Kim Hye Yoon for Gucci (IG Kim Hye Yoon)
Lovely Runner
Starring Kim Hye Yoon, Byeon Woo Seok
16 episodes
Viu, Viki
Rom-coms or romantic comedies are staple fare in K-dramaland. No matter what genre is drawing huge audiences in Korea and beyond, a rom-com or two every season is de rigueur. And it can’t be mushier or smaltzier than the last one you squeed over or pulled an overnighter for.
I am not talking here about Queen of Tears. As of this writing, QoT still has netizens and diehard fans of its OTP clamoring for a season two, and storming the “heavens” for news that Kim Ji Won and Kim Soo Hyun are dating in real life, long after Baek Hyun Woo and Hong Hae In have earned their place in K-Drama history as one of the most emotionally challenged and unforgettable married couples in the last decade.
Lovely Runner Official poster
Lovely Runner, which came on the heels of QoT (it was streamed on Viu and Viki from April 8 to May 28 ), didn’t have the viewership statistics of QoT, but instead it had netizens, not only in Korea but also worldwide, endlessly chatting about it on various socmed platforms as they avidly followed the fate of Im Sol (Kim Hye Yoon) and Ryu Seon Jae (Byeon Woo Seok) throughout its 16-episode run.
In its timeslot, LR had averaged nationwide viewership of 4.6 percent on Mondays and Tuesdays (for its penultimate episodes), nearing its personal best of 4.8 percent at the end (Nielsen Korea), making it the most viewed in its timeslot. According to Soompi, it ranked no. 1 on Viki for six weeks and achieved the highest viewership count among dramas in 2024 for the timeslot mentioned.
This comment by KFANGURL, K-drama follower of 17 years, explains the response to LR: “A little show that looks light and fluffy, but is, in fact, so full of heart, and so solidly smart, that it outshines its similar-looking drama cousins, by a long mile…Show has a lot to offer, despite its relatively modest pedigree.” – thefangirlverdict.com June 9, 2024.
Lovely Runner follows the journey of Im Sol, once a promising film director whose dreams are shattered by an accident that left her paralyzed. She is a fan of idol Ryu Sun Jae, a top-tier celebrity, in the spotlight since his debut. Im Sol, wheelchair-bound, listens to Sun Jae on her radio, deriving solace in his music; she becomes an ardent fan. But, tragedy strikes again. Sun Jae, exhausted from the demands of life as an idol and the need to maintain the façade of a perfect life, dies by suicide, leaving Sol utterly devastated.
But fate has other plans when Sol wakes up in 2008 in the classroom where she is a high school student, and Sun Jae is her neighbor and classmate. This is 15 years in the past, before her accident and Sun Jae’s death. Seeing this as a chance bestowed by fate, Sol embarks on a determined plan to change her and Sun Jae’s destiny.
Therein lies one of the factors that determined the success of Lovely Runner—it uses time travel almost seamlessly. And our OTP travel through different time frames not once, but four times. Rom-coms are to K-drama watchers what fairy tales are to readers of romantic novels. Both allow their followers an escape from the ordinary, the tedium of daily life, allowing them to fulfill their fantasies.
This K-drama rom-com, however, ups the ante with its beautiful OTP, magical cinematography, an OST that lingers long after the last episode ends, and that happy ending, no matter the trials the leads had to surmount.
In all, K-drama rom-coms are the stress busters, and this one does it so sweetly.
This K-drama rom-com ups the ante with its beautiful OTP, magical cinematography, an OST that lingers long after the last episode ends
How do the writer and director deliver despite the odds stacked against the OTP? There are tropes (clichés, to the fairy tale reader), an arsenal netizens have come to accept as standard elements of rom-com. But, for these tropes to work, they should be deftly used and parceled throughout the drama to allow for suspension of disbelief.
web Byeon Woo Seok in Milan (IG Byeonwooseok)
In Lovely Runner, directors Yoon Jong Ho and Kim Tae Yeop, with writer Lee Si Yeun, do just that, and add the element of time travel to this tale of enduring love. And the time skips are so seamlessly handled that viewers do not lose the thread of the narrative and instead are held in thrall until the last frame when the OTP find themselves in the same time period and walk towards their much awaited union. (Spoiler here).
