Lee Eun-O
Episode 10 of Lovestruck in the City begins with Eun-O returning to pick up her surfboard. This is apparently a recurring incident too, given she’s returned numerous times to try and get it back.
Only, the worker there is having none of it, especially given he’s going surfing with his girlfriend that weekend. Eventually though she manages to get it back after a heartfelt speech about her past. Well, she literally takes this surfboard and stuffs it in a storage cupboard, covering it with a sheet.
Meanwhile, Jae-Won reflects on what happened and curses his luck that this girl, this completely different person, didn’t embrace him like Seon-A did in the past. Kyeung-Jin shows up though and learns the truth about Seon-A being a different person but doesn’t quite clock that it’s Eun-O.
When he leaves, Jae-Won decides to lie to himself and remember that Summer differently; he and Eun-O were together and broke up on the beach after being in love.
Jae-Won also leaves a video message for Eun-O apologizing for throwing the cameras and shouting. Tellingly, Eun-O is not sorry. She’s instead decided to dance and annoy Kang-Geon while he’s trying to write. She even antagonizes him into cooking for her.
With Eun-O out of work, she begins talking to herself and calling herself an idiot. At the same time, Jae-Won’s work project in the mountains takes a turn for the worst when Eun-O’s ex boyfriend shows up. Completely unprofessionally, Rin-I arrives too and tells his girlfriend that her boyfriend was having an affair. This eventually ends with Rin-I dumping coke over everything and everyone while Kyeung-Jin lands a punch.
Back in the office, Jae-Won realizes that Rin-I and Kyeung-Jun both know who Eun-O is. Cursing his luck, he believes that his friends have been lying to him. As he rings through to the number, Jae-Won manages to get hold of Eun-O but hears that she’s with a guy and thinks the worst.
The Episode Review
The female characters in this show have so far been portrayed really poorly. First up there’s Eun-O who’s lied and deceived Jae-Won all this time. Even worse, she sold her surfboard only to have second thoughts. After bringing it back, she stuffed it in the cupboard and threw a white sheet over it, almost signifying something she wants to keep for herself but not bring herself to remember. At least, that’s the interpretation here.
And let’s talk about those rings too. If they really meant that much to Eun-O, she would have either stopped Jae-Won from throwing them in the stream or at least done something to make him understand her issues. Instead, she remains silent and then takes the ring for herself later that evening.
In fact, in her “grief” she takes out her frustrations on Kang Geon, dancing with loud music and eating all the pizza while selfishly ignoring Kang Geon’s feelings. This adds up to a character who’s incredibly difficult to warm to – and justifying her actions on the basis she was cheated on 3 months before. This is why she was at the surfing shack all that time.
Unfortunately these bad vibes extend to Rin-I too, who’s completely psychotic in the face of Eun-O’s ex and mentions his new girlfriend. The way she sprayed coke everywhere while Kyeung-Jin punched the client is completely inappropriate – especially at work – and I wouldn’t be surprised if they sued the company after that.
With every passing week, Lovestruck In The City is becoming an unlikable drama but hopefully the rest of the episodes can pull things back to those promising highs early on. This one definitely has potential but right now it’s a far cry from the lofty heights it could be.
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Hey, besides all the debate back and forth…those surfboards are really nice. Does anyone know if they are handmade by the production crew or a bought from a brand from somewhere?
Hey Champagne,
It’s all good, honestly! Don’t feel guilty, this sort of feedback is always one of the perks of the job – being challenged on ideas and themes is always healthy for critical discourse so thank you for taking the time to comment!
The feedback is definitely helpful and you’re right, the initial way the review part was written did sound pretty harsh so I went back in and softened a few bits out. If it’s any consolation, I actually think episode 11 is much better!
I’ll have more to say in that one but hopefully these two can start to form a healthy relationship based on truths not lies. Both characters are in the wrong to be honest but Eun-O hasn’t been portrayed particularly favourable over the weeks either.
