Lovely Runner

The show that gave me the biggest comfort in 2024

I don’t trust anybody who finishes this kdrama and doesn’t like it. Lovely runner gave everything I have ever wanted from a show:
Comfort green flag characters (even when sonjae was jealous HE WAS JUST SO CUTE it wasn’t a bad red flag move)
Hilarious scenes
Absolutely adorable romantic scenes
Beautiful cinematography and ost (and literally every song in the show was a masterpiece)
Outstanding acting from literally everyone
Some adventure and fantasy (and because of that we got so many protective cute moments, they were protecting each other all the time I wanted to scream)
Nice little plot twists and attention to the details,
A clever script
An ending with no loopholes, just comfort and happiness. And something really important? NO boring episodes! I finished this in 2 days, while in most kdramas I take (at the very very least) a week (or even months tbh).

All the unrealistic and cliche moments were because it’s based on a webtoon like come on if they got rid of some unnecessary trippings etc you would be like “but you erased scenes from the webtoon you ruined it” WELL here they are!!!!!!!

Overall 10000/10
Please watch it you won’t regret it. Now I gotta see how I’m going to move on from my post masterpiece show depression cause it’s hitting hard right now

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"Lovely Runner" becomes one of those timeless dramas

Review by : flowerbby

"Lovely Runner" weaves a storyline that is not only aesthetic and beautiful but also deeply enjoyable. The tone of the drama is enriched with a graceful aesthetic and charming, lighthearted comedy that delights. Every actor delivers a remarkable performance, with Kim Hye Yoon in the lead role truly shining. Her portrayal is exceptional, reaffirming that she fully deserves the title of an actress whose work you can always trust. Byeon Woo Seok is equally captivating, bringing Sun Jae to life with such profound and heart-wrenching emotion.

Each episode masterfully keeps the audience on their toes, with a plot that surprises and stirs deep feelings, making it impossible to move on easily. "Lovely Runner" leaves an indelible mark—it’s a drama that is hard to forget and will be cherished for a long time. This work is truly a gem, and I sincerely hope "Lovely Runner" becomes one of those timeless dramas. As a devoted fan, I know I will never forget this series, and I’m deeply grateful that it concluded so beautifully.

A heartfelt thank you goes out to the screenwriter, director, and every crew member who collaborated to create this masterpiece. Your dedication and hard work have brought this wonderful story to life, and it is deeply appreciated.

#solsunsubeom 💙💛

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"Memories don't disappear. They are smeared into your soul."

This drama fully entertained me. It has some very good looking actors, lots of laugh out loud moments, an interesting storyline and all of the characters have different quirks which makes it a very enjoyable watch.

This was also the first time when the OST didn't bother me. Most of the time if an OST is repeated several times I just get bored and it soon starts to annoy me, but in this drama (even though I don't remember the name of the song) it made me happy every time I heard it.

The story itself was really good, although I feel like some moments need a little more work on them, like for example, when Im Sol went back in time and she could walk again, she only acknowledged it for an episode and moved on. I think that if a character truly spent over 5 years (and most likely more) in a wheelchair, they would need more time to readjust.
Also, I feel like this drama could have been a tad bit shorter. The time travelling kind of reset all of the progress that Im Sol made and it frustrated me at times, but the ending truly won me over and I couldn't care less anymore, they were happy and so was I.

Also, it is never explained how every time Im Sol went back in time, her grandmother hinted that she knew about it and didn't tell us further.

Besides a few characters that need a bit more development and a few story loop holes, it's an entertaining watch that finally got me out of my drama slump. If you want to watch it, go for it.
Side note: don't form your opinion based on a random persons review. Whether I liked it or hated it, you need to watch it for yourself and form your own opinion.

Happy watching!
Thanks for reading and have a good day.

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The Yellow Umbrella At Its BEST

Do you believe in The Yellow Umbrella? This must be THE ultimate YELLOW UMBRELLA drama, putting ones faith in the power of the yellow umbrella in dramaland to the ultimate test

The drama has some of the best parts of Twinkling Watermelon meets Some Day or One Day . All covered in a yellow umbrella. And while it does have a lot of the good parts of these two excellent dramas it does not fully reach the greatness of both.

I love the different timelines, the friendships and the grandmother. The female lead has a lot of fun lines, at times a really cool attitude and is fun to watch about 70% of the time however the remaining 30%offer a few to many moments of annoying/ second hand embarrassment for me to fully understand what our fantasy to perfect to be perfect male lead sees in her. As for the other male lead male leads are a blast to watch, they are sweet, have great interactions both among themselves and with the female lead and aside from a few moments of jealousy really seem to be to good to be true. Also the girl tries to run away from the male lead so many times that I am sure that is why the drama is called Lovely Runner, but it should have been lovely umbrella...

