Mr. Heart (2020)

Nonsensical, corny and, worst of all, toxic (well done spoilers)

I decided to watch this on a whim because the episodes were short enough for me to binge this for an evening. And, boy, was it disappointing.

The series started off with an interesting premise - Won, a renowned athlete, loses his drive for running marathons and he finds it through a junior of his, who is a literal sunshine. Oh, wait, he manages to do so in the first episode. Huh... Okay, well, at least we have that same junior, Sang Ha, who had been adoring his hyung ever since he saw him running for the first time in high-school, aaaaand... what's his character arc again?

Well, if you're looking for any character development from these two, forget it. Instead, be prepared for a plethora of completely disconnected plot points whose whole goal is to add the unnecessary drama and odd backstory elements, which are sprung out of nowhere and sometimes even seem to contradict the characters' behaviours. Sang Ha has a whole "my-parent-dies-so-I-must-pay-their-debt" subplot, which I'm not mad at, but it's executed so badly that I cringed the entire time. The bad guys literally abused him before crying tears of happiness for him in the end and wishing him well in life. What the actual fuck? There just wasn't enough time to integrate such a heavy topic in a well manner, and it showed. Won, on the other hand, for being such a smart person and knowing not to enter a hot pool before taking a cold shower, has literally zero sense about why Sang Ha didn't buy new shoes even though Sang Ha spelled out his debt situation to him.

The fluff was cute, and I enjoyed their moments of closeness, but they were completely shadowed by the horrible dynamic between the two. Won is such a toxic person who always yells to Sang Ha's face for literally every single thing the guy does. Not to mention that, when they matched again after being separated for a while, his first instinct was to punch Sang Ha in the face! WHY?! I DESPISE any kind of toxicity, and I could not forgive this. Sang Ha is not better either. In the middle of explaining what happened to him, he decides to emotionally manipulate Won by sprinkling suicidal tendencies while telling him how his happiness and only purpose in his life is to be Won's pacemaker. I was thoroughly disgusted, which, in the end, left me saddened since I very much like the cast, and the actors did a great job portraying the actually romantic stuff in this "romance" series.

Finally, when they got together in the end, I prayed they wouldn't start running on their date. And guess what happened? THEY DID. ON THEIR DATE. IN SHIRTS AND PANTS. I feel so bad for the actors that this will be permanently in their catalogue.

At least the OST was perfect.

Overall - Save yourself time and don't watch it, unless you are a romance writer who wants to learn how to avoid writing toxic relationships & corny endings.

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What the hell...

So I have been putting this BL off ever since its release and finally decided to watch 2 years after release. This BL is not good. I do not know if you can even call this a BL. First of all, the main cast's relationship is extremely toxic. The tall dude treats the short guy like shit for the first like 6 eps and then magically they get together? Its so weird. What baffles me most is that Sangha is in such a shitty situation and the other dude does nothing to console Sangha. It just made it uncomfortable to watch. The acting is pretty good for how short it is and the music is good. Sangha also randomly kisses his senior without consent which just makes it a shitshow. Honestly I do not know how others have liked this. Probably just because the actors look decent and are Korean.

Please watch other BLs. An example of a great Korean BL is Blueming. Beautiful, deep, fleshed out, understandable, better chemistry, and more handsome actors on top of this. Dont waste your time with this, even if you are a BL fan.

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Short & Sweet

This was not a groundbreaking BL - the plot/storyline was pretty basic.
Youth love. i think a main difference here was Sang Ha openly expressing his love for Jin Won without having a secret about his love or needing friends to help motivate him to tell Jin Won. He was very open and assertive.

this is very short series, so no harm - no foul if you don't like it. not as if you've invested weeks or multiple days into it, but i do think it's a cool watch while waiting for another deeper BL to arrive. I usually prefer Thai series, but i'm not totally against Korean series/movies. the subject matter is a bit different. if this were a Thai series, things would have been a bit different. not saying that's a negative or positive. Thai directions usually add a lot of messy mess (sometimes unnecessary) but i know some enjoy that sort of thing.

it's worth a watch & maybe a rewatch later, if you missed something or just enjoy the actors. Let's be real, who doesn't enjoy Cheon Seung Ho =)

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Okay! This was very cute.