Thanks again!
-Greg W
Dear Greg,
Thanks for replying and rewriting part of your reviews.
Now I feel totally guilty for being such a bitch in my last comment.
Please accept my sincere apologies.
1) Agree with you all the issues will be solved by her telling the truth… Well, but her name was also a lie to begin with and everything just snowballed. Also take women’s insecurity into consideration, which is making us do silly and illogical things sometimes…
2) Agreed she should have just kept the surfboard in the first place. She’s probably still confused with her own feelings. Even Jaewon wanted to throw it away but luckily the rain stopped him.
3) Actually she did try to stop JY from throwing away the ring but it was too late. Fans like me watch a few times so I guess we will pick up more details.
I may sound like a Kim Ji-won fan here but actually I’m a JCW fan.
As a woman myself, I can probably relate better why Eun-o does certain things that make audience so frustrated.
I’m not supporting her actions, but I know she has her own battle to fight and have been making lousy decisions.
This review is very biased in every angle. I think it was intentionally written just to give a negative feedback.
Im wondering also, have you really watched it?
Other commenters had pointed out some looped in your review hope you will be fair enough to rewrite this review.
Hi there,
Thank you so much for commenting, really appreciate your feedback! All comments are approved on the site however sometimes they can show up in the spam filter unless we go through and manually adjust that.
Your points are definitely valid and I guess this is one of those dramas that can be interpreted in different ways. Eun-O and Jae-Won’s whole relationship was built on lies and a lot of this could have been resolved by Eun-O just admitting the truth. Jae-Won couldn’t just move on because Eun-O had his expensive cameras and promised to give them back but she didn’t. Perhaps if he had his cameras back he may have been able to move on. I get the breaking up reasoning but at least give the man back his cameras.
The surfboard situation feeds back into this sense of needing to keep everything for herself and I do understand it’s a memento for herself but she shouldn’t have given it away in the first place. If it really meant that much to her she wouldn’t have sold it and given it to someone else. Now that someone else is using that same surfboard, she needed to have it back. If it really meant that much to her, she wouldn’t have put a white cover over the top of it to hide the memories inside her cupboard. To be fair, I probably could have elaborated on that a little more!
The ring situation with Eun-O is another problem that’s open to interpretation. While it shows that she cares to an extent, if she really cared for Jae-Won she would have shown him the ring while he was talking to her on the bridge. Instead, she was just silent and then decided to get the ring back. Jae-Won obviously had second thoughts and tried to get the ring back later that evening but Eun-O is the one with it. We’ll have to wait and see if she actually tells Jae-Won that she’s kept the rings for herself.
Thank you for commenting though and hopefully my explanations make things a little clearer! Apologies for the confusion and I really appreciate you taking the time to comment. It’s always good to hear differing views and thank you so much for reading the recaps since episode 1, it really means a lot!
-Greg W
So I cannot leave review / comment because I corrected your mistakes?
Sure, publish comments that only helps you then.
But please be responsible with your review, understand what’s happening before writing!
I’ve been following your reviews since Ep 1 but I am starting to wonder if you actually watch the drama…
1) “First up there’s Eun-O who’s lied and deceived Jae-Won (JY) all this time.”
– Do you still don’t get why she had to lied to Jaewon after this episode when the truth is out?
She met JY in Yang Yang when she was broken and not expecting another relationship but nevertheless had a summer fling with JY. She probably would have continued to see JY back in Seoul until she realised he’s Kyung Joon’s cousin, which makes things complicated now. She didn’t want JY to know about her past and worse, JY may think he was her rebound man. She probably thought by breaking up over the phone and disappear, JY will forget about her after a while, just like most men.
2) “Even worse, she’s manipulated her way into getting the surfboard back and instead of savoring it, she stuffs it in a storage cupboard on the roof so no one else can get it.”