There are a lot of twists (some better than others), sweet fun moments between all of the characters, eye-candy for as far as the aye can see and I do believe they have a thing for men (the male lead) getting out of the shower, pool, rain showing the viewers his very well chiselled abs in most of the episodes. So if you are sensitive to abs you may want to look away or make sure you are in a safe environment while watching.

Besides the abs, the cinematography is gorgeous, the use of umbrellas breath taking and the plot was wrapped up a lttle bit to fast towards the end, and it may have a hole or two but is overall pretty decent. Kisses are top, top all in all definitely one of those dramas that I will rewatch scenes from now and then.

An easy binge that will-indeed cater to all your romance, umbrella and watery needs

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More over-the-top comedy than I expected, especially from a supposedly 30-year old woman.

Subjective Gut Rating: 8.25

My expectations of the drama might have ruined “Lovely Runner” a little bit for me. I was expecting a back-to-the-past sweet and innocent romance with some longing, angst and uncertainty due to the fantasy element of the show. But in reality, this drama is full of over-the-top comedic moments and loud characters that I was not prepared for. I am not adverse to comedy. There are actually a few very funny laugh-out-loud moments that I enjoy tremendously through the creative writing of the team. I just had some troubles adjusting and re-calibrating to the tone difference (expectations vs reality) and I believe this dampened my enjoyment a little. Of course, this is all on me.

My main criticism of the show (maybe a little more objective than my preference of the tone) is the decisions made by our female lead, Im Sol. I have a hard time believing a 30-year old woman would act quite immaturely and without a plan. I understand the initial shock of going back to the past. But once that wears off, and you have a mission to change the past, all you could come up with is to bulldoze your way into Rye Seong Jae’s life? There’s no plan of action. Instead of behaving like a mature adult (who has gone through some really tough times in life), Im Sol behaves like a teenager. The only way the drama shows her ‘maturity’ is when she yells at the kids for misbehaving.

I also feel that the drama could be shorter. After a while, it feels rather repetitive going back and forth. There aren’t enough intimate moments between the leads during their high school days. The only I could think of is in ep 12 when the leads were lying in each other’s arms and professing their love. These are the moments I want more. I would have loved to see more of the present-day timelines stories and how the leads fall in love with each other all over again. Therefore, I was especially happy in the last few episodes. That’s what I was looking for. That’s the tone of the drama that I was expecting. The last few episodes probably bump the rating back up to an 8.25-8.5.

Having said all that, there’s a lot to like about this drama. First of all, I think the acting is pretty good. I was a little unsure of Byeon Woo Seok’s acting at first, but he did a good job, especially with the more emotional scenes. He’s so tall and lanky, and really does have the body for a swimmer. The drama doesn’t shy away in showing us his perfectly toned torso and abs. He also doesn’t mind showing his sillier and pettier side. Kim Hey Yoon is such an experienced actress at a young age. I realize she’s not the young high school girl in “Sky Castle" anymore. She has matured and her acting as well. Does she look different to you? Her role as Im Sol has a lot of comedic moments. I think I like her emotional scenes more enjoyable though. Song Geon Hee plays the role of the second male lead, Kim Tae Sung. Tae Sung is a lovely bad boy character, but a typical second male lead in a K-drama. I think I would have developed second lead syndrome if I found the actor, Song Geon Hee, attractive. Well, no second lead syndrome from me. It’s Seong Jae all the way.

The supporting cast has some amazing veteran actors such as, grandma Sung Byung Sook, FL’s mom Jung Young Joo, and ML’s dad Kim Won Hae. FL’s best friend is played by Seo Hye Won. Her pairing with FL’s brother as a couple is just a little too much for me. They provide a lot comic relief, but they are too loud and annoying for my taste.

I don’t mind the mystery/crime element of the drama. At least I felt that is justified to start this whole going-back-to-the-past process. However, as mentioned earlier, it felt repetitive. I was never sure why he’s so dialed into our leads. Is it mainly because of the cell phone or a mentally ill, psychotic state of mind? The drama never really fully explains how and why the fantasy element. One can only guess from the last episode who started it all. It’s OK, I won’t judge the drama too hard for that. I am more bothered by the illogical decisions and loopholes of the drama.

