Hi everyone!
Today I thought I’d share my episode 1-2 notes on Lovely Runner, because I’m really enjoying it very well (all the feeels 🥲), and I was wondering if you’d like to join me? 🤗
These are my episode 1-2 notes, exactly as they appear on Patreon, ie, without screenshots (I’m saving those for the actual review).
I hope you all enjoy, and I hope you’ll consider joining us over on Patreon, for the rest of the discussions! ❤️
Episode notes:
E1-2. Eee! This is so, so cute, you guys! 🥰🥰
Honestly, I was really hoping that this would be good, but these two episodes still managed to exceed my expectations.
Granted, I’d been trying to keep my expectations in check, because I didn’t want to be too disappointed if this turned out to be terrible, but still. I’m quite thrilled, you guys.
Certainly, this show wouldn’t work for everyone, but if you’re like me, and like a nostalgic coming-of-age story, with a do-over theme and a rom-com angle, this could well be your thing too, the way this is very much shaping up to be my thing. 🥰
To my eyes, this show feels like a happy mash-up of elements from a bunch of different shows, with Twinkling Watermelon, Extraordinary You, j-dorama Hana Kimi, and c-drama A Love So Beautiful being the first ones to come to mind.
I’m now going to break it down a little bit, how I see similarities from these various dramas, in this drama, and if you’re leery of spoilers from these episodes, then maybe look away now.
Or better yet, go watch the episodes, and then come back. 😁
Ok, so this show gives me Twinkling Watermelon vibes, because of the time slip element, where our female lead Sol travels back to the past, and gets a chance to save her idol, Sun Jae, from a Very Bad Event.
The slight comic book type touches, like when Sol tries to tell Sun Jae the truth, but everything in the world around her freezes, reminds me of Extraordinary You, where our characters were also similarly hampered by the rules of their comic book world.
The way Sol throws herself into Mission Save Sun Jae, kinda-sorta reminds me of the mission that the female lead undertook, in Hana Kimi, which Korea also remade (To The Beautiful You), but which I really didn’t like as much as the 2007 original.
Granted, the mission that the female lead undertakes in Hana Kimi isn’t actually to save the male lead’s life, but he is still her idol, and she is still trying to save him, in a manner of speaking.
And then, the whole twist at the end of episode 2, where we finally see things from Sun Jae’s perspective, feels so very much like the extended epilogue of A Love So Beautiful, where many different scenes are finally shown from the male lead’s perspective.
So far, so very good, as far as I’m concerned. 🥰
Based on what we’ve seen in these first two episodes, I am very happy with the casting of our leads.
Kim Hye Yoon is tiny and petite and I think that really helps her land believably as a high-schooler in the past timeline, as well as a young woman, in the future timeline.
Also, she does joyous, smitten fangirl very well, and I could totally believe that she was very much a Sun Jae fangirl, in the future timeline.
As for Byeon Woo Seok, I have to say, I am enjoying him in this, more than I’d originally anticipated.
Like some of you have said here on Patreon recently about your experience of Byeon Woo Seok, I, too, didn’t much care for Byeon Woo Seok from his turn in Record of Youth, and I haven’t really seen him much, in anything else, since.
I do think that he’s very well-cast in the role of Sun Jae, from what I can tell, so far.
Somehow, he manages to look the part of an idol AND the part of a competitive swimmer, thus suiting both timelines very well.
I don’t know for certain, but it sounds to my ears, like he does his own singing in the show, and that is already quite a tall order, even before you add in the fact that he must have trained hard, to believably look the part of a swimmer, in and out of the pool.
I legit wondered if he actually had a swimming background, since a swimmer’s body isn’t something that you can just magic into being, but no, he apparently doesn’t have a swimming background, and therefore, I can only conclude that he simply really worked hard, to get himself ready for the role.
Even though I don’t consider myself a very well-versed nor committed fangirl, I do feel like I’ve had enough exposure to the fangirl life, that I can say Show does a solid job of reflecting what the fangirl experience is like, for the dedicated fan.
I’ve come across enough personal stories of someone feeling like their idol literally saved their life, that I could feel Sol’s experience resonate with me, in a “gosh-that-could-have-happened” sort of way.
Like, yes, I can believe that a kind word spoken in season, can literally save someone’s life, and therefore, I can believe that Sun Jae’s words to Sol, during that fateful phone call on the radio show, literally saved her from taking her own life.
Afterwards, I can totally see why Sol would become such a dedicated Sun Jae fangirl.
He’d been the to save her, and so it makes sense that she would thereafter make him a big part of her reason for living.
Is this a healthy dynamic? Well, no, I suppose I can’t say it is, because then what becomes of Sol, right, when the source of her happiness is no more..?
The good thing here, is that we’re not here to answer this philosophical question.
(And also, Sol actually appears to be a very well-adjusted fangirl, even if she’s of the ardent, dedicated variety.)
Instead, Show gives Sol a chance to give back to Sun Jae, in a manner of speaking, by allowing her the opportunity to save him, in return.
At this point, I do also want to say that I found a lot of pathos in the story of Sun Jae ending his life, because even though we don’t get any real insight into why Sun Jae chose to commit suicide, the circumstances ring true enough, to feel hauntingly similar to true stories that we’ve come across, of kpop idols taking their lives.
Even as someone who hasn’t personally lost an idol to suicide, this hit a vague-ish raw nerve for me, so I can only imagine how this might cut too close to the truth, to be comfortable for some viewers to stomach.
If this is you, and you are still interested to watch this show, then maybe skip the portion in episode 1, from the 30-minute mark, until the 40-minute mark.
