for his mistake. She was like a bull terrier who wouldn’t let go.
We hear from KG : “She wasn’t always like this.” He shows us a photo of EO when she was younger. “Look at her. She looked so kind. She really was. But a year ago, she disappeared for a few months and …” EO throws something at KG through his room window and actually tries to climb inside to get him. She does finally unlock the door and come in to continue the fight with cushions and slipper.
In Episode 8, we get the (surprise!) testimony from Eun Oh herself, on the fact that she was grateful to JW who helped her discover her true self. She speaks at great length to the man she gave the surfboard to, to explain why she wants him to give her back the surfboard. She says of JW
Timestamp 3:16
The real Eun Oh was not too different from the ‘fake Seon Ah’. She had found the courage to be the person who could stand up for herself, and be herself instead of holding back. However she had yet to find the courage to explain it to JW.
Irony and Hoped for Resolution
EO had gone to Yangyang, suffered, endured and gained in confidence in the following year, but by contrast, JW who had been confident and who had helped her on the way to self-discovery, was the one to crumble. He lost interest in work, he drank too much, and he had self doubts.
From hindsight, we know that each of them awoke something in the other, that had been either dormant or suppressed. JW’s sense of fun and adventure gelled with Seon Ah’s, and that was why he liked everything about her. He too had been toeing the line in going to work under his Dad.
With Seon Ah, he felt liberated to let loose and be himself, to the extent that he didn’t think to stop before suggesting marriage. He had been inspired by SA who was willing to be unconventional and spontaneous, and so he sprang the wedding on her, and really meant his ‘vows’.
Of course we hope (most sincerely) that these 2 characters will continue to bring out not just the bad but also the better parts in each other. We hope to see them develop somewhat and to make better decisions. We want them to communicate more fully and discover that they are possibly on the same page or that they can turn the pages to get there.
@Sayaris, I don’t think Eun O intentionally set out to hurt JW. Unless there is common law marriage in Korea, the marriage wasn’t registered so I think it wasn’t legalized. There was also, to my knowledge, no mention of divorce. In subsequent episodes Eun O mentionedthat her Beach self wasn’t who she was. As herself, she did become enboldened but not completely. Most people’s behaviors and attitudes are not entirely consistent. In love, Eun O is still introverted. So, I’ll agree to disagree with you. Eun O would never be like her roommate’s ex who made him strip down all of her “gifts”and humiliate himself. Eun O and JW’s break up was not a public spectacle. So I’m sticking to defending Eun O and not villifying her. And I still have a hard time understanding why so many posters on this particular blog choose to view her so negitavely, especially because most of the women seem to support women’s rights and empowerment.
Old American Lady> It’s not about woman or man for me. If the roles was inverted, I will think the same. It’s about truth. She lied to him. And she did nothing to say the truth when she got the occasions. Worse, she kept lying at the Police station. Everybody deserves an explication and not be ghosted. It’s not about the fact she chose herself above their relationship, I understand that, but the fact she knew what her lie did to him, the same that her ex-boyfriend did to her, but did nothing about it.
Some thoughts on Episode 5
SPOILER
SPOILER
Synopsis of episode 5 from Wikipedia – Title “What do you do with the memory box after breaking up?”
“Jae-won talks about the fact that he left three of his cameras with Seon-a when he hurried back to Seoul. Since they never met again, he never had a chance to get them back. Geon and Ji-Eun (Sun Young?) have a messy break-up, where she demands to have returned everything that she bought for him. In the present, Geon is seen living with Seon-a/Eun-oh. She seems to still have the film rolls from Jae-won’s cameras, and goes to get them developed. The photographer seems to recognize the man in her photos.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovestruck_in_the_City
Perception vs Reality – Kang Geon and Sun Young
Show continues to give viewers scenes, or parts of scenes, that gets us thinking one thing, only to have those perceptions changed or overturned later. We see that Eun Oh and Kang Geon share a house, but are not enlightened as to their living arrangements.
All relationships flounder in the gap between perception and reality … the solution, I feel, is to manage expectations. Which means, to communicate sufficiently so that the other party is more or less on the same page. In each of the 3 couples, important information was left out, or was considered to have been understood and therefore was not spoken of.
We are not told at this stage, what caused the breakup between KG and SY. However we can see from the difference in their reactions to the breakup, that they were definitely not on the same page about their relationship.
SY is angry and wants to cause KG hurt and humiliation (as far as we can see) and KG is stripped in public, in the bitter cold, and goes shivering to the bus stop in bare feet and with only under shirt and pants. He appears to be neither upset nor embarrassed. He’s rescued by a stranger, who turns out to be an alumni of his school. They hit it off and go for drinks and a reminisce at their old school.
SY is enraged to hear that KG was not hurt or upset at all by their breakup. It’s only in Episode 12 that we get to hear SY regret that she broke up with KG in that way, and her reason why she did it.
SY : “I didn’t want to break up like that. I just wanted confirmation that I was being loved.”
One wonders what KG would have said if she’d told him that she was insecure in their relationship. Would he have been able to convince her that he loved her? But first, we wonder if KG did love SY.
Since SY resorted to breaking up as a means to confirm that she was being loved, this might mean that KG had not been convincing in the normal run of their relationship. He had failed to say the words or do whatever SY’s ‘love language’ required to convince her. (Perhaps she needed him to say the words and spend time with her, but he was the type to give gifts and use physical touch. https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/click-here-happiness/202009/what-are-the-5-love-languages-definition-and-examples). There was either no communication or miscommunication.
And then, there is also the possibility that he did not love her. We are not shown.
SY’s insecurity blighted this relationship. She could not bear that KG shared a living space with EO, or that EO and RI were often in KG’s life. She did not believe that men and women could be friends. She was convinced that ultimately KG would marry EO.
And my personal take on their relationship is that it was a big mistake to get into it after drunk sex. That intimacy, when they were drunk and strangers, was in the first place, most inadvisable. It was also a terrible risk to either party and both were fortunate that neither had ulterior motives. It was because they got together out of that reckless intimacy, that SY would never feel secure that she was loved. She would always wonder if she was just too easy, and therefore if she was being used instead of loved and respected by KG. It becomes understandable why she wanted to force KG to make a stand by demanding a breakup.
However, again, the method of breakup was wrong. It was a case of publicly humiliating a person, of physically beating him and trying to hurt him emotionally and to break him. What SY did was wrong. KG would have been within his rights to report her for physical abuse. He however simply took it like the ‘Pushover’ (the name under which EO saves him on her phone) he is.
KG’s emotional investment in the relationship does not seem to have been great. We only see him say that it was terrible to be beaten by a bag that he’d bought. He never once evinced a sense of loss over SY, or mentioned her. His only reference to that time with her was that it was more than 2 years since he’d been intimate with a woman.
The sad case of Sun Young – From SY’s perspective, (if she’d heard KG say this) It would be so sad and pathetic. The relationship appears to be meaningless. This reference to KG’s sex life is all that she amounts to, for him, and this makes a case for never entering into any relationship, by selling one’s self short.
Later epilogue: It’s in Episode 7 that we are told by the same stranger who rescued KG, (he is a police officer), that “Gifts are donated properties, so she can’t get them back.” SY had once again beaten up a guy (this time in the police substation), and demanded that he be stripped of the things that she’d given him.
She’s sleeping drunk in the police substation. In Episode 13, she admits that she’s a mess and drinks until she blacks out. We hear in Episode 12 that she was kicked out of her home by her father because of her drunkenness.
Here on BOD, we’ve already have good discussion on why it is a bad idea that binge drinking is depicted in dramas as much as it is, and without the caveat that it’s bad for us. https://bitchesoverdramas.com/2021/01/30/just-bitching-pet-peeve-2/ In this show, although being drunk is not exactly glamourised, it is touted as ‘cute’ and it is not sufficiently depicted as unwise, unhealthy and a real problem that a character like SY is facing.
It’s obvious that SY has real issues that she’s running from by binge drinking, and that she’s alone with no one, not even her father, caring much for her.
Let it be said that binge drinking is wrong for all the reasons mentioned in the Pet Peeve #2 thread above, and that SY needs help.
Some thoughts on Episode 6
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
Synopsis of episode 6 from Wikipedia – Title: “Somebody Stole My Camera”
Kyeong-joon and Rin-i’s love story of many years is revealed. They were classmates in primary school, who met again in high school, became friends and eventually ended up dating. Geon and Rin-yi seem to be related. Four of them — Eun-oh, Geon, Kyung-joon and Rin-yi are shown to be friends, and meet up to play a fast-paced game of Halli Galli together. Eun-oh reveals that the second reason why she did not contact Jae-won again was the fact that she found out that he was Kyung-joon’s cousin. She almost runs into Jae-won, while trying to avoid him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovestruck_in_the_City
Jae Won’s ‘Thought Traffic Jam’
The studio owner who developed EO’s photos, recognised JW as his long-time client. He calls JW to collect a photo that EO accidentally left behind.
On the way back from the studio, JW is stuck in a traffic jam, having a ‘thought jam’. At least the traffic is slowly snaking along long stretches of the city roads, but his thoughts are stuck on questions that he cannot find the answers to.
He can’t figure out what it meant that Seon Ah/EO had bothered to develop the photos after 1 year. He listens again to her voice mail which says she had stolen the cameras and that, that had been her plan from the start. The fact that the photos had been developed gave the lie to her words.
JW to himself : “If she still has them, it means she didn’t steal them to sell them.”
He remembers what the Studio Owner had said: “When I recognised your face, she paid and left in a hurry. And here, she left one (photo) behind.”
JW : “I just don’t get it. … if she was going to print all of them, why did she leave me the message?”
Eun Oh’s Reasons
Reason 1 – We have heard 1 reason why EO broke up with JW. It was because she thought that he loved only the fake Yoon Seon Ah. I feel that had she given JW a chance to know her more sober side, she might have found out that he could have accepted her as Lee Eun Oh.
