Lovely Runner (2024)

LOVE IN TIME

My SolJae.. What will I do now every Monday and Tuesday? As much as I have loved other dramas, I think this might just be in my top five all time. With the love story that I have been following between these two, and have been watching since basically the beginning, I don't know how quickly I can let them go. These two either brought a smile to my face or tears with each episode.

The acting within this project is phenomenal. I felt as if I was genuinely a character in the show with how much emotion and attachment I've grown upon these characters. The chemistry made me feel as if they were actually together. I love both of these actors so much, and I will continue to love them, but Lovely Runner will forever hold a place in my heart.

The story follows Im Sol, a girl who's a fangirl of a K-Pop group called Eclipse. She had bought a watch at an auction that once belonged to her favorite member, Ryu Sunjae. Once 2023 begins, that Sunjae passes away, but there's nothing she could do from stopping his death, right? Things began to go into a spiral when she clicks the watch and she goes back 15 years into the past. While there, she meets her favorite member when he was a high schooler. Now she's in her 2008 body and finds that she lived across from him. What will she do now that she is trying to correct time and keep him from his "unfixable" fate?

I just want to say that this romance is one of a kind. My favorite part about this story is the fact that Sunjae is a loser in love. No matter if he is a singer, an actor, or just a regular highschool boy, he still acts out in front of his crush. He may have lost his memories throughout each lifetime, but he will always find his way back to Sol. It didn't matter what universe or weird time jumps occurred, he always found his way back to the one he loved. His destiny was to be with her, even if he were to have died.

This drama deserves all of the hype!! I'm so sad to see them go but I'm also so happy that I got to experience such a wonderful story. This marks an end of a chapter, but there will always be more to come.

ALSO!! I loved the fact that even when the future changed, Sunjae was always meant to be some sort of famous person in South Korea. He was a singer whose group sold out tickets, but he was also an actor who had successful dramas. But his occupation didn't matter, he was still Sol's.

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Second chances don't come often.

A journey of life, love, and a little silliness.

Focusing on Im Sol, this drama follows her from the middle of her story and travels through time as she gets a new chance to save the person who saved her.

Lovely Runner was incredibly refreshing. Everything was balanced really well, the romance was sweet and angsty. If you're a sucker for leads who have complete loyalty to each other bordering on a (healthy) obsession like I am, then this has it in heaps, fits of laughter, and tears. All the side characters meshed well with the story, and there was neither too little nor too much of them. I loved watching the relationships grow and coincide with the story as it progressed, but this drama is about Im Sol and Sun Jae and they kept that focus for the most part throughout.

There was also enough plot to give everything in this meaning, and I really enjoyed how they paced it enough that with every change, it still kept us on the edge of our toes without being overbearing. Im Sol does get annoying at times with how sacrificial she is, but honestly both the leads share the burden of this mindset and it only helped to enhance how much they cared about each other. The humor in this was an absolute delight as well. If my heart wasn't hurting, I was laughing and it was a great pallet cleanser from more serious dramas.

All in all, I recommend this if you're looking for something refreshing, light but with plot, a great love story, and a little cringe in the best ways possible. This was a great watch and one I was unable to stop thinking about the entire time it aired.

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Flawless

I thoroughly enjoyed watching this drama. Although it is emotionally intense, I was captivated by the main artist's performance. I felt a strong emotional connection to Sol's character, who truly touched my heart. I've seen many time-travel-based dramas, and while they often depict characters struggling to change the future, this one stood out. It showed that by destroying the cause of a ruined future, the future itself could be altered. What made this drama unique was how the story evolved with each correction of the timeline. The standout feature was the flawless performances by the artists, which made the drama even more compelling.

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A Romance with a Watch that has a Leading Role

If living your life and falling in love resulted in the loss of life for the one you love but you could go back in time, would you do this to change the life of the lost loved one? Most would say yes. The series is about this scenario. Kim Hye Yoon's Im Sol tries over and over to save her love from death, but always fails. A nondescript watch is the time machine. The series details and narrates her attempts to save his life time and time again but always fails until she changes the narrative to where they never meet. All this in order to save his life. It's the tale of a GREAT love between two people.

