If you take a peek at my complete list of watched kdramas, you’ll very quickly discover that I almost never consider a show to be perfect. Even Crash Landing On You, which I love, “only” received 4 stars from me. I’m very picky about what deserves a perfect score. In the summer and fall of 2023 I had watched “My Dearest” starring Namkoong Min and Ahn Eun Jin and gave it a perfect 5 star score. I didn’t think anything would ever come close to that amazing show.
And then in early April 2024 a new show popped up on Viki with very little fanfare. I like time travel stories, and I liked the lead actress, Kim Hye Yoon, so I thought I’d give it a try. After 2 episodes I was completely sold and the show became “must watch” tv for me each week. As of the writing of this review it is October 2024 and I’ve already watched the complete series 5 times. I can’t get enough of it. It is so incredibly delightful, fun and romantic in every possible way. The two leads, the aforementioned Kim Hye Yoon and Byeon Woo Seok, have tremendous chemistry and they are surrounded by an incredible supporting cast as well.
The show is based on a web novel titled “Tomorrow’s Best,” which was later serialized as a webtoon by Doong Doong. Lee Shi-Eun (who also wrote “True Beauty” – another show I love) handled the screenplay while Yoon Jong-ho (“Goblin”, “Flower of Evil”) directed. Notably, he was the second director on the project, and blessedly so. The original director had a vision that didn’t quite fit with the story being told and the wise decision was made to bring in Yoon. The changes Yoon made to the female lead character’s appearance (because of the time travel element) were vital and undoubtedly led to the show being much more successful than it might have been otherwise.
The plot centers around Im Sol, who is a top fan Ryu Sun Jae, a kpop singer who ends his life quite suddenly the very night she happens to meet him after his band’s concert. Inconsolable, Im Sol somehow time travels back to the time when they were in high school and decides to make it her mission to change the course of his life and protect him from future pain.
Let’s talk a bit more about the two lead actors. Kim Hye Yoon, who previously starred in such shows as “Extraordinary You” and “SKY Castle” is a popular actress with a large fanbase. I personally think she’s adorable. She is also known for her great friendship with actors Rowoon and Lee Jae Wook, her “Extraordinary” costars.
In “Runner” her costar was model and actor, Byeon Woo Seok. He had previously starred in such projects as the movie “20th Century Girl” and the 2020 Netflix series “Record of Youth” but it wasn’t until his turn as the villain in last year’s “Strong Girl Nam-soon” on Netflix that people began to take notice of him (let’s face it, the 32-year-old was the best thing about that entire show). And then “Lovely Runner” was released. And within weeks the man went from being able to walk freely through an airport with no disruption to becoming the most mobbed celeb at Incheon throughout the summer of 2024.
Our heroine, Im Sol, is plucky, adorable, incredibly loyal and determined. It has been said by the screenwriter that she wrote this character with actress Kim Hye Yoon in mind. No wonder she is perfect in the role! As for Byeon Woo Seok’s portrayal of our leading hero, Ryu Sun Jae, he so perfectly embodies both awkward teenager and suave adult. It took three years for producers to cast the role of Sun Jae because so many actors turned it down when they heard the plot involved a kpop fan being in love with a kpop idol. I’m so glad all of those actors turned down the role because Byeon Woo Seok is perfect as Sun Jae.
Back to the story itself, I’ll start by saying it is very hard to get time travel right. It’s nearly impossible to close all the loops on time travel because there has to be a clear set of rules and if a rule is broken everything falls apart and a viewer spends more time focusing on the broken rules than the story itself. Having said that, during my FIVE TIMES watching this entire show, I saw very little in the way of rule-breaking in this excellently put together time-travel romance that also includes some suspense in its storytelling.
There are multiple time jumps in this show, with varying results for the characters, and that alone keeps the story from become stale or repetitive. Each time there is a jump there is something new – first they are in present day and Im Sol is in a wheelchair due to an accident in her past, then she travels back to high school, then forward to a new present day future, then back to college, then to another new future, etc. And each time we jump we fall in love with the characters just a little bit more during this wonderful, emotional rollercoaster of a show. Sometimes incredibly funny (I’m looking at you, episodes 8 and 11), sometimes incredibly sad, but at all times well-done – I love this show.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the music from the show. The band that Sun Jae is a part of is called Eclipse, and Byeon actually recorded all the lead vocals for their songs. The other band members are from the real-life band called N.Flying who are super talented in their own right. A few of Eclipse’s songs charted in Asia, the most notable one being Sudden Shower (Spotify link), a beautiful love song that is featured heavily throughout the show.
While the show never really had great ratings as it started to air, word of mouth spread and pretty soon a lot of people began talking about “Lovely Runner” and clamoring for it to be made available on Netflix (notably, Netflix initially passed on adding the show to its platform and so it was only released on Viki for streaming at the time of its release). Here in North America the show is still only available to watch on Viki, but Netflix Asia did make it available in August 2024. I’m hoping it eventually makes its way to the US Netflix platform so that more people can watch it.
Frequently in kdramas I will have favorite episodes, and this one is no different. Episodes 2, 5, 8, 11, 15 and 16 are ones I would watch on their own even without doing a complete rewatch. I have an old friend that very recently got into kdramas and I’ve told her that when she’s ready for “Lovely Runner” she needs to tell me so I can start my 6th viewing along with her. I can’t wait.
My rating: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars
Comment below and let me know what you thought of “Lovely Runner”…