The time skips are so seamlessly handled that viewers do not lose the thread of the narrative and instead are held in thrall until the last frame
It isn’t often that we see time travel used as effectively as in this drama. Even with the chaotic back and forth over several timelines, the writer is able to hold it together and show love steadily blossoming between the Sol and Sun Jae. In many a rom-com, the time skips become either too jarring or almost unbelievable.
Also, the cutest of time traveling OTPs this side of K-dramaland pull off their characters with remarkable ease as they transition from high school, to university, and then to adulthood. They have a charm overload viewers can’t seem to get enough of. Kim Hye Yoon and Byeon Woo Seok have such endearing chemistry that every time they are in the same time frame, the viewers wish they would be frozen in that period.
“Their chemistry is insane, I can’t help but fall in love with them in every scene. If you want a Korean drama that is unique and can pass as your happy pill or comfort drama, I highly recommend this.” – thersadenisevideos in m.imdb.com 12 April 2024.
Kim Hye Yoon is a veteran of well-received dramas (Sky Castle and Extraordinary You, among the more notable ones in her drama list). Tall and well-built Byeon Woo Seok, a ramp model, has played second lead in several dramas (Record of Youth, Strong Girl Namsoon, and Flower Crew: Joseon Marriage Agency), but hardly gained notice from critics and audiences. His appearance opposite Kim Hye Yoon in this drama changed all this.
Of the two actors, it is Kim Hye Yoon who carries Lovely Runner on her shoulders, receiving the nod of critics for her enchanting and mesmerizing portrayal.
She has always been a high-energy performer and pulls off being vulnerable and smitten with equal flair. BWS, in the earlier episodes, does not show the intensity we expect of his character but as the drama unfolds, he is drawn in as KHY effortlessly shifts between hopelessness and being giddy as BWS’s character falls in love with her.
We can’t end our deconstruction of Lovely Runner without taking into account the numerous tropes used by the writer to tell the love story of Im Sol and Sun Jae. In their order of appearance are: the watch that marks the shift from one timeline to the next (the writer adds a second watch close to the finale), the necklace that Sun Jae gives Im sol, the Ferris wheel where they have their first date as an analogy for the wheel of fortune that governs our lives.
The writer’s inclusion of a serial killer who dogs Im Sol through the timelines also drew mixed reactions from viewers. But writer Lee Si Eun explained in an interview that this was meant to show the “unyielding force of fate that kept Sol and Sun Jae from being together despite their love.” She added that she “preferred writing a story where the protagonists are separated by fate rather than misunderstandings or conflicts,” according to The Korea Times, 14 June 2024.
Just like the typical rom-com, Lovely Runner also has a love triangle and typical of K-drama lead, Im Sol’s noble idiocy, which has her repeatedly trying to separate herself from Sun Jae if only to save him and keep him from dying, does raise eyebrows among netizens.
But, Lovely Runner has a different sort of love triangle. The second lead is not the usual K-drama scheming character out to take the girl from her intended, Instead, we get the good-looking, sympathetic charmer remaining by Im Sol’s side for 20 years as her best friend. It leaves the viewer wishing the writer had given the last episode a little more timeline progress away from the failed love triangle.
In the end we remain glued to Lovely Runner because, like Im Sol told Sun Jae, “Even if you were to end up in a different time, I would (always) jump over time and space to see you.”
After watching the last episode of this drama, we are left with the wistful feeling of wanting to embark on our own travel through time to hopefully find that endless love.
As KFANGIRL says: “I feel like this show is the equivalent of a cupcake that looks pretty, and that you assume must taste like every other pretty little cupcake that you can buy from any regular bakery, but is, in fact, made by an expert baker, with a few extra special ingredients, such that every bite is richer and more flavorful than you’d originally expected.” (thefangirlverdict.com, 9 June 2024)
