Run On

Just Keep Running

Just found this drama today, and I thought that I should give it a try. And I think my time was well spend. Learned many thing from this drama and also love the journey of both first and second ML FL story and their journey. This drama thought me that no matter how harsh it is just keep running toward your goal.

Best quote from the drama is running is to not looking whats behind but just focus on whats in front of you and focus on the goal. One more is not matter what life we go through surely we fall down to our lowest at some point but keep in mind that we fall not to be desperate but to learn how to make ourself get back up.

Lastly sorry for my english if it is bad.

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Learn to Love Yourself

At first looking at the title one may think that the drama is about running.
Well it was a first.. but for me, I interpret it as running towards a better life.

This drama tells about the life of 4 unique individuals: Ki Seon Gyeom (KSG), Oh Mi Joo (OMJ), Seo Dan Ah (SDA) and Lee Yong Hwa (LYH) and some other side characters.

I really like the quirky KSG who always seems to help everyone around him without the slightest care of himself.
OMJ is the one who shake him up and made him realized that he should pay attention to himself too. I really like what she said to him in the drama "KSG-sshii, you should learn to love yourself too, because you are worth it"
Sometimes we may forgot to take care or love ourselves as we were busy taking care of other people. This drama made me realized that I should value myself more before everybody else.

SDA first impression was that of a bold and proud heiress but after watching more, I realized that all of that is a bravado she put as a defend mechanism in the surrounding and her family situation. Although the way she act around people can be annoying but she is very loyal.
LYH is an outgoing and cheerful guy that melted the ice walls SDA built over the years. He was able to slowly step inside her heart.
I love how LYH mature over the episodes as LYH & SDA relationship progress along the episodes.
He is a sweet and lovable guy and friend to have. (would love to have a friend like him).
I didn't know breakup can be sweet but LYH nailed it. (well the writers did).

I love how the writers sort of punish KSG's dad for his wrongdoings. There's a quote that the drama use "Parents raised and give births to their children but parents do not own their children" this quote is good as many parents seems to think they own their children and took control of everything the children does.

Overall the story line is good and comforting. the ending is even better. I would say its the best satisfying ending in a drama I've watched so far. Not only they give a great and satisfying ending to the 4 main characters but also all the side characters without leaving any.

If you are looking for some comforting, easy and fun drama about life then RUN ON is for you. I will re-watch this someday when I'm feeling down.
The soundtracks are awesome too, go and download it.. they have many great songs.
The casts are perfection. I love how each actor/actress portrayed their characters.
Big round of applause to the writer, director and the actors & actresses. They did a great job with this drama. Hope to see them in another drama soon.
Enjoy ^^

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Run On. Move On - A drama about life

Story: I love the flow of the story all through out. It is not a sports drama but about life. How you keep moving forward when it comes to career, love life and family issues. I commend the writer for illustrating life as a race. We all must keep moving forward in life though there's a lot of struggles, it's ok not to be swift, It's ok to change your line sometimes what matter is we stay on track and keep enduring it until you reach your goal. It's normal to get tired and that's ok just keep trying and keep moving. Just don't stop.

Expect that this drama is not perfect but you can just ignore it and focus on the funny scene.

Acting/Casting:
I love everyone but I'm not fully satisfied with Shin Se Kyung acting. She's beautiful and ok sometimes but I think there's a better actress that can act better as Oh Mi Joo.
I love Im Si Wan acting as always. He's really good in every role he got.
Kang Tae Oh is also a versatile actor. He has a cute role here as Lee Yeong Hwa.
I am very satisfied with Sooyoung this time with her role. She's really great as CEO Seo Dan Ah.

Music:
All of the ost are ok it just that not all of them is my type of music. I recommend Run To You by LUCY.

Rewatch Value:
I will rewatch it again if I will miss to see Im Si Wan again hehe.

Overall: I am satisfied with this drama. One of my Top 20 of 2020 Korean Drama. I will recommend this drama to someone who feel lost and who's a fan of Im Si Wan, Kang Tae Oh and Sooyoung.

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Jam Packed with Themes

I was immersed in this since it got me to reflect on my own life but by the end of it I still felt something was missing. Perhaps it may have been because this was a splice-of-life drama so there was less story to develop.

