K-Drama Rewind, Lovestruck in the City: Kim Ji-won, Ji Chang-wook's bittersweet road to closure and second chances

She has a list of differently-coloured characters to her name: The bitter, angry and rather vicious Rachel in The Heirs. The perky, loving Ae-ra in Fight For My Way. Or, the rather whimsical, wearied Myeong in My Liberation Notes. There’s something new and unexpected that Kim Ji-won brings to her audiences table every time, and one of her most nuanced characters was perhaps the role of Eun-ho in Lovestruck in The City, where she played a woman desperate to escape her world, reality and perhaps even herself—a woman who detests her life and personality so much, she becomes someone else for a summer. 

In essence, that is what Lovestruck in the City is all about—more than an intense love story of yearning, the lack of closure, inability to heal and accept that something has truly come to an end. Eun-ho, broken and battered by her regular life, looked over by everybody and abandoned by the one she loves, decides to leave for a seaside town and throw caution to the winds.

It’s a harried fresh start but she is determined to make it—no one need know about her past self. And that’s when she meets Ji Chang-wook’s Park Jae-won, who is spending the summer in a little trailer to work on his own architectural designs. Unaware of Eun-ho’s real personality, he falls for the person she says that she is: Seon-na, a feisty, adventurous girl, who wants to live life freely and perhaps a bit recklessly too.

There’s a blazing fire in Seon-na that mesmerises Jae-won and ironically a power that Eun-ho secretly envies. The two later strike an intense relationship, filled with ‘madness’ and love, even having an impromptu exchange of wedding vows too. The writing is top-tier in these notes, as it actually shows how people just immerse themselves so deeply in the ‘moment’—and even portrays in broad strokes what these defining moments could be. The breathless excitement and exultation is so visceral and primal, that you start feeling the immediate disconnect after Seon-na returns to her old life as Eun-ho without even an explanation.

Jae-won spends the rest of the year, broken, and seeking the girl and the same frenzied energy she had brought to his life. He is reduced to depression, and ooking at their wedding rings, while an even more broken Eun-ho is confronted by her guilt, gradually fracturing self-worth and an alter-ego. She convinces herself it has all been a lie: She is not Seon-na, and she can never be so. Except…she is, both the personalities are a part of her—and it’s a journey to accept it. Slowly, painfully, but she does.

Lovestruck in the City isn’t everyone’s cup of tea—the documentary-like format can fizzle out at points, and it does move rather slowly, at leisurely pace. Yet, it’s an unusual show, even though it delves into the most common issues that we see on television. Perhaps its the style of writing, the quiet music that elevates the brilliant acting from both the leads—Ji-won with her expression of unshed tears that she has mastered over the years, or Chang-wook’s desperation getting the better of him, as he keeps looking for any chance to find the girl who had brought him a lifetime of memories in just one summer. The exhaustion breaks him down; he is bitter, almost filled with fury and then he sees her and finally, starts to understand her. There’s heartache, and there’s the bittersweetness of hope and forgiveness as they later begin their relationship again. 

Second chances do exist—flying above our heads, sometimes, they fly a little too high—but if you can, grab it.