It would have humiliated her to admit that she had lied, however she had said that she had intended to come clean when she got back to Seoul.
There was another reason that made her decide to break up with JW.
Reason 2 – We now hear EO’s second reason for breaking up with JW.
EO : “The second reason why I broke up with JW was them. (She indicates her friends in her house.) They have no idea that I’m Park Jae Won’s Yoon Seon Ah.”
Next we hear why she became the camera thief.
EO : “Why do you think I stole the cameras? It’s because I found out the Park Jae Won I’d met in Yangyang was KJ’s cousin when I came back to Seoul. Those cameras were full of my photos. I couldn’t give them back to him.”
SPOILER for EP 14
We’ll later (in Episode 14) hear JW ask the question: “KJ is my cousin, so what? Does it make sense that, that is the reason to break up?”
I’m guessing that she was such a private person, that she couldn’t bear that her friends found out she’d taken on a false persona for 3 months. It would have embarrassed her.
As time passed, and JW’s unhappy state became known, it was even more impossible for her to come clean, because by then everyone would know that Seon Ah had hurt JW badly, and that he was practically an alcoholic because of the breakup. Her friends were commiserating with JW. She felt guilty and bad enough without her friends condemning her as well.
Then we add to that, that she was considered a camera thief. She would have been even more humiliated.
It’s possible that Reason 1 alone might not have caused her to break up with JW. It was more likely Reason 2 that was the overriding reason. Throughout this, though, she seems to have given greater priority to her own needs instead of alleviating JW’s pain. She failed to factor in how JW would suffer. We see that there were times she was sorry, although her apology fell short of what was needed, however, she still did not get past protecting herself first.
Later (in Ep 13) we hear her think that it should have been a forgettable fling. However, we know that she herself did not forget. To JW who had been sincere, it was not a fling. If she didn’t or couldn’t forget, it’s hypocritical to expect that JW would do better, and therefore it should be OK.
To an extent, EO could move on, because she knew why she did what she did, but JW could not be OK, because he was stuck in a ‘thought traffic jam’ with questions that plagued him.
Thoughts on Episode 7
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
Synopsis of episode 7 from Wikipedia – Title: “I’ll Forget It! I’ll Throw It Away!”
After unexpectedly running into Seon-a, Jae-won drinks and shows up at a police station demanding that the camera thief be found. It is revealed that Geon, Eun-oh and Rin-yi are friends from kindergarten, and maintain a very close friendship even now. This also seems to be the reason why Geon and Sun-young broke up. Jae-won and Eun-oh both try to get rid of the surfboards that they painted together, only Eun-oh successfully goes through with it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovestruck_in_the_City
The case of the stolen cameras and the discarded surfboards
It’s interesting that after JW makes a fool of himself at the police station and EO hears of it, that she decides to throw away the surfboard. EO’s thought is “I’ll throw it away” as in throw the relationship/memories away.
Similarly after his time with the police, then being castigated by KJ for getting drunk again, and having his liquor collection confiscated, JW decides to get rid of his surfboard. JW’s thought is “I’ll forget it” as in forget Seon Ah.
Both of them have a similar thought that removing a meaningful memento of their relationship would help them break free from something. Perhaps for EO it was to break free from guilt. As for JW, it was to break free from his pain.
The case of the stolen cameras is a strange case since although JW and EO can openly admit to each other that she stole the cameras, neither one of them can admit that there was a theft to anyone else when they are faced with each other.
SPOILER
Despite what JW told the police, when faced with both EO and the cameras, JW could not say that she had stolen them. What was stolen and what had to be gotten rid of was not what could be carried around.
EO wants to kid herself that she sees the relationship as a fling that she can throw away without regret. However her clinging on to the surfboard before finally letting the officer behind the counter have it tells us that she’s lying to herself.
It starts to rain and as always that reminds both JW and EO of the carefree time they had waiting for and playing the rain. Unlike a surfboard, EO cannot get rid of the rain. She assures herself that the rain will pass. She is of course speaking of her attachment to JW and to her memories.
JW takes the rain as a sign that he cannot get rid of the surfboard that day. He decides that it’s his philosophy to put off to another day what he can do that day, and that he’ll still be OK. He is not ready to make the break or to forget. This thought comforts him.
Later on in the series, we’ll see that ultimately neither of them rids themselves of any of the reminders of their ‘union’. They were both unable to let go.
I keep thinking about the position of women in Korea when viewing this drama. As in so many K Dramas there’s an interconnection of friends/relatives. At least two of the men are in professions, while at least two of the women are not doing conventional wirk and one, R, chooses to be a part timer(that to me almost speaks failure in Korea-I keep thinkingnof the forporate culture, the educational competition and Misaeng). So, our Eun- O would probably be thought the fool for givingnup such a catch as JW, given the cultural cues. JW engenders so much sympathy for the break up that he didn’t see coming because he is seen as the perfect boyfriend out of the context of real life. And Eun O is probably seen as mean and horrid for givingnup our great catch. But the beach wasn’t real life. The real Eun O was unemployed and had no guarantee that JW would support her once back home or even be tolerant of who she really is. She could not even bear to disclose her failures to her friendsvand family before she escaped to the beach. She had lived for a short while in the creepy motel. So can we evenbelieve that this is a relationship of equals. And in this drama, the women are either too timid, too brazen-roomies girlfriend who stripped himnaked of her gifts, or too minimally employed like R. The men seem to come up as better-JW as full on romantic, handsome and rich;R’s boyfriend as kind, caring and exceedingly generous;and roomie being wronged by gf, but supportive, in a way of Eun O and very practical buying the liquor and end table for himself. So, my feminist friends, do you see what I see, as wrong with this picture. And I was happy with the lasr episode that finally gave Eun O her due in JW’s eyes. This is why I must champion Eun O and the other women. They come to their relationships at large disadvantages that make them far less desireable in what I see as Korean cultural norms. And as a Jane Austen fan, I see many parallels to her novels here.
Thoughts after reaching Episode 14
I wrote some notes to myself on this show after the first few episodes, about how I felt it had a bias. @Old American Lady gives me the thought that the bias embedded in this series might indeed be the result of the cultural way of looking at women and men. It might also be that the makers of this show are veering towards a kind of hidden misogyny where women look like they are ’empowered’ to be themselves, but the selves that they portray end up looking mighty ‘bitchy’ (I don’t mean BoD-like).
So Young is made to appear loose, unreasonably demanding and pathetically alone as a result.
Ri I looks to be without ambition, too clueless to read KJ’s intentions and even vindictive
EO is portrayed as the one ruined by a bad relationship, who rebounds by becoming aggressive, inconsiderate, irresponsible and self-seeking with JW.
All of them are made to appear to be the ones who initiated intimacy with their hapless men friends. All the men are portrayed as jolly nice guys.
Show makes the women unsympathetic, less likable characters while it makes the men more likable. Show is giving an imbalanced view. Does this mean I can champion the individuals belonging to the side that’s more unfairly treated? Well, only if they retain or grow in what I consider to be positive values.
Can I get behind EO because she was unfairly and badly treated, is in a more disadvantaged position and is struggling to protect herself? Can I get behind her, finding her voice and agency after her Yangyang trip so that she can take charge of her life? Yes, but only if she does this responsibly, with consideration, without causing harm to others. Finding herself should not mean that she becomes heh! … mean.
Should I notice any person who with knowledge hurts others, lies to them, throws them under the bus to protect themselves … I’d call it. Therefore when EO pulls KG’s hair and attacks him, when she lies at the police station that JW gave her the cameras, to save face, … after allowing him to suffer for a year, (when she’d known from KJ and the interviewer that JW was doing badly after the breakup), then I call it. EO put her needs and wants first.
Her needs were not to do with being able to earn and support herself, or to support a loved one. Her lying was to protect herself from humiliation if her friends found out.
Caveat:
We do not know the horrors to her of that humiliation. Perhaps to her it was a need at the level of life and death. We do know that the combined loss of her fiance and expected job caused her to ‘kill’ the old Lee Eun Oh. Although when she’s in danger of being found out, she tells the camera that she’d like to go somewhere and ‘die’. We see from her behaviour, that she’s no longer the wimp who’ll just die quietly. In fact she’s become the type to fight back and bring her opponent down with her.
Even knowing that the show is biased, cannot make EO’s decisions good or right. They make them understandable or we can say that Show, being the fruit of this particular society, chose to portray women unfairly and could have written her another way.
Thoughts on Episode 8 and 9
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
Synopsis of episode 8 from Wikipedia – Title: “Love Is Supposed to Be Crazy”
Jae-won finds that he has no footage of Seon-a from his car to show Kyung-joon. He thinks his problem of getting drunk and ruminating over his past relationship is getting out of hand, and so he seeks help from a therapist. Jae-won thinks he might be having hallucinations of Seon-a whenever he drinks, but Seon-a/Eun-oh reveals that on one of those occasions, they actually did meet. When Jae-won was drinking at a bar, Seon-a actually went up to him and they had an entire conversation, but Jae-won does not remember this. Jae-won decides it is finally time to move on, when he sees Seon-a again. She tries to flee once again, but ends up getting arrested for being the ‘camera thief’.
Synopsis of episode 9 from Wikipedia – Title: “What if You Run into Your Ex?”
Geon and Sun-young meet again a while after their break-up, but his friendship with Eun-oh and Rin-yi gets in the way yet again. Seon-a and Jae-won get taken to the police station. When questioned on why she stole Jae-won’s cameras, Seon-a remains silent initially, as she does not want him to find out her true identity. The truth is revealed when she is forced to give her registration number for police record. Jae-won is shocked and angry at this revelation, and even throws his wedding ring away. Seon-a tries to catch up with him, but to no avail.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovestruck_in_the_City
The Previous Winter
If we take the scenes of EO and JW chronologically, then we could have started in Winter of the previous year. As he had done for many Saturdays, JW followed his routine. One thing that EO never realised was that JW was the sentimental, clingy type. Perhaps her experience of other dates never prepared her for someone like JW. She herself was feeling sentimental when she saw snow and remembered JW.
