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Pump Up the Healthy Love korean drama review
Completed
Pump Up the Healthy Love
24 people found this review helpful
by Kate Flower Award1
Jun 5, 2025
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed 2
Overall 7.0
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 4.5

Rebranding to sport sitcom with slice of life undertones and romance as a guest role.

I think it’s important to set something straight right away - this is not a romantic comedy. This is a full on comedy with a sports/health setting and the romance is more of a guest role in the story. The poster, trailer and genres are completely misleading. Does this make it a bad drama? No. But it for sure is not a good rom-com.

Not what I think about it, the opening scene literally tells you all you need to know - the same way the gym with all the promotional material seemed like a club, when it was not. The same way this drama seemed like a rom-com, but it was not.

Yes, I did enjoy it. Even with over the top comedy and at times unhinged jokes, they were still able to deliver more often than once truly heartwarming messages. I truly appreciated how the message was more about loving yourself and striving for improvement because of that, rather than trying to meet a certain goal to start loving yourself. It had sitcom branding and a slice of life spirit and it weirdly worked.

That said - it’s simply not what I was expecting and it took away quite a lot of my enjoyment. And it’s not on me for having wrong expectations. It’s on the production team for misleading advertisements. If I crave ramen, but get an ice cream, it does not matter how good it is, it’s not what I wanted at that moment. They made me excited for a lighthearted romance, and they never delivered.

Since the romance was honestly so insignificant, I actually believe the drama would be better if they completely removed it. Lee Jun Young and Jung Eun Ji did not really have much chemistry and the constant break from the romantic vibes, to insert a punch line ruined it for me till the end. The show just lacked balance.

I did like both leads as individual characters. Seeing Do Hyeon Jung open up to others and start to understand different perspectives was fun. Lee Mi Ran slowly learning how to love herself was touching. Their partnership was great and I adored the whole gym community they formed. While I loved Roy (or do I just love Kim Kwon?), I did feel like he was out of place more often than not.

Production wise it was great. I am honestly surprised how many aesthetically pleasing scenes they were able to deliver without dropping that silly comedic tone. And I already added some songs to my playlist. Some special effects were more on the miss and Lee Jun Young’s body simply looked uncanny in episode one, but in general there was nothing major to complain about.

Overall, I am annoyed at the marketing of the drama because whatever we talk about the poster, genres and trailers, they have nothing to do with the reality of what the drama actually is. If they were more truthful to the content with their advertisement, I’d for sure enjoy it more.
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