I think that ought to keep you safe from any triggering scenes, while still allowing you to enjoy the feel-good, hopeful flavor of this do-over story.
On that note, I am 100% expecting Show to save Sun Jae in this do-over, and it that doesn’t happen, I will riot; that’s how sure I feel – is what I’m trying to say.
In the future timeline (before the time slip), I’m so tickled to see that Sol’s bestie is played by none other than Seo Hye Won.
Since Seo Hye Won’s character so famously lamented her lack of chingu in A Business Proposal, it’s extra amusing to see her now be all happy and besties with Sol. 🥰😁
And, I am also very tickled to see Seo Hye Won be a high schooler, once we hit the time skip.
She makes for a very cute high schooler, with her round face and almost bowl-cut hair; I think she’s adorable. 😍
Speaking of the time slip, it’s very amusing to me – and yet it makes total sense – that Sol would assume that she’s in a dream, and do her best to hug Sun Jae in her dream, and then lament (and I paraphrase), “Why can’t I hug him, since it’s my dream after all???”
Tee hee hee.
And then, to have her thoughts turn to the idea that she’s dead, and this is the afterlife, is also quite funny.
It’s sad yet hilarious, how she concludes that if she’s seeing Sun Jae in front of her, it must mean that she’s dead (because Sun Jae’s dead), and then starts bawling, right in front of a very confused and perplexed Sun Jae.
Gosh, he must think that Sol is bonkers, yes? 🤭
At this point, it seems as good a time as any, to mention that I do think that a manhwa lens is handy, for OTT-silly scenes like this, which would make very little sense in a world that’s actually rooted in reality.
Again – see how that kinda makes this show vibe like Extraordinary You?
Aside from Sol’s fixation on saving Sun Jae, one of the things that I find very heartwarming, is the way Sol treasures this do-over, because it gives her more time with her mother and grandmother?
In particular, Sol’s scenes with Gran feel extra poignant, because in the timeline that she came from, Gran had been suffering from Alzheimer’s, and couldn’t remember her, pretty much. 🥲
And of course, there’s also the thing where Sol treasures her ability to walk, which is something that she’d taken for granted, until she’d lost it.
We don’t know for certain at this point, but Show sure is hinting that Sun Jae might have been the one to save her, when she’d met with the accident that had paralyzed her.
For the record, I’m also believing and hoping that Show will preserve Sol’s ability to walk, via this do-over.
In the meantime, I do like how Show is creating echoes of other scenes, from timeline to timeline.
On the one hand, I feel that this emphasizes certain character tendencies and the fate-like quality of the moments in question (like Sun Jae repeatedly sheltering her with an umbrella, and asking her why she’s crying).
And on the other hand, I also feel like this gives us clues as to who was significant in what event, in each timeline. Like how Sun Jae is the one to save Sol in this do-over timeline, from an oncoming car; it seems to echo the accident that had paralyzed her, since we see what looks like a flashback of someone pulling her away, as well.
On another note, I am highly amused by how Sol is not at all into the boy whom she’d actually had a crush on, back in high school, Kim Tae Sung.
It’s hilarious to me, that she finds out that she’d just confessed her affection for him the day before, but now, with her 30-year-old eyes, she’s all like, “Ew. What a punk. I liked him???” 😂
I feel like this will be a great source of hilarity as we go, since Kim Tae Sung seems to be quite taken with Sol and her love letter, while Sol is more than over him, at this point – just 24 hours after confessing. 😂
Another source of hilarity, for me, is how Sol keeps trying to keep Sun Jae from competing in that meet, which she knows will ruin his shoulder, and even resorts to impersonating a fortune-telling nun, telling him that there’s a virgin ghost hanging onto him, and he mustn’t go near water.
Hahaha. It’s so silly, but it’s also so funny. 😁
And it is so perfect, that she’s able to prove her authenticity with little nuggets of truth about him – information that she has at her fingertips, because she is a superfan, after all. 🤭
Last but certainly not least, I love-love-LOVE the reveal that we get at the end of episode 2, that Sun Jae had fallen first, and fallen hard.
I love how that switch in context puts a different spin on all the different scenes that we see, in this highlight reel.
The truth behind the renting of the videotape of Basic Instinct was very funny, but also, how dorky-sweet is it, that he basically stood in that awkward position and let Sol sleep on his arm, because he couldn’t bear to wake her? 🥲
That scene in the video rental shop definitely gave me Twenty-Five Twenty-One vibes (and some Someday Or One Day vibes too, for good measure), and I count that as a very good thing. 🥰
I also do like that little detail that we get, at the end of episode 2, that in the present, even though Sun Jae’s suicide hasn’t been prevented (yet!), a connection between him and Sol has been formed – evidenced by the appearance of that little photo of them, on the table.
I am not sure where Show’s going to take us next, but I feel like knowing that Sun Jae likes Sol more than she knows or could imagine, will add a nice layer of deliciousness to the proceedings. 😁
*This show is being covered on the VVIP Early Access (US$20) Tier on Patreon*
To view episode 1-2 notes in Patreon, along with everyone’s comments, you can go here!
You can find my Patreon page here, and for all future episode notes for this show you can click here. Currently, notes are available for episodes 1 through 6.
Episodes 7-8 notes will be out on Friday, 3 May 2024! I hope you’ll consider joining us!
It’ll be a way to have fun, and support me at the same time? 🥲❤️
PS: For more information on what the Patreon experience is like, you might like to check out my Patreon update post for April, which you can find here!