Jae Won’s Cheonggyecheon routine:
1) Sit on the 3rd stepping stone for hours (longest record 8 hours, currently decreasing)
2) Drink at a nearby bar for hours (record: 6 bottles)
3) Pass out (once unconscious for more than 30 minutes)
4) Visit Taepyeong-ro Police Station (to report Seon Ah and stay the night)
There was one time however when he was drunk in a bar and saw Seon Ah outside it, but he thought he was hallucinating. She had seen him at Cheonggyecheon and followed him.
She had stood outside and watched him drink until he passed out, and then she had sat opposite him and spoken to him at length, but he thought it was a dream.
EO : “Can’t you forget me?”
JW : “How can I forget you. We got married.”
EO : “It was a joke.”
JW : “No, it wasn’t a joke for me.” He shows her that he’d got the ring on. “I’ve never taken it off.” He has a tear or two rolling down his face.
EO : “Why not?”
JW : “Because you told me not to. Never ever.”
Eun Oh is in tears : “I’m sorry.”
This is the apology she needs to make to him when he’s sober.
JW : “Are you doing ok?”
EO : “Yes.”
He breaks into more tears : “Really? Why am I annoyed to hear that you’re doing well?” he covers his face.
EO : “I know you’re lying.”
JW : “No I mean everything I say because you see, as you can see right now, day by day, literally day by day, I’m dying a little more inside.”
She sobs at this. He takes her hand and she wipes the tears from his face.
JW gets her to sit beside him, and while at first he wants to be comforted by her and to have her hold him, he changes to let her rest her head on his shoulder, while he sleeps.
Episode 8 Question of the Day: “Why are you trying to find Yoon Seon Ah?”
In the present time, JW explains why he searched for Seon Ah. To him the breakup was inexplicable because she had vanished without warning during their happiest moment. EO dismisses his reason as him having too much time on his hands to search for her, because he has enough to live on. This was beside the point entirely and likely an attempt to divert the attention from the question.
JW : “There was no closure. Closure!”
EO : “I gave him a message not to see me again. If that’s not closure, what is?”
I feel she is being disingenuous. The previous Winter, she had seen the sorry state he was in. She knew that he had not had the closure he needed.
The sudden breakup after such an intense relationship, when everything was great, plus the fact that she had brought the cameras out of the car to give to JW, made it obvious that she had, had no intention of stealing them.
Her voice message to breakup because she meant to steal the cameras from the start made no sense. It made the situation more murky instead of enlightening JW and cannot be considered giving him closure.
EO : “If one side wants to break up, the relationship is over.”
JW : “Why did she have to steal the cameras?”
EO : “Is this what your are curious about? Is that why you’re doing this?”
JW : “Once I get them back, I’ll end it once and for all.”
Video Letter
JW is offered a chance to send another video letter to SA/EO
JW to the camera : “Hey Yoon Seon Ah. You are driving me insane.”
EO listens.
JW : “I see visions of you now. How are you doing?”
EO to the camera : “I’m doing great. Happy? I’m a camera thief. A terrible woman. Consider yourself unlucky and forget me. Just think, ‘That’s the way I am.’ ”
JW : “I could forget about her if any of this made sense. But nothing makes sense. Nothing!”
JW : “I didn’t expect myself to be this clingy and pathetic. I’m telling you, this isn’t the real me.”
The irony is that JW has become lost after the breakup. He had helped EO find her true self, while losing his own self.
EO looks thoughtful : “I loved him. But two months was enough.” This does not sound like love. It was something else mistaken for love?
EO continues : “Park Jae Won’s the boring type. I got sick of him.” She is lying in an attempt at noble idiocy, to hurt him and to make him want to forget about her.
Catching Seon Ah
Despite acting indifferent, EO is affected by JW’s interview and his Video Letter. She is shocked to hear that JW had been to the police 6 times to report the camera thief.
Her guilt causes her to hide in her room when police officers drop by to inform that there had been thefts in their neighbourhood. She is still running away from having her pathetic side discovered.
Since JW had declared he would end it when he got his cameras back, and since he’d been involving the police, EO brings out the cameras to return them, but as luck would have it, JW sees and chases her and the police who are out are near enough to apprehend her. Suspect, victim and stolen property all had come together, LOL, and the police couldn’t resist putting handcuffs on SA/EO.
What was noteworthy was JW’s reaction.
– When he caught up with SA/EO and she fell, he’d broken her fall.
– He asked her if she was OK.
– He told the police off for scaring her.
– When it was clear that SA/EO had to go to the police station, he handcuffed himself to EO.
– In the police station he comforted her by placing his hand over hers.
– He didn’t want to press charges and told the police plainly that he had reported the thefts more to locate SA.
He thought when he saw her with the camera bag, that she’d really come to meet him at Cheonggyecheon. It made sense that she was meeting him and bringing back the cameras. He’d been reporting the camera thief not to get back the cameras but hoping that the police would find her for him.
It’s only when she boldly lies to the police that he had given her the cameras, and appealed to him to back her up, while JW recalls that in her voice message she had admitted that she’d stolen them, that he was brought up short. And then when her ID showed another name, but she refused to explain why, his world collapsed. Until that moment, he had thought that she had come to look for him, and he had immediately wanted to take her back.
When EO went to Yangyang, she had decided to leave the old Lee Eun Oh behind. She was ashamed of herself as a failure in love and in work and hated herself. However even until the present time she still runs away like the old EO did. She ran away when she disappeared to Yangyang and did not inform her friends. She hides the camera and runs from JW so that no one would inadvertently find out that she was Yoon SA. She continues to run by hiding from the police and lying in the Police Station, and to everyone.
However her lies have caught up with her and caught her.
EPISODE 10, 11 and 12
Thoughts on Episodes 10, 11 and 12
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
Three Synopsis are from Wikipedia
Episode 10 – Title: “Is There Such a Thing as a Proper Break-Up?”
Episode 10 Synopsis: “Eun-o attempts to retrieve the surfboard that she had attempted to discard. The rest of the interviewees find out that Jae-won finally caught the camera thief, and speculate about who she could be. Geon tells his friends that Eun-o has been acting really strange all week. A chance meeting at work leads Kyung-joon and Rin-yi to run into a man who seems to have caused a lot of trouble for Eun-o in the past. Jae-won puts two and two together and finally discovers that Eun-o/Seon-a is a friend of Kyung-joon’s.”
Episode 11 Title: “Is There Such a Thing as a Proper Break-Up?”
Episode 11 Synopsis: “If there’s a right way to break up is the question the episode begins with. With a psychologist, the interviewees’ debate over the healthy way of breaking up with someone. Eun-O receives a call regarding her work while Jae-Won is hung up over the male voice he heard on the phone during his call with Eun-O. He asks Kyeong-Jun about Eun-O, he wants to know what sort of girl she is. Kyeong-Jun explains Eun-O’s past. Also, Eun-O remembers her past of how she adopted the name Seon-A from a woman who she found fascinating and way more interesting than her. After work, the group prepare for a rooftop dinner and Kyeong-Jun invites Jae-Won for the same. Eun-O is troubled but Jae-Won doesn’t make a scene in front of anyone else and shakes Eun-O’s hand politely, telling her he’s been curious about the girl. When pointed out, he mentions throwing the ring away because everything he knew about the girl was fake.”
Episode 12 Title: “That’s How I Became Yoon Seon-a”
The rooftop camping continues, and Choi Kyeong-jun accuses Jae-won of being an alcoholic and doesn’t want him to drink. They all make a toast for “friends”. The group continue asking Jae-won about the “camera thief” and how he threw away the ring — super awkward. Jae-won asks Lee Eun-o what she thinks about his situation, and she blurts that he seems content spreading stories about his love life. Jae-won trades words back, stating she likes to keep secrets. He gets frustrated, and Sun Rin-i believes Jae-won has anger issues. It gets too awkward for Lee Eun-o. Choi Kyeong-jun asks about Lee Eun-o’s necklace, and she gets defensive and says she has a private life before walking off. Lee Eun-o and Jae-won try to talk, at least explain everything. He tells her that Yoon Seon-a wasn’t like this and leaves while Lee Eun-o sobs to herself and drunk, she decides to leave once again. Lee Eun-o’s past is shown in detail which led her to Park Jae-won. Later, Lee Eun-o wakes up frantically and doesn’t know where she is. She opens up the bedroom door slowly, and she can see Jae-won making breakfast and she realizes that she’s in his apartment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovestruck_in_the_City
The Path to Reconciliation: Eun Oh
We come to the day after JW bumps into EO, still thinking she is Seon Ah. That night, they end up in the police station but the encounter concludes with JW driving off in a rage, after EO unsuccessfully tries to return the cameras to him.
Eun Oh becomes eloquent as she persuades the Community Centre officer to return the surfboard to her. She says the words that JW should hear.
EO to the hapless Community Centre officer : “Do I look sane to you right now? I look crazy, don’t I? Yes, I’m crazy. Do you see these rings. (She shows him the rings.) These are wedding rings. I’m legally single, though. Anyway, I got married. That’s why I have these. I couldn’t throw mine away, so I kept it with me. But the guy I married threw his into Cheonggyecheon. And I retrieved it. So now, I have both of them.
But now that I’ve got the ring, I want the surfboard as well. I want to get it back because he barged into my heart and just won’t leave. He built a house in here and became the owner.
You see, he helped me find the true Lee Eun Oh. Not the old foolish Lee Eun Oh or Yoon Seon Ah, but the real Lee Eun Oh. He helped me find my true self. He’d smile and embrace everything that I did. He helped me be born again. So how could I forget him? That surfboard is a precious memory to me. He made it for me himself. So please.”
She succeeds in retrieving her surfboard.
What is noteworthy is that:
– She no longer denies how she feels about JW, although she still hides this from her friends.
– She does consider that they got married, although in the interviews she dismisses JW’s attachment.
