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Lovestruck in the City korean drama review
Completed
Lovestruck in the City
3 people found this review helpful
by Sylar_Rose
Oct 22, 2021
17 of 17 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 4.0
Story 4.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 2.0
Rewatch Value 8.0
This review may contain spoilers

This show is great and horrible at the same time. Must watch but must also understand why it is bad.

It's gonna be a long one so please - read everything to understand my point of view.

First of all, this is the second drama where my favourite actor Ji Chang Wook plays a very nice dude - a man who is honest, friendly, fair towards everyone (Suspicious Partner being the first such a show) but as a "reward", he's betrayed by a woman he loves and by his closest friends. You read it right - it looks like a fluffy, pure, supporting, slice of life friendship but LITERALLY all of them are assholes and all have betrayed him a couple of times. First time - they betrayed him by being 100% passive, not believing him, pretending that they were doing something when they did nothing while they saw his suffering for a whole year - this is the first time - such people are not real friends. They should have listened to him, talked to him, helped him getting over his los or help him figuring out what really happened. The second time when they betrayed him is not as obvious but it is even worse - basically - after the big "reveal" from our FL culprit (somewhere around 14-15 episode), they should kick her ass and punish her for her behavior - not forgive her, not stupidly comfort her nor support her like we see here. Especially, since throughout the whole show, they seemed to criticize the "camera thief" when they did not know her identity yet. After getting to know - boom - magically she's ok, they support her because she "had her reasons"... It is a total bullshit. By doing what they did - being passive towards the only good guy here who does not betray anyone (all the rest had their stupid moments and they screwed up with their own relationships while the ML was totally pure throug the whole show), then comforting and accepting the stupid but more important - CRUEL! - behavior of the FL culprit - they betray both the ML and they show that they do not have any dignity nor any self-awareness about themselves. A truth is that a friend sometimes needs to punish another, scold another, not forgive another to teach a proper lesson. That is what true friends are also for. Friendship is worth anything if you can lose it due to your stupidity. If everything may be always forgiven, if friends will not scold you for being an asshole - those are not friends and this is not friendship. FL used her friends and used their mutual friend whose hart she had broken. She should have been punished by the real friends - real friends of her - not even him. The real friends should not forgive her, should take the ML's side and punish her heavily for what she's done. Here it's even worse because the friends are actually mutual - connected through another relationship. I've been in a similar situation where one of partners in my friends' couple behaved like shit and I fucking scolded him like hell, broke contact with him even though I did not personally know the girl he was with - it was my girl's friend - I still could understand who was wrong here and I did not want to support such an asshole even if he was my friend back then. But let's concentrate on the main heroes of the drama story.

The ML loved the FL but not only that. He was for her in her worst hour, he helped her, he saved her from depression and from breaking apart. She left him WITHOUT ANY REASON - just a stupid, ungrateful - you know who. She had a couple of chances to make things right, to repent for that and to solve things - but no. She was a coward - that's true. That may be something hard to overcome. Ok, I get that. But this man literally saved her in all the possible senses, she behaved as wrong as possible and she was mentally stable enough to open up a company, to live her life for such a long time, to use her friends after understanding their relationship with the man she betrayed. She changed to a better, stronger person because of the ML and there was literally no reason for her to not try and make things right. The worst part is however, that she was totally cruel. Not only wrong but cruel towards the ML. It was cruel, very cruel. He gave her everything, she gave him suffering in the worst way possible, then escaped any responsibility and still happily used their mutual friends to be her own support. How do you call that? Is there even a proper word?

Then our masochistic ML. There's literally not reason for him to forgive her. There's no reason why he suddenly starts working to rebuild it (again - he does it on his own, it's all his work in the end!). She did nothing. She did nothing to rebuild it. She was just forgiven and rewarded with a love she did not deserve but THAT IS THE WORST STUFF IN THIS WHOLE SHOW - SHE DID NOTHING TO REGAIN IT! IT WAS ALL DONE BY A ML WHO HAD NO REASONS TO DO IT!

Such a decision just kills a great potential of the scenario. The premise seems great. The general idea, the relationships, the characters themselves - totally ideal for a great drama. It might have had a lot of things - real friendship, happy ending, real love, a lesson of how to screw up things and then repent for them, work hard to finally make them right. It didn't happen. Nothing of this great potential has been actually brought into life. It was destroyed - by a stupid plot, stupid characters' decisions, no guts, no positive message.

In the end, it wraps up the negative behaviors in a package of a beautiful, true friendship and forgiveness. This is bullshit.

At the same time, the premise is so great and the technical part of this show is great. The idea stays too good to waste by not watching it but you should have all the terrible things listed by me in mind.
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