I read some reviews before I started the series, and they were not flattering. While I can understand the weaknesses these reviews highlighted, my take is different. This series is a modern day Romeo and Juliet without the family anguish. Two people with such a great love for each other it withstood the test of time, space, death, and time travel.

The weaknesses that I saw were in the editing and somewhat in the writing. There is a lot of detail built into the time travel that can easily confuse the viewer. Im Sol goes back in time 3 times. Sometimes I wasn't sure if I was in the future or past. It didn't help that random scenes were thrown in periodically. In one regard I can understand as it helped to establish the strong connection between the two main characters and it also relieved the sadness and anguish (through comic relief and supporting character subplots) this storyline would inflict on the viewer. After all how much sadness can a viewer take before switching off? Some of the chaotic-ness of the storyline helps to bring the viewer along in the story. At least it did this for me as I never wanted to stop viewing.

If you're going to watch this, see it for what it is. A great love story of two people trying desperately to be together but fate just keeps interfering, yet they keep trying. I have to say kudos to the two main actors, Byeon Woo Seok and Kim Hye Yoon for their tremendous leading roles....nice!! This series had an amazing supporting cast as well. Song Geon Hee (smooth-like- butter, this actor is amazing!! I'm looking forward to future dramas with him), Jung Young Joo, Seo Hey Won, Kim Won Hye (three of my favorites from previous dramas, they did not disappoint), Baek In Hyun and Song Ji Ho added so much to the story and their loyalty to the main leads, and Heo Hyung Kyo was so so very evil. Well done to this amazing cast!!

I hope you give this series a chance. It does wander around a bit, and that is frustrating for the viewer. However, what it boils down to is the story of a great, GREAT love between two people. And who doesn't love a story like this?

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We are just living in Seon Jae & Sol’s world!

Lovely Runner will forever be etched in my heart ??

Where do I even start? I’ll probably never love a drama as much as I did this one for a very long time. I woke up on Mondays with a smile on my face. I wanted my weekend to fly so Monday would come faster! That can't be normal.

Lovely Runner took me back to 15+ years ago when I first started watching kdramas. I was somehow on this long journey to one-day watch something incredible like this. The standard for rom-coms should be this! It was April 8th, aka Solar Eclipse Day in North America when it first aired. With each episode, it just got better and better!! Episode 2 of LR will be one of the 'most rewatchable worthy episodes' to ever exist. Episode 8? GOSH. Episode 11 with the cherry blossom scene? My mouth dropped. I never had such a visceral reaction. Episode 14-16 in the adult-era was so good! The combo of enemies-to-lovers + star-crossed-lovers reuniting hits so hard. Episode 16 is such comfort.

Until the very end, I would religiously follow the pattern of “watch>rewind>watch>rewind again" over and over again. Each episode took me forever to finish because I’d rewind to savour each moment. My toes would curl, I’d kick my feet and smile from ear-to-ear. I found myself going back and rewatching from the very start just waiting for new episodes. I’ve never done that in my life. I lost count how many times I’ve seen specific episodes.

This kdrama is perfect fluff. Cotton candy-esque.

I’ll fondly remember how I’d come home after work and walk into my sister’s room just to get her Lovely Runner reaction/thoughts. I’ll remember going over to my friend’s place so we can order takeout and watch Lovely Runner together. I’ll remember today. I’ll remember watching LR at my desk because I am easily tempted. Then going over to my friend’s after work and pretending it’s my first time seeing episode 16. One of these days, when we've both had a little too much to drink, I’ll tell her the truth. She will laugh.

I’ll remember Lovely Runner for the rest of my life. I am going to bottle up this feeling and keep it close to my heart. Lovely Runner felt like coming home for old-timers. This will be my comfort drama from now onwards.

I loved it so much that I had to write a review! This may very well be my first and last review on MDL.

Mondays will be the bane of my existence once more.

Forever Sol-ah, Seon-jae-aa!! ??

All I see is 10s across the board.

Thank you Lovely Runner for giving me the happiest of the happiest endings!! ✨

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A KDRAMA WHICH DESERVED ALL THE HYPE! Best drama of 2024!