– JW means a great deal to her since he is the owner of the house that occupies her heart, and won’t leave. She retrieved his ring from the stream and she insisted on keeping intact, her mementos by getting back the surfboard.
– She is grateful to JW for accepting her as the crazy Seon Ah, and helping her discover her true self.
Her feelings are not bitter but sad.
The Path to Reconciliation: Jae Won
JW is in shock. He is enraged at being made a fool of. He is also possibly grieving for the loss of the person he’d fallen in love with, who did not exist. He reveals that had SA/EO come running into his arms, he’d have accepted her again, without asking questions. He cannot reconcile the Eun Oh he just met, with the Seon Ah he ‘married’.
However when offered the chance to send EO a video message, JW takes the opportunity to apologise to her for his harshness the previous night, although he did not feel that he could forgive her at the moment. EO receives his message in tears.
Show makes it obvious that reconciliation is in the books: KG is typing: “If they were meant to reunite, they had to go separate ways.”
The images on his computer screen change to images of EO and JW.
KG erases what he just typed.
KG types : “Their separate paths were inevitable.”
That JW includes the thought of what could have led to reconciliation, and that he apologises is the sign of his willingness to take the steps towards it.
Thanks for compiling this, @ GrowingBeautifully. Are you still enjoying the show?
JW’s Transition from Hurt to Understanding
JW inadvertently discovers that his would be client is EO’s ex. He gathers that EO had disappeared for 3 months after that first breakup. The penny drops for JW who finds out that RI’s marketer friend, is named Eun Oh and that she could be Seon Ah. He calls EO and recognises her voice, but also hears the voice of KG in the background, and is floored, thinking that EO has a another man in her life.
JW is raging mad that he’s been played for a fool and is the only lame guy in the interview, and most of all, because EO sounds like she has moved on with another guy before she ever made a clean break with JW. It’s obvious that her lies in her voice message do not pass muster as a proper breakup. It also becomes obvious that the most hurtful aspect of the current situation is JW’s belief that EO has another boyfriend.
Realising that EO had been so close all along, as a friend of RI and KJ, and doing just fine while JW has been suffering, is another thorn in JW’s flesh, but it also give JW a chance to find out about EO’s past. He becomes more understanding when he hears how badly she had been treated and perks up when he finds out that KG is just a friend and that EO is not dating.
In an attempt to speak again with EO, JW accepts an invitation to join her friends at her rooftop studio. He manages to convey his questions and frustrations to EO when he meets her at her home, although he still gets no answers. At least he had spoken with her face-to-face and she had listened to him. So much better than a mere voice mail, and just what the psychiatrist ordered!
Sun Young and Eun Oh and EO’s Transition from Self-Centredness
SY : “A healthy breakup? If it’s possible I’d like to break up that way.”
EO : “I didn’t mean to leave him like that.”
SY : “Do you think I enjoyed that breakup? He was someone I loved. But I stripped and hit him and yelled at him to return everything I gave him. I didn’t want to do that.”
EO : “The day JW and I agreed to meet here, I came here with his camera bag. he left for Seoul in a hurry, and I wanted to give him back the cameras he’d left behind. I was going to come clean.”
SY : “I just wanted him to say, ‘SY, don’t do this. I love you.’ That’s what I wanted to hear.”
EO : “However when I saw him waiting, I couldn’t walk over to him. I was too scared. That’s why I left that message that I stole his cameras. I wanted him to hate me. I wanted him to curse me. I wanted him to forget me.”
SY : “But I’ve never heard those words before. Every time I requested a breakup, they didn’t hesitate as if they were waiting for that moment.”
EO : “I didn’t want to break up like that.”
SY : “I didn’t want to break up like that. I just wanted confirmation that I was being loved.”
EO : “I’ve been betrayed before, so I know how JW must feel.
SY : “I don’t know how to confirm their love or how to break up. I have no idea.
EO : “I still don’t know how I should have broken up with him.”
SY : “I think I’ll never know.”
EO : “I just regret it. I just keep thinking I shouldn’t have done that.”
SY sighs : “I’m lonely.”
SY has the wrong idea that communication is impossible and that the other party will not understand because of the pain. She does not even try to communicate what she is doing when she breaks up.
However, it’s not entirely true that the other party will not understand everything. We see that when JW heard KJ’s explanation, he began to understand where EO was coming from, and why she became Yoon Seon Ah. When he went to see her, his questions were not why she took on a false name, but why she couldn’t tell her friends about them.
JW had asked EO :”Explain to me at least why you can’t tell your friends about us, why we broke up like that, and why you hid from me even when you heard from KJ I’d been looking for you. Explain.”
She was silent, thinking. She looked away, eyes turning red.
JW : “This is driving me crazy. So this is what Lee Eun Oh’s like. Seon Ah wasn’t like that.”
EO looks at him wordlessly.
EO, unlike SY, just couldn’t bring herself to reveal what would humiliate her, when her friends found out. She made no excuses but admitted that she knew how JW felt by her betrayal, and that she regretted what she had done.
EO felt regret over hurting JW, over deceiving him and over the fear of humiliation. By contrast, SY felt regret that KG had not tried to hold on to her and that she was alone and lonely. Her thoughts were more self-centred than EO’s. Knowing how JW felt and feeling regret is the first step in EO’s journey back into JW’s life. First, though, she finds that her drunken self had managed to already journey into JW’s home, and she has to extricate herself from that. LOL.
Hi @pkml3, yes I am enjoying this show actually. Nothing deep about it, but it’s got that kdrama lure of teasing us with possible character growth, warm friendships and the promise of the answer to the question… how are they going to get back together after such a fiasco of a breakup.
Show also continues to have a couple of cute scene transitions such as the coke attack by RI transitioning to a scene of KG opening up a coke bottle. The songs already introduced continue to be part of the OST and help bring on the feels since we know when they were first introduced to us.
Camerawork continues to be interesting in how characters are brought near or kept at a distance, and framed.
I continue to like the style of narration that intersperses direct communication to us (breaking the 4th wall) in which characters who are not in the same location seem to argue and discuss situations with each other, with the normal omniscient view where characters seem to not see us viewers while they portray their true feelings. There are even scenes in which both views happen concurrently, so that we are privy to not only what characters are saying, but also to what they are thinking.
It seems that there are 17 episodes instead of 16, which is novel. This is possible because of the half-hour format. So I trust that my complaints about other shows being longer than necessary with filler, will not be applied to this show. A proper wrap up using an extra 30 minutes sounds like a reasonable, good idea.
Thoughts on Episodes 13, 14 and 15
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
Three Synopsis from Wikipedia
Episode 13 Synopsis – Title: “Have You Ever Blacked Out?”
Blacking out and drunk texting leads Eun-O to Jae-won picking her up. She’s anxious and tries sneaking out of the house but Jae-won knows what she’s doing and finds her hiding. They had an awkward breakfast and Jae-won tries to investigate her, being sarcastic, and rude to her. She walks away, but it begins to rain. Jae-won ponders but then decides to help her get home in his car. Focusing on the present, Jae-won reclines his seat back and says he doesn’t drive when it’s raining. She wants to leave, though. He tells her not to be mad because she has no right to and then puts their song on from the trip. Lee Eun-o tries to change the song, but he slaps her hand away. Eun-o looks away, and she narrates: “Jae-won is silly. That’s why I loved him”. Jae-won then asks if she’s hungry and hungover. In his head, he narrates “I just can’t hate her”. In the end, Geon and Rin-i sees Jae-won dropping Eun-o off and asks why they are both together.
Episode 14 Synopsis – Title: ” What Kind of Woman is She?”
They both lied it was “work-related” then Geon and Rin-i then invite Jae-won for ramyeon, which irritates Eun-o. Geon tells Eun-O that the rent is going up which causes her to burst out in annoyance, puzzling Jae-won over her attitude, trying to work out exactly who is Eun-O. Keong-Jun makes some spaghetti for Rin-I to cheer her up after she loses her job at the cosmetic store but Rin-I is in surprisingly high spirits about it all when he suggests she study to become a teacher, offering to pay for her tuition. Rin-I simply tells her she’s happy with her life. Later, Jae-Won learns that Lee Eun-o is not over him via Instagram and drives up to her apartment only to crash his car into Eun-O’s car. They begin to talk with the argument turning heated and intense until the rings fall off her necklace. Confirmed, she hasn’t moved on too, Jae-Won pleads to admit her true feelings when she leans forward and kisses him. Jae-Won kisses back.
Episode 15 Synopsis – Title: “It’s So Hard to Get Honest”
Jae-Won seems to be blushy and giddy after kissing Eun-O but she regrets despite accepting her feelings for him and being the one to kiss him first. Jae-Won phones through to Eun-O for round 2 of their argument later that evening but she simply hangs up on him though (twice) in her sleepy state. The third time’s a charm when she stays on the phone and they discuss the regret Eun-O has. She doesn’t regret meeting him, admitting she loved every minute she was with him but presently, she doesn’t know who she is and needs to figure herself out which means right now there’s no room for loving Jae-won. The next day, Jae-Won arrives and drives Eun-O’s car to the garage. He gives her back her suitcase while she hands over his camera bag. Jae-Won tells her to take care. Meanwhile, Seon-Yeong messages Kang Geon. Kang Geon heads out for drinks with Seon-Yeong where they discuss their past, eventually leading them to go their separate ways. They shake hands, clinging on a little longer before she turns and leaves. Eun-O lights a candle and begins to explain her disappearance, admitting to being Seon-a.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovestruck_in_the_City
A Show of Great Deliberateness
From the opening credits, we find that the most important presence in this series is the camera, seemingly held by us. From the first click of the shutter, we start to view the show recorded through the view finder and we are pulled into the interviews as if we are also participants. With every direct look at the camera, (which in effect means, at us), by the interviewees, we too are being appealed to, to see their point of view, to beware of the mistakes they make, … to understand them. What we’ve taken for granted in every other show becomes super evident in this one, when Show makes it obvious that we are watching through the camera, as if we are present on set.