Short, cute, and adorable love story to make you feel good. I will say that I am a bit tired of the 'I don't understand these feelings so I am going to bully the one who actually love' dramas but this was still very cute. Although there wasn't actual bullying, he was mean to Sangha till he realized his feelings in the end.

The actor portraying Sangha really has a beautiful smile to light up the entire room. A beautiful human being with a beautiful smile and a positive attitude made him very lovable.

I would recommend it if you want something cute and adorable.

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Foi legal

Foi fofinha, nada muito grande nem muito pequeno.
Os personagens foram fofos e eu gostei das interações deles entre si e o elenco, a única coisa que eu tenho a reclamar e do bosta do jin won, ele e um arrombadinho do caralho que além de ser um cuzão ele ainda e mimadinho e não consegue entender que o boy dele e todo fudido lascado, porra eu até entendo você ter nascido com o cu virado pra lua mas o boy vai lá, abre o coração, te fala que tá na merda, e você ainda acha que ele poder fazer oque você pede sem contesta? O mlk ainda consegue ser cego de não ver o maluco que ele gosta sendo perseguido por agiota, passo um leve pano porque ele meteu um beijão no seu cremoso quando finalmente se tocou que gostava dele, mas que ele foi um merda isso e verdade.

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Cute all over the place!

In all honesty, it's been a while since I watched and all I can say about it is that SangHa was the cutest cinnamon roll I've ever seen, plus the acting of this character was really good! However, it was a little messy with the story towards the end with the whole "you have a debt thingy and you have to run to finalized it" like um ok? It was a little rushed on how the characters should have talked it out better between them and the whole situation. Still, I really liked how JinWon didn't really mind that SangHa had a crush on him like he was aware and even though he didn't feel the same at first he still hang out with him for his training.

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Just enjoyable... (don’t look to deep)

Sooooo... how do you enjoy a series like this? Well...

I grew up in a cattle ranch. Some days I felt like riding a horse; and some other days I rode a donkey. And I never took the donkey for the horse, nor the horse for a donkey... LOL!

There in lies the secret: take this series for what it is! This is a feel-good-flick, with no agenda, no esoteric message, and no aim other than to make you feel good (and make a lot of easy money for the producers, of course). The series is formulaic, predictable, and utterly simple - it is the Corn Flakes of cereals... lol. This is no Shakespeare, and better even: it is not pretending to be.

The plot is silly but happy; the acting is relaxed and happy; the music is boringly happy, and I am happy to say that having seen it once... you may want to see it again.

Ps. The series has not ended yet. But: I ‘CAN’ predict the ending... ???...!

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Watching this is a good use of your time

Some of the reviews confuse me - I thought the plot was coherent and understandable, and the acting was good. The chemistry wasn't burning hot, but that really isn't the characters - both of them have never been in love before.

Anyway, I will agree that the loanshark plot element was unnecessary and would have been better left out. It didn't ruin the series, but it chewed up time that could have been spent on the characters. For example, I felt like there was a step left out of the progression of Jin Won's feelings.

There are a few tired BL staples, like the taller one catching the shorter one when he's falling, etc., but it didn't bother me that much because normally it's the fall that actually generates the interest, whereas that's not the case for either character. The moment Jin Won falls in love is motivated and makes sense in the plot, and we see the full back-story of Sang Ha's feelings.

Lee Se Jin is a better actor than Cheon Sung Ho, but he also has a more realized character to play, and holy mother of God is he cute. Seriously, you almost feel like you should kick a puppy so the balance of the universe isn't upset. But CSH does a good job and he does subtly show us Jin Won's feelings underneath the bravado.

I gave it a high re-watch rating because I rewatched it. This won't change your life, and the other two series are better than this (BTW, Jang Eui Soo has a cameo), but you will smile a lot and be happy, so I would watch if if I were you, because if you're reading this, you're likely another BL fan and this checks the boxes.

The title is odd - the Korean title doesn't use the Korean word for "heart" but rather spells the English word "heart" (as approximately as you can with the Korean alphabet). I don't know what that's about, but The Pacemaker would have been better since the most common use of that word is to describe a device that makes your heart beat.

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