Flash Review: Bride In Sneakers [Drama Special]

I’m grateful that KBS keeps their drama specials up on their YouTube channel for as long as they do. I’ve literally had my eye on this drama special for several years now, and just never got around to checking it out.

I honestly didn’t know what to expect, with this one. I’d just bookmarked it coz I liked the title (so shallow of me, I know!), so it’s pretty great, that I ended up enjoying this watch as much as I did.

I’m hopeful that you guys will enjoy this one too!

WHAT IT’S ABOUT

One night, Jang Hee Sun (Kim Jin Woo), a webtoon artist, spies a woman on the subway (Park Bo Gyeong, played by Lee Chung Ah) wearing a wedding dress and red sneakers, and is immediately intrigued by her.

MANAGING EXPECTATIONS / THE VIEWING LENS

Here are a few things that I think would be helpful to keep in mind, to maximize your enjoyment of your watch:

1. There are farcical elements to this one,

..so some suspension of disbelief is required.

2. There is poignance weaved into the comical,

..which I thought was quite nicely balanced, overall. This did prevent me from leaning too much into either extreme, and I think that Show does this on purpose.

3. Our story pretty much takes place over the course of a single day,

..so character and relationship growth can feel a little rushed. Overall, I still found it reasonably believable and organic to our story, however.

STUFF I LIKED

1. Lee Chung Ah as Bo Gyeong.

I’m more used to seeing Lee Chung Ah as a worldly, sophisticated type (like in 2019’s VIP), so it was refreshing to see her play a more innocent, almost naive sort of character. I really liked Bo Gyeong’s mix of fragility and determination, and I also liked her growth arc over the course of our story.

2. Kim Jin Woo as Hee Sun.

On paper, Hee Sun seems a little OTT and unreal, in that, I don’t think most people would approach a stranger on a train and then follow them around all night like he does, and yet, he makes it work.

I found Hee Sun’s wide-eyed, slightly flaily brand of innocence mixed with tenacity reasonably entertaining.

3. The growing trust between Bo Gyeong and Hee Sun.

This was one of the key highlights of my watch. As far-fetched as it might sound in concept, I liked watching Bo Gyeong and Hee Sun helping each other over the course of the night, even though they could barely count themselves as acquaintances.

THOUGHTS ON THE ENDING [SPOILERS]

I felt bad for Hee Sun when, about halfway through our story, he finds out that his girlfriend’s sleeping with her ex.

However, when that personal catastrophe doesn’t stop him from going after Bo Gyeong when she leaves, and results in him coming to Bo Gyeong’s rescue at the underpass where some drunk is trying to assault her, I knew that these two people would be more connected by the end of the night, than they’d ever imagined.

I appreciate the little glimpses that Show gives us, that Hee Sun’s growing more personally invested in Bo Gyeong’s story. I feel that his request to tag along, as she searches for her missing groom, is not really just about him needing to distract himself from his own woes.

To my eyes, he is sincerely interested in what happens with Bo Gyeong now, and it’s not just because he wants to draw her story anymore.

I’d found the running gag, of Bo Gyeong’s missing groom Gyu Cheol (Lee Yi Kyung) consistently going to great lengths to run away from her, more than a little bizarre (I mean, jumping out the window from the second floor is really extreme, dude), but when we eventually find out why he’d run away from the wedding in the first place, it all makes sense.

I feel so bad for Bo Gyeong, that it turns out that the reason Gyu Cheol had become a runaway groom, was because the lottery ticket she’d bought for them to share, as a wedding good luck charm of sorts, had turned out to be the winning ticket for the top prize – and Gyu Cheol is too much of a selfish, ambitious schmuck to want to share it with her.

EVEN THOUGH she was the one who’d bought the ticket. DANG.

Talk about low. Talk about self-centered. Grrr. And yet, I can see where he’s coming from. He suddenly sees a very real way to live a completely different life; a life that he’d always dreamed of. And, he can only achieve that dream life, if he has the money for himself.

If he marries Bo Gyeong, things get more complicated, and he’s not willing to take that risk, when his dream life is within smelling reach. BUT STILL. UGH.

What a horribly selfish guy (although Lee Yi Kyung somehow makes it impossible to hate him). I can’t believe he would beg Bo Gyeong to give him the winning ticket, and I can’t believe she actually gives it to him, in the end.

Dang. I’d wanted her to keep it for herself, or destroy it, so that he couldn’t have it. But in the end, she makes the decision to let him have what he’s so desperate for.

I can only hope that he eventually lives to regret his decision, when his dream life doesn’t actually make him happy, and he realizes that he lost an amazing woman.

Ultimately, I’m glad that Bo Gyeong doesn’t get her runaway groom back. She deserves so much better.

I’ve decided that, as painful as this whole failed wedding has been for her, it’s way better for her to dodge this bullet, than marry the guy, only to realize later that he’s selfish scum who doesn’t truly care about her at all.

I’m glad that this night of adventures (and misadventures) has turned out to be such food for thought, for Bo Gyeong.

In particular, I like the beat where Bo Gyeong realizes that she feels the world is a friendlier place, when she thinks about all the supportive messages that Hee Sun’s social media followers had left on that photo of her that he’d posted.

And, I’m hopeful that going forward, Bo Gyeong will also stop thinking of herself as such an unlucky person.

Even though I hadn’t been sure that Show would actually go there, I find that I don’t mind at all, when Show indicates that Hee Sun’s taken a distinct liking to Bo Gyeong, by the end of our story.

Not only that, he’s keen to get to know her better, despite her hesitations. At least, in just this one night, we’ve seen that he’s a better person than Gyu Cheol. Not only is he willing and able to defend her when the going gets tough, he already sees and appreciates that she’s a good, sweet, all-around awesome person who deserves to be happy.

Show ends on a rather open-ended note, but I’m pretty sure that these two will absolutely have that dinner together that Hee Sun suggests, and get to know each other better, and brighten up each other’s worlds, as they do so.

Tomorrow will indeed be a better day, just like Bo Gyeong says. 🥰