With 1 or 2 more episodes to go, we can look back over the series, and we can now answer the question that Show posed in the beginning. Are the interviewees speaking the truth to the camera, who in effect would be us.
By episode 15, we know that everyone lies, some more so than others, and for different reasons.
– KG lies that they do not get drunk until they pass out to be in solidarity with the group.
– KJ agrees with KG to keep on the good side of Ri I. He also constantly hides the truth or lies to Rin I, so as to avoid her disapproval.
– SY lies that she’s not alone, that she’s a serial dater and is very cool about dating and dumping men. But she has partly been lying to herself and to others to maintain her image and her pride. She admits later that she is not cool about the break up with KG and that she’s lonely.
– JW lies to protect EO.
– EO lies to protect herself
– KG and RI lie the least
It is amusing to have watched enough of the series, and then to go back to listen again to the truth and lies, while knowing which is which, perhaps even before the characters do.
Deliberate PPL
Unlike other shows that quietly embed their PPL, this show makes a point of telling us how they are doing it and EO actually demonstrates it to us on more than 1 occasion. Her friends make a big deal about it when they see EO doing PPL which draws even more attention to it. EO even deliberately repeats the PPL and friends like Rin I join in the fray by drinking the same PPL Swiss Miss on a coaster called ‘PPL’. It is so in our faces, it’s amusing
JW’s Baggage
The term, emotional baggage, is one I’ve only heard to mean the negative thoughts, feelings, experiences that all persons carry around with them, that weights them down and prevents them from reaching farther or accomplishing more than they do. Entering into a relationship with emotional baggage usually augers ill, unless the parties in the relationship know and accept each other’s pasts, and communicate their future hopes, wishes, and expectations. The best start to relationships, is after one lets go of as much emotional baggage as one can.
JW’s baggage, the thing he finds difficult to let go of, is reflected in the Buam-dong house design that he has been struggling with for weeks. It’s finalisation has long been overdue and the construction cannot take place. He has a concept in which every window will have the view of the mountain, but is unable to actualise it.
KJ says in order for JW to successfully change the design the house, the entire existing design has to be changed, including the water supply and drainage – a metaphor for needing to dig out even the deep rooted baggage, clear all that blocks new creativity, wipe out the old expectations and to restart from scratch with a new perspective.
As long as parts of the old design are retained, JW cannot work the changes he wants around them. He has to start from scratch for the house, and likely in his attitudes and approach to EO.
JW tells KJ : “If we’re going to build a house with every material we want to use, I want to have no regrets, and I want the family to live there for generations on end.”
We can perhaps see in it JW’s commitment to working out a way to have a long and committed relationship. But this can only happen after he let’s go of expecting that EO’s idea of a workable romance differs from his. He has to accept that her concept of breakup, of closure and moving on, will not necessarily match his. When he can embrace EO as herself – and we see that he does so by Episode 15’s end – he will have a chance to design and complete his house.
Eun Oh’s Baggage
EO’s emotional baggage has been obvious (and like the show, deliberate). Show has made no bones about depicting her lugging her bags to Busan, to the motel (where her suitcase rolled away!), to Yangyang beach where they were rolled with difficulty across sand, and later we see that she brings them with EXTRA baggage: the camera bag, and the surfboard! back to Seoul.
She has been carrying the weight of her failures and a ruined self-image with her. Although in Yangyang she had acted as if she was free, she was like JW who delayed the house design. She’d just put her baggage away temporarily without dealing with it. Worse of all, her ‘free-spirited’, light-hearted sojourn in Yangyang burdened her with additional regret that she carried back to Seoul.
Drunken EO brings her suitcase on the bus, passes out and is retrieved by JW. The next morning, after their talk in which both of them spoke of their ‘marriage’ and unburdened some of her frustrations, EO goes, but leaves her suitcase behind. Later, JW is surprised to find the suitcase apparently empty. This might be a metaphor for running on empty, for being desperately at the end of her resources, for even successfully ‘dumping’ or starting to let go of her emotional baggage by continuing the dialogue with JW.
In Episode 15 JW returns the suitcase to her, but he leaves in it a necklace with a lock pendant. Again this could be a metaphor for wanting to return to her not empty-handed, for recognising that she needed to replace her emptiness or at least to replace the rings, to show that he felt she had locked herself up but that he was willing to wait and wield the key, or he was giving himself locked in her safe keeping. We wait for the sign that her self-imposed lock on her emotions ends, ie when she can wear that necklace and be seen by JW.
The burden of the feelings she hid were the rings around her neck. When they fell off the chain and got revealed, another piece of baggage that she had been carrying around with her could be dealt with. It’s significant that she wanted both rings back, the way she wanted the surfboard. She still resisted letting go of them.
It was only after JW took the burden off her that she started to tell him the real reason for her subterfuge. She was ashamed of telling her friends about them because it would reveal how she had hated herself and how she had lied. She thought she was prepared to even suffer a break up with JW so that no one would ever find out, but faced with having to argue and dialogue with him, she could not lie anymore.
Becoming Lee Eun Oh
I didn’t think that this Show would have such a strong existentialist streak, but it does.
In a post above, there was a mention of how EO became Yoon Seon Ah
We see the extent of EO’s demoralisation when she takes a bus and ends up at Yangyang, at a beach, most inappropriately dressed and without a plan.
She has cried herself out and is hungry in more than one way. At Ra Ra’s Ramyeon, she decides, on the spur of the moment, as she selects from the menu, that just as she changes her choice from ordinary Ramyeon to Wonton Mian, she will change from being ‘ordinary’. She eats a tremendous amount as a first step to filling up the emptiness. The thing though is that she is empty of the good thoughts and opinions about herself, but she is still filled with self-loathing and regret. Instead of giving her own name, she creates an alter ego inspired by Yoon Seon Ah, whom she had met at her job interview.
When she returns to Seoul, she puts aside her ebullient self, but continues to be more assertive, expressive and even combative. She is not like the quiet, submissive self she had been before, but she fails to see that it does not mean she is being false, but rather that she has changed and that the changes can be embraced and owned by her.
Rin I’s remarks to her are on point:
RI : “EO, I have something to tell you. The old EO wasn’t stupid.”
KG : “She’s right. You were kind and warmhearted.”
RI : “I liked the old you so much.”
KG : “Me too.”
RI : “And I like the new you, too. Now you cry when you want to, smile a lot, get angry easily, move on quickly and goof around. That’s why I like you. The old you. The new you. Both of them are EO. They are all Lee Eun Oh.”
She had wanted to hide from JW, the truth that she was not a scintillating extrovert, but JW finds out the truth. From her dialogues with him, she finds that he accepts her, that he still likes her, that she reciprocates and that he is willing to let her find out who she is.
Although she had wanted to be as unlike the old Lee Eun Oh as possible, one thing that she had retained was the habit of running away. She finally confronted that weakness when she forced herself to tell RI and KG the truth. Their friendship is so firm, that they accept her without question and assure her that she is loved just as she was and is.
At the end of Episode 15, we see something of the old, kind-hearted Eun Oh that we heard about, when KG speaks of his break up, but RI dismisses it. It is Eun Oh who consoles him and acknowledges that although the breakup had happened 3 years ago and was repeated, it was still hard on KG. I hope this is a first step to EO bringing together all her warm as well as extrovert qualities, and to really loving herself.
Episode 16
The interview starts with the question, “What’s your ideal type of relationship?” School girls, the 2 police officers who’ve received JW’s 6 reports on the camera thief, SY, RI and KJ give their opinions. It’s ideal for people who will like each other to meet, but it’s ‘miraculous’ and might be possible only if the universe helps one out. Even after that, couples fight and there are no guarantees. This is foreshadowing for RI and KJ.
RI and KJ are complacent in their long-term relationship, with KJ opining that “Being considerate and trying your best also counts… Romance isn’t just about excitement.” These are words that apply well to JW and EO who started out in a super-heated whirlwind romance but failed in the communication, consideration and trying one’s best department.
KG is lightheartedly walking on the railway track and responds to SY’s despondency on not being able to date for long by saying he wants her to do everything she wants to and then to date him again. SY looks perplexed at this.
EO’s proposals for the marketing event are accepted by KJ and JW. The latter maintains great professionalism and a polite distance from EO, which throws her off a bit. She is also troubled by the necklace that JW left in her suitcase, wondering what it means. JW is happy that she’s bothered by it, and suggests that she should interpret what the necklace means.
He reveals to us that he had bought it for EO before she broke up with him but couldn’t throw it away. She tries to call him to ask about it, but JW refuses to answer her call. He wants the necklace to speak for itself.
At the marketing event, EO hears JW speak of his belief in being sincere both in construction and in relationships. She recalls how he promised to catch her and watch her as she surfed, so that she could watch the waves without fear, knowing that he was watching her. She asks to speak with him that night.
Meanwhile, RI and KJ meet JW’s father. KJ is excited to introduce her formally to his uncle but the latter inadvertently reveals that KJ told him (untruthfully) that RI was preparing for Grad School. RI breaks up with KJ because he cannot accept her way of life and had denied her when he had lied.
The actual question of the day is “What do you think love is?”
EO : “A journey to finding my true self.”
JW considers it a painful learning journey, but because of the pain, it is more precious and cherished.
SY is still in immature mode thinking that it is something too hard for her and that it’s like war that is easy to start but hard to end. She claims to be in ceasefire but KG tells her to end the ceasefire, to exhaust herself searching for romance and then to come back to him. To KG, romance is to accept the worst in each other and still choose to enter into union.
KJ does not want his relationship to end badly, especially because his grandfather’s letter could act like a bridge between him and RI. However RI is fatalistic, accepting that relationships can just end any time and if there’s a reason to break up, then she should.