However, I was pleasantly surprised to see all the themes this drama was able to touch upon. These were some I noticed even if they weren't explicitly mentioned:
1. sexuality
2. family and socio-economic status
3. self-love/care and mental health
4. boundaries and personal space
5. masculinity and emotions
6. strong and independent females
7. disability (visible or invisible)
8. dreams and goals
9. environmentalism
10. friendship
11. justice
12. ageism and seniority

Just seeing all these themes in one drama today made me happy and I'm sure there were some I missed. It seems that shows/entertainment are moving towards a more positive direction where these topics (some more sensitive than others) can become more open for discussion. If you're curious about how these themes were incorporated, I would recommend trying this drama out. Perhaps you can notice more than I did.

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Slow burn slice of life

I would categorise this drama as 'slice of life'. It takes it's time to develop each scene and shows the characters life as it is, their struggles and frustrations.
We can see the male lead's frustration. A sprinter who is fighting the hierarchy system in the sports industry where seniors bullying juniors is the norm. He tries to go against the system and fight with the abilities that he has while upholding his beliefs which could end his sports career. He exhibits extreme control over his emotions, I feel it's more like he feels dead inside probably due to his upbringing with an absent superstar actress mum and an oppressive dictating politician dad.

I do appreciate that almost everyone behaves like an adult. The don't go off the rails at any misunderstanding and do speak their mind when it calls for it. There isn't an instant love at first sight, this drama takes its' time to develop friendships and relationships. Although each episode runs around 1 hour, it does feel longer than that. Despite it's slow pace, it isn't boring.
If you're ok with slow burn dramas then this is right for you. I liked Run On, but i wasn't obsessed with. I enjoyed watching it but I don't think I'll crave watching it again.

As for the acting, I think this is the first Shin Se Kyung work that I liked and I think she should pick more of these strong adult roles although script availability is another matter.

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The most heartwarming drama ever!

I loved so much the actors, songs and story. Everything is so perfect, it is amazing see how they grow up, how they change during the drama, how the love can help you to be a better person, not in a bad way, but the best one. This drama it is full of lessons, and help us a lot to be better too. It is about selfcare, it is about learn how deal with the problems, it is about forvige. I think this drama it's not for everyone. It is slow, soft and the story is constructed little by little. This is for sure the best drama I've watched!!! So heartwarming that I am smiling during the write. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Just perfect!!!!

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High rating is a mystery even to me

Sadly, the modern ending made this a not something I'd.
This was a SLOW burn romance with a good dose of feminism; Featuring strong ,determined, selfish & career focused women. In contrast, the men were ruled by thier emotions & overall seemed a bit dimwitted (clueless). The end is modern, not giving you the traditional happy ending, but hinting at the possibility the couples might be together. ( would be interested to see how others interpret the ending, as I'd like to be wrong !) However, the way I saw it, It was a cowardly, waffley "cop out". I found the lead female's character to be hard to warm up to & really it felt like she didn't know what she wanted. The whole " yes I want him & I want him to want & commit to me, but only if & when it fits into my mood & schedule, AND my goals are more important than he is !" , thing was just badly written character to me. I also found it odd that the female lead was too dense & could not see the obviousness of the male lead's interest. I did enjoy the series, but the female lead & the noncommittal ending put me off. I think what really impressed me what that this was a Netflix original. I hope they do more Korean dramas that we can view in the US

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Slow, but it pays off.

This drama starts so slow. The first few episodes I just couldn't find it in myself to care. I couldn't understand what was happening a lot either, but maybe that's just me. An example: why did Dan-ah have to break up with Young-hwa? It took a while for things to click for me. To be honest I don't think it ever did? I'm still confused as to what the drama was really going for. The way they told the story is super confusing and sometimes I didn't know if we were going anywhere. Like the ending could've literally happened two episodes earlier and it would've made sense. So many things could've been omitted and it wouldn't have been any lesser for it.