Its been while since I've watched a rom com kdrama which is so hyped and after finishing it, I HAVE TO SAY-- "This drama deserved all the hype." NO, in fact, it deserves way more recognition than it received. Half way through the drama after watching ep 8 i had rated this drama 10/10. I had decided that if the writer gave us an unambiguous, happy ending with lots of Soljae fluff, I wud rate this my top 1 fav kdrama of all times and thankfully the writers n directors didn't disappoint us.

Time travel has always been my favorite trope but a lot of them have ambiguous confusing endings where the entire thing turns out to be a dream or something most of the time. (I hate that.. Srsly!!) Lovely runner gave us time travel, romance, comedy, high school, crime, etc. -so many genres all in one and they executed all of these so beautifully capturing their audience's attention throughout the 2 months of its airing.

To be honest, i hadn't really watched any drama of either of the leads n i just started watching this bcz i didn't want to miss a time travel drama -being my fav genre n all... and I am so, so glad i didn't miss it.
They gave us LOSER SUNJAE n CRAZY SOL who were made for each other. One of the many things i liked about it was how they executed the part where Sunjae remembers everything. Especially thankful for the fact that they didn't just make it the last scene and BAM! end- but gave us ample Soljae scenes after that. The whole memory thing was carefully spanned over 2 eps n not just a sudden thing with no explanation. All these scenes were so beautifully filmed..

For the past 2 months, we all cried when Sol n Sunjae cried, we were happy with them when they finally defied their so called fate and got together.??

Thank u Taesung for being such a supportive friend to Sol-ah , n rival to Sunjae ofc in any timeline. Thank u Baek Inhyuk, for helping your loser friend in his confessions (?).
As Sol's grandma says- Memories can be forgotten, but the soul always remembers." Even if they didn't remember each other, their friendship/rivalry remained.
AND THE BIGGEST THANKS TO THE WHITE TRUCK OF DOOM!!!!!! ?

SOLJAE's role was made for KHY n BWS. Now I can't imagine anyone else playing uri loser sunjae n being Solchinja.
The OSTs ?made me feel as if i was falling in love myself while hearing them especially - Sudden shower, like a dream, spring snow.
I'll definitely miss my days where i waited for this.... no more waiting for preview, theories, pre releases or next week for new eps.
Anyone else debating whether to watch it or not-> PLZ,PLZ,PLZ,PLZ GO FOR IT!!!!!!!!!!
You won't regret watching this masterpiece!
Miss u LOVELY RUNNER??!
Miss u uri pouty baby loser Sunjae-ya n crazy Sol-ah??!!!
I sincerely hope this drama and the actors/actresses of the drama sweep all the awards for the year!!!!!!!!!!

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Needless to say one of the most clean and refreshing drama of 2024!

I highly recommend this show. The filming, acting, osts, plot lines are all tied so well together making it extremely interesting to watch. You may think it is a simple time travel story like all the other dramas with a similar plot, but there are actually many hidden details and twists that make the story much more engaging and interesting.

The drama focuses more on romance and comedy but also has a bit of crime. The one thing im most grateful for is that the writer did not over emphasise the crime portion but instead naturally incorporated it into the plot twists and character developments.

The writing was good and the plot is easy to follow, the comedy scenes are quite funny as well. All the actors did a wonderful job bringing their characters to life. Her best friend and her brother were so funny to watch.

Hyeyoon's acting was insane, she had to cry almost every episode but the way she could immediately go from tearing to bawling wowww. I loved her character as well!

Wooseok was really good as well he was head over heels for her and his expressions while acting were so good.

Their chemistry really showed 2 dynamics, innocent romance when they were in high school and college and a more mature relationship when they became working adults.

Really good watch and i'm glad this drama managed to go on air after being kept away for 3 years :(

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I love this drama like Seonjae loves Sol

Sorry for my English. Lovely Runner is the best drama I have seen so far this year, each episode made me feel like I was on a roller coaster, sometimes I laughed, other times I cried. The best thing is that each chapter left me wanting to see more, it didn't become tedious or boring as it usually happens in other dramas that I already finished in the last chapters out of obligation. But it didn't happen to me with this drama. What's more, I feel empty now that it's over. The chemistry, the acting, the script, the ost everything was perfectly executed. That's why this drama deserves all the love it's receiving, I don't think it's overrated when it didn't have adequate promotion from the beginning. This drama will have a place in my heart forever.

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