As one couple ends their relationship, another reconciles. JW is prepared to accept EO with her messy identity issues and they agree to slowly discover each other and to discover dating together. Their kisses and hugs have no grand fireworks like their Yangyang experience, but it has a stronger chance to succeed, based on honest communication and consideration. They start their journey together walking into the gently falling snow.
In a teaser epilogue, KJ is stunned to be told that EO is Yoon Soon Ah and tries to call KG to confirm it. Failing to reach him, he calls RI but is floored when a male voice answers RI’s phone.
Thoughts Ep 1 to Ep 16
I don’t know if anyone is reading this thread, but if you are, and you’ve watched Episode 16, I hope you have lots of warm fuzzy feels.
This was an almost ending (there is still Episode 17) with the right sort of touch. It was a step in the right direction, without everything looking rosy, but with enough indication about what could happen with each of the 3 couples.
I agree with @Old American Lady that show has already set up a possibility of a continuation into more seasons (a very American TV trait), but at the same time, we do have the last half hour on Tuesday to wrap up a bit more of everyone’s story.
The Speed of the Romance
One thing that was clear about JW and EO’s romance, was that it was a whirlwind romance. It literally started with a bang, as JW grabbed SA/EO’s hand in the beach party game, and the fireworks lit the sky.
It was spontaneous and impulsive, not based on knowing and liking important aspects of each other, but on raging emotions and a grand passion. They’d barely known each other for a couple of weeks before they’d accomplished moving from being acquaintances to lovers and then to becoming a married couple. This speed, and haphazardness is manifested in how JW gave EO the ultimatum to go to him at the camper, and how she decided to run to him at the last minute. It was a mad chase to reach JW, and to run into his arms.
There was so much that they never bothered to find out about each other, and so many things that EO had hidden, therefore in the shock of realising that JW was KJ’s cousin, EO chose one-sidedly and also on the spur of the moment to break up, to terrible effect upon JW.
By episode 14, JW finds out that EO has been lying about having moved on from their relationship. Her social media posts contain treasured memories of what they had done together, and in one of them she even leaves a message to him, asking how he is.
I like how this galvanises him to drive off to speak with her, but in his haste, again a sign of his impulsiveness, he drives into her car’s side mirror. Once again, being in too much of a rush, his meeting with EO starts off badly with self-justification, blame casting, and a tit-for-tat argument and an impulsive kick to the car by EO, that dislodges JW’s wedding ring. The discovery that EO has not only not moved on, but had taken the trouble to keep and retrieve the rings, could have started them off into another whirlwind romance.
In fact there was danger of this at first because EO let her passion overcome her again, as she practically attacked JW with a kiss. However in the reflection of JW’s reciprocating kisses, it’s noteworthy that the camera zooms out, giving us a car’s side mirror image of our OTP and then goes unfocused on JW and EO, as if to give them a little privacy, but it focuses instead on the ‘Pedestrian Walk’ sign. An indication that the romance was about to take off but at a slower, more sedate walking pace this time.
The Vehicular Motif
This romance is somewhat driven *LOL* by vehicles.
• Seon Ah picked him up for Bin and out of the blue insisted he learnt to drive a camper. This threw them together more times than would have happened otherwise.
• It was inside and on top of the camper that they seal their relationship and ‘get married’.
• EO almost meets him again in Seoul when they are each in their cars, but she hid. However later on he almost catches her when she runs into his car.
• EO got JW’s car towed away and as a sign of her remorse or care, she offered to pay the fine for him. She was not able to, but she asked that the car be towed away carefully. (This was a far cry from how she hit and kicked JW’s car later in Ep 14.)
• He picked her up when she was passed out drunk in the bus terminal and flirted with her in his car, the next morning. In spite of herself, EO admitted that she liked him for his silliness.
• He accidentally damaged her car and they fought over their cars. But this lead to a breakdown of EO’s resolve to keep her distance from JW as they kissed between their cars.
JW got EO’s car fixed while EO prepared to return the cameras to him. We see in Ep 15, through the repaired side mirror of her car, that they make an exchange. He returned the car, she gave him the camera bag, and then he also returned her suitcase, without telling her to look inside it.
She did not yet realise that it was no longer filled with regrets, but had within it, a pendant lock necklace, a sign that it was not the end for them. Where there was a lock, there would be a key.
Communication at Last
This is a continuous train of thought but broken up into sections as it’s long.
Honest Regret
The first honest conversation took place after EO’s and JW’s desperate between cars kisses.
Excerpts posted here because they are entertaining, especially since part of this dialogue is addressed to the camera, ie to us. It is less important that EO was regretful than that she was finally honest. Honest to a fault and it’s such a relief.
EO : “I must have been out of my mind.”
JW runs over to where EO is sitting : “What do you mean, ‘out of my mind’?”
EO speaks to the camera : “Why did I do that?”
JW : “What do you mean?”
EO : “I regret it.”
JW is aggrieved : “Hey! What?” He looks at the camera and then back at EO “Did you just say you regret it?”
JW to the camera : “Did she just say she regrets … This is insane.”
JW to EO : “Seriously ? Did you just say you regret it? Do you mean it”
She looks like she’s about to answer but JW shouts : “Wait!” He looks at the camera and back to EO “You know what? Think carefully before you answer. If you say that you regret it now, I’m going to go insane. I’m serious.”
EO thinks for a second and turns to the camera : “I regret it.”
JW rises from his chair : “Damn it. … Hey you kissed me first. You always kissed me first. you even kissed me first in Yangyang.”
EO : “Right. I must have been crazy.”
JW : “What do you mean, ‘crazy’? You’re not crazy. You’re in love with me.”
He takes the rings out : “Look at this. I threw this ring away in Cheonggyecheon. The fact that she has it here means she went into the water on a cold day and picked it up. You know what? (Here he lies, because he did go into the cold water to look for the ring too) I could never do something like that. You love me.”
EO : “I did back then. It broke my heart when you threw it away in Cheonggyecheon, so I picked it up from the water on that cold day.”
JW : “Yes, you did that, but what? What about now?”
EO : “But I regret it now.” JW is frustrated. “I regret fishing it out and kissing you.”
She sits defensively and stubbornly with her arms crossed.
JW addresses the camera “Look at her, everyone. Look at her! And guys, remember that face! She kissed me first, but she says she regrets it. She’s tearing my heart out. Should I just report her for sexual assault?”
EO : “I like you. It’s true that I like you, but you’re not my top priority right now.”
JW : “Fine. Let’s hear it then. What’s so important to you right now?
EO : “I’m sure KJ already told you how stupid and frustrating I used to be.
JW : “That you were engaged to another guy? So what? What about that? I don’t care about it at all. what’s the big deal about it? What does it have to do with you liking me back?”
EO : “It might not matter to you, but it does to me. It was a secret I wanted to take to the grave without anyone finding out. You found out about it, and I feel humiliated.”
JW : “‘Humiliated’? What about me? Look at me. I’m begging you to take me back like a crazy idiot.” He glances at the camera. “Right now, I just look insane.”
EO : “Stop it. People are watching.” [She refers to us.]
JW practically shouts : “I don’t care! They can watch us. Go ahead and watch! I’m crazy! I don’t mind. They can watch. I’m fine with it. They already think I’m crazy. Let them watch!”
JW pauses to think and says to EO : “You know what. You’re really selfish.”
EO : “Fine I’m selfish. I pity, value, and cherish myself the most. I decided to live only for myself. I’d rather be a horrible woman than a stupid slowpoke. You said Lee Eun Oh was frustrating, too. We’re not that couple who fell for each other in Yangyang. We’ve seen each other’s worst moments. Do you think we can be happy together now?”
EO is mistaken: 1) they are the same couple they were in Yangyang and 2) after seeing each other’s worst parts and still accepting each other is precisely when there’s a good chance to be happy.
[JW is frustrated that EO cannot see that she’s mistaken, thinking that they cannot be together until she finds herself. I’d agree that they should not be together if she requires him to complete her identity of self-worth, however as that is not the case, I understand why JW punches his pillow.]
Tenacity and Clarification
It’s good that JW is what KJ calls tenacious, and is one who pesters others. It works to his advantage here when he calls EO up, when she’d rather be asleep.
JW : “Don’t hang up on me. Please don’t hang up on me. Also, don’t go to sleep. If you do it will drive me crazy and torture me to death.”
[EO decides to do something unselfish. Perhaps a hearkening back to the times when she was kind and calm.] She agrees to stay up : “Okay. I won’t.
EO : “Do you know you’re crazy?”
JW : “Yes. it’s all because of you. But you know what. Do you really regret meeting me?”
He’s the most bothered by this. EO thinks for a while.
EO : “I don’t regret meeting you.”
JW : “Me neither. I’ve done all sorts of crazy things after I met you. But I never regretted meeting you.”
EO : “When I was with you, I loved every moment. I tried out things I’d wanted to do but never tried. And the fact that you liked me made me very grateful. That’s what I needed back then. I wanted to become someone else. And I wanted to be loved.”
[These are words that she should have said at the time of breaking up, that would have helped to ease the misunderstanding and JW’s pain.]
JW tries to wrap his head around EO’s thinking that she wanted to be someone else.
JW : “Do you honestly believe that you weren’t yourself in Yangyang?”
EO thinks : “I still don’t know. I don’t know if I’ve changed or if I’m just LEO pretending to be YSA. I’ve tried and reminded myself not to go back to the stupid old me. But there are times when even that effort feels fake.”
JW nods in comprehension and sighs : “That’s it. Your top priority.”
EO : “You’re right. I want to find my true self. I want to know what I’m made of. I still don’t know who I really am. But I don’t want to go back to the old me. I’m sorry that this is the real me. But finding myself is more important to me.”
JW looks sad.
EO : “Taking care of myself is, for now, more important than loving you.”
[JW does the only and best thing he can, he lets EO go to sort herself out. It’s great that he’s actually not clingy or a stalker, once he understands where things stand. He does not return to drink and he gets his work done well. At the same time, we gather that he must have met EO a few times at work, but did not pursue her in any way.]