“Lovely Writer” was really hyped up in the Feeds during its airing. Everyone is in love with the drama and especially how cute Byeon Woo Seok is. Because of that, I might have expected a lot more. At the time of this review, “Lovely Writer” is rated 9.1 on MDL. That’s really high for a drama from any country. I have an enjoyable time watching, especially the first ⅓ and the last ⅓ of the drama. But I could only give it an 8.25 (rounding up to 8.5) rating.


Completed: 7/7/2024 - Review #458

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Great pacing and chemistry

If you are debating whether you should watch this drama or not, it's better to just start watching the first episode, then decide whether you'd like to continue or not. And just a piece of advice, if you don't like the actress/actor playing the main characters, then you might wanna double or even triple think about watching this drama. Because if you already dislike the actor/actress, you'll just find everything that they do (including their acting) annoying.

Now here's to everything that I love about this drama:

OST - Honestly there's no skip with this one. Everything's great - the lyrics and the melody. One of reasons why I fell in love with this drama.

Cast - We're not going to fight who carried the show here. They all did! No one really fell short in terms of acting. The chemistry between Hyeyoon and Wooseok - amazing. The chemistry between their friends and families - amazing. They're all funny!

Plot - Well, I wouldn't really call it a masterpiece. So if you are looking for something with an award-winning masterpiece, it's not here. Also, if you are someone who overanalyzes everything in a story, I don't think this drama is for you.

But the plot is decent, okay? Cliche? Yes. But here's the thing about cliche, it still takes great writing in order for it to be enjoyable up until the last episode. As for the storyline, I promise you'll understand it if you don't overthink it so much.

Just one thing that I'd really like to commend the writer and director for is the pacing of the story. It has great pacing. Usual kdrama would get boring around episode 8, it'll pick up the pace around episode 13 and 14, and then that's it. The ending is either meh or good.

But Lovely Runner has no boring episode. I don't even think that there are filler scenes in this drama. 60 mins for one episode wasn't even enough. The ending was so LOVELY. I even want more of it, but you know too much of everything is really bad.

Anyway, the success of Lovely Runner is well-deserved. It's one of the best romcom I've ever watched. No wonder why this drama helped a lot of people from their slump.

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WE NEED MORE K-DRAMAS LIKE LOVELY RUNNER

**This is purely just my opinion and you are entitled to have your own opinion! :)**
If you're in the k-drama community, there's going to be hidden gems that you discover. These dramas are often underrated and not talked about. Many people's faves could be completely unknown to others but that's not the case for Lovely Runner. If you're in the community that watches k-dramas, you have most certaintly heard about Lovely Runner. I'd say the two biggest, most talked about k-dramas of 2024 are Queen of Tears and Lovely Runner. Literally 95% of k-drama watchers enjoyed atleast one of the two, if not both. Lovely Runner is going to become a name that everyone learns about, a drama that's going to be recommended to newbies. a drama that won't be forgotten for a long time.

Lovely Runner managed to pull many watchers out of their k-drama slumps, it managed to pull new people into k-dramas and it's probably the biggest loss for Netflix. People just can't get enough of Lovely Runner because each episode was beautifully crafted. We just need more. I hope writers and directors are taking notes..

Of course, there's going to be some people that don't like Lovely Runner and that's perfectly fine. I don't get why the community is hating towards these people? People have opinions and that's okay. This drama is not a 10/10 FOR ME, still very high up at a 9.5 but the majority enjoyed this and it has gone down as an all-time fave for many. Therefore, if someone wishes
create a drama that is successful in the eyes of the MAJORITY, they should produce it to have the same effect as LR. That's what I'm trying to say.

Anyway, onto my ACTUAL review.

The first episode was really cute and it kept me engaged which is why I watched the next episode straight after LOL. But I will say, I got second-hand embarrassment from sol's actions SO MANY TIMES. She really went up to a random ass man (technically), hugged him when he's half-naked and told him she loves him.

Also I don't get why people are dragging KHY for her looks, she's drop dead gorg?

I really enjoyed episodes 10-16, the comedy was PERFECT and I had a constant smile on my face. It was cliche yes but it was perfectly placed so it wasn't cringe, but funny.

Also I could have a whole drama of just sol and taesung. THE CHEMISTRY??? Their friendship dynamics are amazing and honestly he's a green flag.