But in the end I grew to love the characters and it's a pretty satisfying ending. The last few minutes of ep16 feels like a high in happy hormones tbh. Siwan took some time to grow on me but eventually I liked him. Sooyoung and Kang Tae-oh stole the show for me though. I absolutely love their characters and how they portrayed them. I hated seeing them cry. :(

The OST was fine and idk the rewatch value bc I probably won't revisit it.

Overall I didn't waste my time watching it so that's great =)

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Running nowhere....

Run on! is a drama that has great leads with a boring story. The show focuses on its 4 leads and follows their day to day lives while dealing with their own external and internal issues.

The poster main leads follow Ki Sean Gyeom, an athlete who grew up rich with a broken family and a Oh Mi Joo a translator who has no family and grew up with the challenges associated with it.

The Second leads follow Sea Dan Ah a young CEO looking to move up within her families companies who like Ki Seon Gyeom also has a dysfunctional family, and Lee Young Wha a young college student who paints for fun.

My Main gripe with this drama is that its basic and very predictable. The drama itself dragged on for way to long and struggles with pacing issues with every episode. The Main leads could have had their story wrapped up by Episode 8-10, and the second leads didnt get much development till the second half of the season in which their story could have been wrapped up within 2 episodes.

The shows first 10 episodes were great but episodes 11-16 were just a drag. 11-16 was when they shifted the focus to the second leads and their 'will they, wont they' dynamic. The second leads were good in their performances but their script and story was boring and was dragged out for way to long, Instead of the show focusing on the others interesting subplots.

This show would have benefited from being a 12 Episodes at 45min-50min a piece.

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Good, but felt it was lacking “something”

I liked this drama, but at the same time I feel that I could have liked it even more. It’s lacking a little bit of that extra “something”. A deeper connection to the characters, maybe? Or could it have been the way too obvious product placements that put a dampener on the feel of the series?

The ML has an interesting story arch and development, and I kind of wish that was explored even deeper.
We got some “peeks” into the FL’s backstory, but a little bit more might have given us a better connection to her character.

You have the typical chaebol and power hungry controlling parents and sibling rivalry, but then you also have his mum that stands out a little bit.

I’m glad I watched it, but not something I am likely to watch again.

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super fun and interesting...

Run On tells the love story of Ki Seon-gyeom, a former sprinter who is working to become a sports agent, and Oh Mi-joo, a subtitle translator.
Im Si-wan plays Ki Seon-gyeom. He is a professional runner who also quite socially awkward.
Shin Se-kyung plays Oh Mi-joo. She is a foreign film translator and subtitler.
Sooyoung plays Seo Dan-ah. She is a president alpha bitch but shows signs of a hidden heart of gold.
 Kang Tae-oh plays Lee Yeong-hwa. He is a university student and talented artist.

I enjoyed the stories of both couples, they made me laugh and I thought they were cute. Also, I realized: sometimes it’s okay for a couple to just click and work, without all the fuss and dramatics, you know? It never felt like their respect or feelings for each other were in doubt or denied and I appreciated that. I think the second couple had more intensity but they (Dan-A) were more frustrating. I think I didn’t mind it because they weren’t the true lead/priority in the storyline, but if they were it could approach the border of toxicity. I do think the first couple is more likely to survive a pandemic together and that’s the way I judge how I feel about couples now.

Sun-Gyeom learns how to let the people around him in (friends and romance) & let people care for him like he cares for others. Though, I couldn’t tell if his obviousness was natural or forced to deal with the toxicity his family brought brought onto them. Also, re: the reason he left the sport: why so righteous?
I loved how Yeong-hwa eventually demanded respect from Dan-A, who also learns how to treat people better, all while remaining true to herself.

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It was a good run, but that's all!

Another good, but nothing special Kdrama. The writing wasn't bad, but I didn't felt I know these characters at all. Almost every episode was random, and sometimes it was over the top.

It had some really good moments, it was funny at times, especially the duo of Young Hwa and Danah, but the main lead was average at best. Both couple were cute and all, but I don't think I will remember them for a long time. The same can be said about the show.

It has some important message behind all the drama, but it wasted to be honest, because they hardly did anything with the main plot.

At some point I felt like I want to skip scenes, and that's not a good look! Not because it was boring like some people say, it's not boring, it's just the writing wasn't coherent.

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