The Message Without Words
To his credit, JW leaves EO alone to figure things out. He no longer gives ultimatums or attempts to rush her. In fact he plays it so cool that he leaves her a gift in the suitcase without any notice that it’s even there and without a note.
Wondering about the necklace she finds in the suitcase, takes priority even over trying to figure herself out, and EO comes to realise that she might not be able to wait until she’s all figured out before giving in to her heart.
EO examines the necklace and speaks to us : “Why do you think he gave me this necklace? I mean … What does this mean?”
[We see a split screen with JW who responds to EO’s questions. This is a good turnaround because in the past he had been the one tearing his hair out and asking her questions but she had been nonchalant. The shoe is finally on the other foot.]
JW while holding up his PPL cold brew and with something like a smirk : “I’m not sure. What could it mean?” He does the PPL job of demonstrating enjoyment of the cold brew.
EO : “There wasn’t even a letter.”
JW smiles to himself.
EO : “Why was this in my suitcase? Maybe he left it there by accident.”
JW to us : “If that’s the case, she should have given it back to me earlier. Don’t you agree?”
EO : “Is this even for me?”
JW : “Yes, it’s hers. I bought it as soon as I came back to Seoul to give it to Seon Ah at Cheonggyecheon. But I never got to meet her, but I still kept it. I just couldn’t throw it away. I’m usually very nonchalant, but …gosh.”
[It’s interesting that he bought the lock pendant necklace before he knew she’d break up with him. At that time, the lock could have meant something like the locks of Namsan Tower where couples pledged they were locked together in love forever. However after the breakup, the lock could mean 1) his heart was locked with her for safe keeping, or 2) that although she’d locked him out of her life, he was willing to wait for her.]
[I’d think the next best gift would be a key pendant! [His stated reason number 3) is actually many paragraphs below.]]
EO : “It bothers me so much.”
JW a bit sarcastically : “What’s bothering her? Isn’t she too busy finding herself? … To be honest, that thing about her finding herself …gosh …gosh.”
[He does not think that she should be discovering herself apart from him, but together with him. Rather, they should be discovering each other together. But he lets her go her way, thinking her, an idiot.]
EO : “I should give it back when I see him next time.”
JW : “How can I possibly persuade her? I just did everything I could.” It’s time for her to come to the realisation herself and to be the one to come to him.
EO : “There wasn’t even a single note, so I have no clue what it means.” The fact that she is troubled by it, means that she has a good idea that what it means is significant.
JW : “Does it matter what I mean? If I didn’t leave a note, isn’t it up to her to interpret it?” [That’s a bit risky. She could go her own way and misinterpret it.]
EO asks us : “Should I call him?”
JW : “No. I won’t pick up her calls. Never.”
She calls him and he shows us that ‘Pretty Idiot’ is calling.
JW to us : “Look at this. Gosh. No. I’m not answering.” He swipes the call off.
EO is surprised her call did not go through.
EO asks us : “What should I do?”
JW : “Isn’t it obvious? She should follow her heart. Why is she even asking?”
EO continues to look at her necklace.
In the interim she sets up the marketing event to showcase the new cultural centre and she brought the necklace to ask JW about it after the event.
She listens to the casual chat segment of the day’s programme where JW speaks : “… I believe in the phrase, ‘Sincerity wins.’ This could be applied to both construction and building relationships with people. Therefore I don’t want to disappoint those who have put their trust in me.”
[EO has a flashback memory of how dependable JW had been. When he’d taught her to surf, he had assured her: “I’ll hold you whenever you fall. So don’t worry, and focus on the waves. I’ll focus on you.”
It’s possible she realises that he had done precisely that and is doing it again now. He was letting her focus on the waves in her life, while he was quietly focusing on her. This could have coloured what she decided to say to JW that night.]
A Vulnerable Restart
At last on the rooftop, she asks JW the question that should have been asked when she first went to see him in Cheonggyecheon (and chickened out).
EO : “I still don’t know what kind of person I am. I’m not the Yoon Seon Ah you know. Once you find out who I really am, you may regret it. I’m still a coward. I’m clumsy. I’m a mess.”
JW smiles at her : “Yes, you’re right. You still don’t know who you are. And you’re timid.” This is noteworthy. She’s started as one in the more vulnerable position. He shows he is open and listening. He acknowledges that he heard her and knows where she’s coming from.
EO : “I am. I’m not going to pretend I’m tough anymore. I’m scared and nervous right now. But I’ll try to tell you how I truly feel.”
[This is the long overdue reply to his question when they were between the cars. Her reply then was to kiss him desperately. Now she replies calmly in words.]
He looks at her with great attention and nervousness, and waits.
EO : “I’m still a mess. I’m not the Yoon Seon Ah you knew. And I’m still not the best version of Lee Eun Oh. There are countless things that I still need to fix. Are you still okay with that?”
[We cut back to the time when JW spoke to us about how he did not leave a note with the necklace and how he would not answer EO’s calls. This is meaning 3) of the message without words.]
JW in flashback tells us : “To be honest, I thought about sending her a letter with the necklace. But I thought it’d be better for her to interpret the gift herself. What I’m trying to say is ‘Eun O, there’s something I didn’t tell you. The old EO who was kind and calm, the Seon Ah whom I fell in love with, and the current EO who showed up in front of me, they’re all you. They are all Lee Eun Oh. The woman I loved is still inside you.”
JW’s flashback : “As you slowly discover yourself, I’ll slowly learn about the current you as well. I’ll try my best to love you properly. That’s what it meant. I hope she figures that out.”
[It appears obvious to us who are observers: none of us can say we know our friends all that well even after being close friends for some time. There are many aspects to each individual and we all need to learn about each other over time.]
In the present EO waits for JW’s response. JW takes a moment while EO watches him anxiously.
JW : “As for those things you want to fix, instead of removing them, how about we get to know them together?”
He smiles at her : “First … let’s date. Let’s find out what that means first. Okay?”
She smiles back and nods. He puts the necklace around her neck as a sign of their new understanding and kisses her to seal it. He’s so nervous that he has to rest his head a moment on her shoulder.
JW : “Why am I nervous? This isn’t even our first kiss.”
EO : “Me too. My heart’s about to burst as if it was our first kiss.”
[Their kisses are new: not crazy, or reckless but calm and reassuring. Their restart is no longer filled with noise and fireworks, but with good humoured chat and a walk hand-in-hand into a future together.]
Why JW as a Boyfriend is a Keeper
– His love is genuine. The most important point to me is that he’s seen the worst of EO and he’s also shown her the worst of himself, and he still goes in with open eyes, willing to commit himself to a relationship. Many men would have walked off forever from a relationship that ended the way this one did, especially since he was so badly humiliated in front of others. He knows it’s going to be hard work, but he loves EO enough to commit to it.
– Which ties in with : He gets the rug pulled from under him multiple times, is embarrassed and feels a complete fool, but he loves the girl enough to forgive her.
– He is truthful. It was embarrassing but he told the truth even when it painted him as a fool. The times he lied, it was to protect the other person.
– His attentiveness, thoughtfulness and generosity are swoonworthy. I liked how he took the trouble to make 2 rather than just 1 surfboard over many nights, when SA/EO was sleeping or working, just so that he could complete them quickly and surprise her. And how he bought the pendant necklace for her in advance so that he could gift them to her.
– His childlike trust. For sure he knew no reason to not trust her, but she was after all a perfect stranger just 2 months prior, but because he was smitten and pretty much like a kid, and perhaps not too bad a judge of character, he trusted her to return the cameras to him. Even when she ran away at the sight of him, he didn’t suspect that she was trying to avoid him. It never occurred to him to ask her, ‘What are you running from?’
– He put her welfare first. She was running, bumped into someone and fell, and his main concern was to break her fall, catch her and find out if she was OK. When she was interrogated by the police, he defended her.
– He’s got self-control. He was dying for a drink but even when offered one with his psychiatrist friend and at the rooftop BBQ, he stayed away from alcohol.
– He lets the lady initiate and he joins in with her schemes without suffering a loss of male ego.
– He is fair. Although rightfully incensed at being deceived and for looking like a fool. However instead of taking revenge, bullying or boycotting her in the bidding process, (or conversely adding bias to get her hired) he allows her to participate in a fair process to win the bid for a job.
– He respects the lady. Understanding that she needs time and space, he doesn’t continually pester her or stalk her. He treats her professionally at work.
– He has the material stuff that many girls may put first: a good profession, a home, a car, a reasonably good personality and a great hobby like surfing. He’s not arrogant although he has it all. We see him being nice to the construction workers.
Park Jae Won seems to have joined the ranks of kdrama boyfriends who spoil us for real life guys. LOL
@GB and everyone else, thank you for your thoughtful analyses of this drama. I binge=watched it since Friday and really enjoyed it. I think that the relationships it depicts are possibly more realistic than many we see on K-dramas, like them or not.
I thought the acting was very good from each of the 6 main leads. Stylistically I like the camera work and the story-telling concept in part for being different. The PPL coasters were very self-aware.
I applaud the emphasis the show placed on sustainability. It started with KJ and RI as teenagers and continued with JW’s lament that houses and building in SK are destroyed and rebuilt after only 20-30 years. He wants the house he designs to be good for generations. For RI, ‘waste not, want not’ has become a life-long effort and central to her moral character.
I shallowly admit that I enjoyed KJ and EO’s hugs very much.
Hi @Fern, I’m glad to know you enjoyed this show.
You’ve got a good point about sustainability. There were several scenes of good pre-loved clothes and articles not thrown out, but recycled for jumble sale, and of course Rin I seems to do a bit of dumpster diving to salvage things to sell or use.
I liked the plethora of kisses. They looked natural and appropriate. The hugs were always good!
I’m waiting for tomorrow’s last episode to see if we’re going to be left hanging *boo* or whether we’ll get a bit more of a wrap up with just enough openness to show us how life continues.
Thanks, @GB. Is the last episode airing on Tuesday? It seemed as though it could have ended at 16.
