Love on a Single Log Bridge (2024)

Finally, a true romcom!

This was really cute overall even though it took me a while to finish.

Love Your Enemy tells the story of Yun Jiwon (FL) and Seok Jiwon (ML) (whom I will call "Yunji" and "Seokji" going forward to avoid confusion; thanks Dramabeans for the easy monikers) who grew up as childhood frenemies that fall in love as teens before separating and reuniting as adults, this time as enemies. To make it worse, their families are also at war with each other; the high school where Yunji is a teacher was chaired by her grandfather until Seokji's father took over and now plans to build a golf course on the land, and of course, Yunji's grandfather is absolutely against it.

My major issues with this drama is that it had a lot of moving parts, and yet everything felt disjointed. There's Yunji and Seokji's beef, and of course the beef between their families (particularly Seokji's dad and Yunji's grandfather) is at the background, but it never really felt like the issues between their families had much bearing on their own relationship.

I thought the villain of the story was set up okay, but honestly was that plotline needed? It just seemed like a distraction from what I was truly there for, which is Yunji and Seokji's reconciliation, and not even a very interesting distraction at that.

Then there's the main conflict, which is between Yunji and Seokji, but imo how they got back together wasn't really as coherently handled as I would've liked. There's so much backstory between them and in terms of what caused their break-up as teens, but it's never really properly addressed when they get back together; even with the copious amounts of flashbacks it still feels like what happened when they were teens and what's happening between them as adults happened to two different people. And the main cause of their break-up was glossed over so quickly and easily that it almost makes me wonder what the point of everything was. Also, for instance, why did Yunji decide to be a teacher, out of all professions? There's just so many disconnects in the story.

The love triangle, as with most K-dramas, was absolutely pointless. I really didn't see the point of the 2ML except to make the ML jealous; they set his character up quite nicely with the backstory he has with Yunji and his own trauma/struggles, but then it's never really used in the story until the end when he randomly decides he's going to return back to swimming? I also didn't care too much for the school politics; the beef between the dad and grandpa had more potential but again it's not really integrated into the story that well.

Anyways the best parts of the drama to me were Yunji and Seokji, both as teens and adults. I only wish their romance was better written. I thought the acting was pretty okay overall; really enjoyed watching Ju Jihoon's comeback to romcom, even though it was a bit awkward seeing him trying to act funny sometimes. Jung Yumi's portrayal as adult Yunji was a bit unconvincing, especially when she's still annoyed with Seokji. But they eventually both grew on me. The younger actors playing their teen versions were really good though; the younger cast as a whole was quite excellent, even though, again, what's the point of their stories (the teens in present day)?

I also wasn't really a fan of the casual physical abuse from Seokji's father; it felt at odds with the rest of the story and he's not really held accountable for that. In fact their whole family dynamic really confused me; I think it needed more fleshing out.

Overall though, Love Your Enemy is a pretty low-stakes watch, which is what I expect from my romcoms. The most dramatic parts happen in the last two or three episodes and are honestly easy to skip over. I really hope to see more romcoms with older actors, but hopefully with less miscommunication.

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