– JW made this surfboard for her, who else should “get it” or be using it, if she decides she still wants to treasure this surfboard specially made for her? It doesn’t matter where she keep it, rooftop or basement…. I don’t understand what’s your point here?
3) So Eun-O has stolen the other ring and just kept it for herself without even trying to give it back.
– OMG JW was angry and threw the ring away, Eun-O did not steal it! She went back to the river to look for the ring, apparently still has feelings for JW, which is why she is still wearing her ring as a necklace all this time. Why would she give it back when JY has decided to throw it away?!
4) 5) 6) but I decided not to write a thesis here…
At this point, I really wonder if you are watching the drama properly to give a decent and credible review…
I can ignore Milania’s comments since it’s her opinion but I can’t keep quiet about your review which IMDB links me to, when you clearly did not understand what’s going on… Sorry
Thanks for posting the comment. Waiting for your take on episode 11 which was as predictable as expected. I remember that the first episode had some nice cinematography which is what got my attention but well, I fail to see how a brief instagram relationship can generate so much angst. Being cheated on apparently justifies treating another person like a piece of chewing gum stuck to your shoe. Meanwhile, the male lead has become a piece of chewing gum stuck to the shoes of the audience. Kim Ji Won is a switch that comes with two settings: expressionless face and crazy manic. The best thing I can say about this series is that I am glad it’s only 12 episodes and that I now know where to go surfing in South Korea.
Also I hate logical holes such as the fact that Jae Won flies from Seoul to Yang Yang when it’s barely a 2.5 hour drive. Why wouldn’t he just drive there with his surfboard? And how did his painted surfboard get back to Seoul anyway?
Hey Milania, thanks for the correction. I realized afterwards I’d written down the wrong character name in the recap and I’ve gone back in and corrected it now so it makes a lot more sense.
Thank you for the heads up with that! You’re right though, it’s very difficult to warm to these characters!
-Greg W
No, you got it wrong. The scene where Rin-I bumps into her ex and pretends to be his girlfriend was in the restaurant.
Following that, the whole stupid coke throwing scene in the office was because that’s EUN-O’s ex who showed up. That guy cheated on Eun-O (and eventually had the baby with the woman that he married and wants to build the house with). That’s why Eun-O disappeared for three months to that surfing place without telling her friends: to recover from having been cheated on. Being cheated on is apparently the reason for all Eun-O’s manic and narcissistic behaviour towards Jae Won.
Jae Won’s friends have not been lying to him. When’s Jae Won’s cousin asks him: what is the girl’s real name, Jae Won says he doesn’t remember. Though he clearly does remember when he sees it on the marketing business card. If he had just told his cousin the real name, they would have figured it out. The whole series is set up such that initially only Eun-O realized where to find JCW. Then JCW gets the business card in the office so he finally has a contact number and after the coke scene he understands that the woman the client cheated on in the past is Eun-Oh. But the friends still don’t know about Eun-O’s second persona.
Of course Rin-I also comes as completely psycho. Who slaps a man because he cheated on your friend? Especially when you have no business being in the same room when a client meeting is going on, in an office you don’t even work at.
Frankly the only one who still seems somewhat sane at this point is the writer guy. Jae Won’s cousin (Kim Min Suk is a great actor too) seemed normal enough until he started beating up the client.
I started watching this series because of JCW. He is a great actor and let’s hope he made decent money from it because frankly the series is so terrible it would be the only reason to do it. Jae Won now comes across as a pathetic fool, Eun-O is crazy, confused and selfish, Rin-I is a hidden psycho. The sports teacher seems to barely play any role.
I don’t like the FL at all. She has two modes: manic and wooden.
Frankly the only way to redeem this series now is for something unexpected, like maybe Jae Won and the sports teacher meeting and dating and letting Eun-O left alone to grow up. That might be at least fun. There is now Eun-O or the actress could redeem herself for now. Telling the audience she’s beautiful and bright (she’s not so for me) and then pulling out the sympathy card because she got cheated on in the past isn’t going to cut it at this point.