Hi @Fern, I thought it was supposed to be 12 episodes, then heard it was 16, then when I checked a couple of places, they say 17 episodes, ending on February 16, 2021. So I do expect a final episode tomorrow … or rather, I’ll come here and complain if it does not air!!! LOL.
But you’re right. I too felt that for our OTP, it ended perfectly for now in Ep 16. However KJ gave hints of grandpa’s letter that he’ll show us ‘next time’ and of course we have the cliff hanger where RI’s phone was answered by a man. I want to see if Show is trolling us.
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Yes, I suppose that those could have been cliff-hangers except I didn’t think about RI and KJ except to wonder if she was rebounding with someone less embarrassed by her employment status and more attuned to her philosophy — and well done to her if she had. 😊 I know that KJ loves her, but it also seems that he wants to change her.
So, I’ve just seen 3 dramas/films where the man is the one left standing alone, either rejected, friend-zoned or removed by external forces (lover’s family). In Lovestruck the ML is rejected/abandoned without explanation. In Jab We Met, the ML first sees his ex-girlfriend marry another man, then accepts being friend-zoned by someone else. He accepts this and actively helps to make his current beloved’s transition to another man. In Kabir Singh, the FL gets a rapid arranged marriage during the time the ML is unconscious for 2 days.
In Kabir Singh, the ML’s downfall is rapid and very brutal. There’s no charm or grace in his toxic behaviour or in his depression or his alcohol and drug binges.
In Jab We Met, the hero is in shock and is really inches away from suicide and is drawn away from it by circumstances rather than by will.
In Lovestruck, the interview acts like a therapist in the sense that the ML has a chance to self-reflect even if initially he isn’t completely honest. The ML’s alcohol consumption is both played for melodramatic effect but also comic effect at times. Other characters’ drinking is shown side by side for effect. He goes for counselling and his therapist turns out to be a chronic drinker as is SY, so the severity or effect of his alcohol consumption is muted. Even his good friends are all shown doing strange things when very drunk.
I liked the inspirational or transformative effect that the ML or FL in these films and dramas had upon each other as well.
Ref: ep. 17. I feel set up.
I didn’t expect Choi Min-ho to have such a large part. He is good. I guess the definition of Cameo has expanded. Did they add this last episode just to give his couple exposure? What about the grandfather’s letter? I didn’t learn much more about the original characters. Don’t get me wrong: I don’t dislike the last couple at all – but unless they are planning a sequel…
Hi @Fern, I agree that Episode 17 was weird. It didn’t exactly continue much from the 1st-16th episodes but seemed to be a set up for the Police Officer Oh and Hae Na arc.
As for the 6 main protagonists, everything came to a standstill in Ep 17 and all we got were their thoughts and goodbyes, but no more great camaraderie of the whole group, except for the strange photo-taking at the end. I guess it’s a way for Netflix to continue with another season if it chooses.
As you said before, show could have ended perfectly well with Ep 16. I felt it was a gentle trolling of us viewers, who have no clue if the separated couples will get together or not but who may now be interested to know what happens for Police Officer Oh (who never dated, and one presumes, who never kissed a girl before!!)
I couldn’t even find the name (yet) of the actress playing Hae Na. I’m sure it will show up on Wikipedia or somewhere. I really felt for her character, with that creepy older actor offering to give her experience. And she can hardly refuse, given that it’s a work setting. 😣 That actor played a good guy in Dr John; it’s nice to see him again.
I feel like the 6 have split up now, given the invitation by Geon to play cards. No one showed up, that we are aware of.
@Fern, the actress who plays Hae Na, is Hong Su Zo, and she is pretty new to dramaland, Lovestruck seems to be her first drama! https://asianwiki.com/Hong_Su-Zu She did pretty well in a first, minor role.
Yes, show only closed the OTP’s story for now, and left the situation for everyone else open ended, while adding a new couple arc.
I felt for KG. He’s always the one who’s been put aside or who is not fully respected by the others. It was sad that on their Halli Galli night, no one responded to him at all. The unity of the friends has to undergo a new stress test.
A word from our ML through Ji Chang Wook’s Kitchen
https://jichangwookkitchen.com/2021/02/18/article-lovestruck-in-the-citys-ji-chang-wook-a-meaningful-work-thank-you/
It was a enjoyable show and quite re-watchable, thanks to the efforts of the actors and the entire production team. As JCW himself says, “It was not a long period of work, but I enjoyed all the time”… which is more than can be said for quite a number of shows!
I’d be happy with a Season 2, if ever there was one.
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Hey there! Sorry If I wasn’t able to post on my thoughts about the ending of love struck in the city
But here are the points I want to cover
1. RIN-I and Kyung Joon …I think that “cool off” break up is really necessary for Rin-I to grow, I get the pains of Rin-I but then, kyung Joon has a point and, it is not because he doesn’t like Rin-I but it is because he wanted the best foe Rin-I and he don’t want others to look down on her
2. Jae Won x Eun Wo… huhuhu ep11 brought tears to me 😢😢… and I really felt the fear of eun wo while telling her true feelings to Jae Won and, TBH at first it is okay for me if they will not end up but, yeah at least Jae Won knew the side of of Eun Wo and he accepted her
3. Kang Geon was Eun Wo’s first love, right? and, yeah I get why I am feeling sort of a romantic tension between the two… but, I hope kang geon and Sun Yeong will end up
4. Oh dong sik and hae na!!! I ❤it
5. MY SEASON 2 wishlist!
🙏 Rin-I wil grow and be successful
🙏 kang geon will and sun yeong will end up
🙏hae na and oh dong sik will be in season 2 of Love Struck
@Hyacinth
Wasn’t it great to have a show that we want to have a Season 2 for?
At first I thought this would be a series where we’d see the development of all 3 couples, and we’d get to compare them. However each couple stands on their own, and I’m glad that the 16-17 short episodes have concentrated mainly on the mystery of Eun Oh’s alter ego and Jae Won’s and Eun Oh’s growth amidst pain, confusion, and regret. It gives so much hope for people who are struggling in relationships that we can still work it out with lots of communication and lots of forgiveness.
I agree that RI and KJ need a break from each other. However, they need to do what they failed to do before, and tackle the parts which each finds difficult to accept. So far, RI does not seem to have compromised or given as much as KJ has, she has never communicated that she does not intend to marry, or how her mum treated her, and insists on being accepted living as she does. KJ might need to re-examine how he feels about being judged by others, however I agree that he had RI’s interests at heart, and was not rejecting her out of turn. His questions were pertinent… for instance, how long was she going to be able to work multiple part-time jobs, and I add to that, how would she be able to save up for a rainy day and for old age. And what happens if serious illness took her or her family and extra funds are needed. She is indeed idealistic and not quite mature.
Strangely, show has made the women to be less likable than the men. I noticed it from the beginning. They were more selfish, childish, and demanding, and all 3 were the ones who took the initiative to get the guys. Perhaps the writer does not like women much.
With Sun Yeong, it’s similar. She’s still immature in how she gets herself a guy and how she treats him in order to get a response out of him that she wants. KG is rather too generous with her, letting her go to do whatever she wants and then to come back to him. He’s relegated himself to being a spare tyre. Not exactly the right attitude for entering into a committed relationship.
Yes, it will be great to have a Season 2 with our cute police officer Dong Sik and his childhood friend who has a crush on him, Hae Na. Their romantic journey may be more interesting.
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@GB, You make an interesting point about the writer seeming to be less sympathetic to the women characters. Also, it seems that the women characters are more emotionally complicated. There were lots of negative comments about Eun Oh early in the drama. It seemed like most commenters didn’t give her character the right to be human and most,to me anyway,were focused on her “failure” to be truthful, when she really was escaping from her trauma, that we later saw was a doozy. There is part of me that says some of us ahjummas were socialized to be more sympathetic to men’s viewpoints and in some ways, to be subservient to men’s needs. I think this drama points out how different it is for women in this world. Look at work and Eyn Oh’s job interview. She took the safe approach-something women are socialized to do. She failed because the social cues changed. Her escape helped her to grow. But even in her business, you could see that her role was still a supporting one with her clients as leaders. My takeaway-this drama presents a sly commentary on women’s positions in life. The men have it easier. Their feelings are more “important” while the women mostly have to jump thtoihjnjoopd to self-actualize. Food for an thought.
@GB well, when it comes to women, I don’t think they make the women likeable it’s just that compared to other series where we get a much more soft women … here in Love Struck women’s character are sort of manly and they were kind of aggressive … like what you said they initiated
But then the thing is, I really hope season 2 will be a settlement for all the issue in season 1
I just really really liked the romance between the two leads. I know it started out dreamlike, spontaneous, and passionate, but the way it developed meant everything. You could tell they genuinely loved each other, and Jaewon did everything he could to rebuild that relationship. I know it might be the hopeless romantic in me, but it feels rare with how his character was such a good significant other (patient, understanding, earnest). I feel like this drama had a really good balance with this and the focus on Eun-O’s self-discovery and self-love. Media usually makes you think you’ll fall deep and hard and then eventually sacrifice everything for that one person. That’s just super unrealistic. The key lesson here is how important it is to prioritize ourselves, but the caveat is that while you should or could learn and grow on your own, it’s also definitely possible with another. It’s okay to depend on others, and others will definitely help you with that growth, whether it be friends or a significant other. I guess I just really liked how they started and then eventually opened up with honesty to get to where they are now: from the passionate and fun-loving to the meaningful and healthy relationship, in which they will grow together. It makes me hopeful.
@valentine, well said. Many therapists have said that if one doesn’t love oneself, the person would not be able to love another. That’s EunOh’s story. She could not have truly loved our gero until she could live herself. Her character took a lot of flack for being dishonest with our hero but her character could only give our hero his due once she could truly care about herself.And therein we found what I thought was an honest and enjoyable relationship. I loved this about this drama. And as a visitor to Superficial Island, just let me say Ji Chang Wook.