DISLIKES (all fairly mild):
- i feel bad for taesung (SML), he really did love sol and even after everything had changed, he cared for her as a friend. it was unfortunate they didn't let him meet a nice woman in ep 16
- after time travelling multiple times, you'd think sol gets smarter, well she doesnt. she kept making stupid decisions when the obvious smart answer was right there!

i also noticed, idk if this was done on purpose as a sort of easter egg, but LR has a lot of similarities to 20th century girl. it's most likely because of BWS playing the lead role in both.
SIMILARITIES:
- female lead's family owns a movie/tape store
- female lead blames cramps to get out of class
- female lead holds item above head at school bc she's in trouble and BWS comes and takes it from her.

anyway, overall it's a 9.5 for me because it was insanely good but IDK it just didn't feel like a 10? but please, some of you need to stop harrassing others who didn't enjoy the show and STOP HATING ON KIM HYEYOONS LOOKSSSSS. she's gorgeous!! just as a reminder, this review is my opinion and you can have your own! you may hate this or really love it, it's up to you :)

if you watch lovely runner, i hope you enjoy it !

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Mesmerizing, emotional time travel drama

I’m adding my review because that’s one of the dramas that I have loved this year. English not being my maternal language, please accept the mistakes in this review.

Describing "Lovely Runner" as a rom-com is simplistic : this is a romantic drama, using time travel to tell a love story spanning 5 timelines. Kind of a « variation on the same theme ».

So it allows the viewers to follow the same story, but at the same time, not the same story. Like a « what if » drama with the same characters. What if one turns left instead of right ? But at the same time, fate plays a part because no matter what the changes brought by the different decisions taken by the characters, they are always a victim of it.

Add a mix of mystery, thriller and boulevard comedy, and voila, you have "Lovely Runner".
So the mystery is how the time travel is possible. Not going to answer that one, viewers will discover the answer quite soon, but at the same time, the mystery remains as to why, even if it’s easy to guess if you follow the drama.

The thriller is the dangerous part of this drama, one that unfortunately, can strike everyone at anytime, anywhere, leaving broken characters. The two main characters are emotionally impacted by the consequences of the thriller part : depression, suicidal thoughts, loneliness, handicap (I admire how the FL overcame that one !)… That doesn’t make LR a depressing watch : the FL is one of those excentric characters, always on the move and always causing catastrophes and humiliating moments, mostly for her but sometimes also for the ML. It made the drama hilarious, at least for me.

That was the comedic boulevard part I mentioned, although it’s even more accentuated with the FL’s brother and sister-in-law : those characters are clearly portrayed as actors in a comedy on stage, or in sitcoms. Their facial expressions are exagerated. I suppose it’s a directing decision. So don’t expect them to be more serious characters. But they don’t have a too large part in the drama.

I found the actors to have chemistry and to fully embrace the story, with all the twists and turns it brought. Kim Hye Yoon portrays in a wonderful way the FL, radiating warmth and « joie de vivre », despite everything and her impulsiveness. That's part of her charm.

The ML is more reserved, and so easily… enthralled by the FL, because she is so different from him, embracing life, always running right and left (hence the title). I was surprised at how easily Byeon Woo Seok's played the role of a fool in love. But I guess that’s because I had seen him in more serious roles before. Here, he doesn't hesitate to appear weak or an idiot to his entourage, leading to some funny scenes.

I was sad to see this drama end, because I had grown attached to it. I had watched it twice so far and I will rewatch it in the future. I will recommand to watch it in a few days, to enjoy it and to brainstorm about what could happen in the next episodes : it’s always fun to think about theories when watching a drama.

Plus, the OST is magnificent.

"Lovely Runner" was a huge success in South Korea despite the fact that the drama wasn’t heavily promoted and the success a surprise one ; and also a success with international audience judging by the well deserved rating on MDL.

To end this review, I would say that "Lovely Runner" is a succesful mix of different genres and I wouldn’t put it in the rom-com section because that would be misleading to compare it to a rom-com like « Business Proposal » (I loved that one, and it had a little of boulevard comedy in it).

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Lovely Runner Delivers from Start to Finish

The Korean series Lovely Runner stands out among countless others for its exceptional storytelling. Every scene is crafted with purpose, and each character, no matter how minor, contributes meaningfully to the plot. There are no wasted moments; every storyline is resolved, and the execution is so seamless that it avoids any cringe-worthy moments. This series is a testament to masterful direction and thoughtful writing.
The series is packed with humor that will keep you laughing from the very first episode to the last. It never loses its charm and is crafted so well that it truly engages your emotions and takes you on an unforgettable journey.
The screenwriters and director of Lovely Runner were clearly in perfect harmony, as evidenced by the seamless execution of the series. The actors were perfectly cast and did full justice to the characters they portrayed, bringing the well-written script to life in a compelling and engaging way.
This is a show that I'd travel across time just to see.

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