This review may contain spoilers
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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i would die for this kind of love story ?
rewatch value 100%all the characters are well written and quirky in their own typical kdrama way i literally GUFFAWED at each episode and cried hard and loved deeply
soundtrack is BOMB ASF where is the petition for eclipse to be a real kband 🫵🏼
im sol x ryu sunjae is the new romeo & juliet the it couple who would die for each other i stan hard and the actors deserved all the awards praise and recognition from it 💕
i also love men who were written by women and i love wooseok’s portrayal of sunjae. he has his moments of insecurity but he shows sunjae’s bright and dedicated personality very well!! and hyeyoon perfectly encapsulates the essence of sunshine and loyalty through sol 💝
i already can’t wait to watch it and experience it again ☺️
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the best thing of 2024
I usually don’t post reviews, but wanted to do it this time because this is indeed the best drama of 2024. Every single song was amazing. The leads did a fantastic job in terms of acting. I am not a fan of time travel plot, BWS was the reason why I gave it a shot. I am so glad that I watched it. I don’t even know how many times I rewatched it. If you like time travel and youth drama , you will definitely enjoy it. There are some negative reviews, but don’t listen to them. Either it is not their genre or they are not okay with this being the most popular drama of 2024. This drama will make you emotional for sure. All I can say is it is worth the hype and definitely one of the best shows of all time ❤️Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
too much going on
okay so honestly it wasn't really that bad but it felt very dragged, like maybe 12 episodes would've been fine. but 16? it was kind of losing me by the 10th or 11th episode ngl. i lowkey hate that she had a disability and we just skipped over it per say. we only really saw her be in a wheel chair for 1 episode (please disregard my bad memory, i did not in fact pick this drama up again til now) like in later episodes we saw that she got hit by a vehicle but never put into a wheel chair again? idk if i'm really focusing on the right thing but it didn't really make any sense because that how she initially she paralyzed. also it high key made me upset when she just kept pushing and pushing him away. like yeah we know you want to protect him or whatever but she just kept falling more in love with him each time without realizing it was fate doing its magic. home girl over here yapping about some "oh yeah were not meant for each other" how oblivious can u be.. (its the woke part of me speaking bc what?) that guy who was supposed to be the bad guy actually made me so mad because how was he not caught in less than like 8 episodes.. justice for my man kim tae seong bc he deserved so much better, like where is his girl at mane (yall are looking at her right here) my man byeon woo-seok did his job tho (looking fine as ever) he was so adorbs. FL did not deserve any of the boys that chased after her because they were both good guys and loved her a lot. ngl i couldn't choose between sun jae and tae seong.. also i love that sun jae would try to act nonchalant but would turn around to smile, that was definitely one of the best things i've seen. honestly other than that it was very gut wrenching (i sobbed during maybe all of the episodes). would i recommend it? yes but no, if u like them going back and forth then okay. the actors did what they needed to do but the story was kind of insufferable with the back and forth between everything and it does get tiring to watch as a viewer, but am i a pro drama enthusiast? absolutely not. was it worth the hype? no not really but i did enjoy having my heart torn apart and put back together.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Overdid the time travel
To my surprise there wasn’t much to the story. It was quite plain. The writer didn’t overcomplicate the time travel theme which is good but it doesn’t mean there can’t be interesting factors in the plot. The writer didn’t think out of the box much Simply put I lost interest several times while watching the show.I don’t care about how the time travel(the watch) worked. I liked the simplicity of it but story was too monotonous. There were no “wow” moments. Sol could time travel many times as she wanted so what’s the catch here? Time travel lost the charm simply by overdoing it and coming back with the same problems. Why drag the show for that long! It could’ve easily been a 12 episode drama. Too many filler episodes.
The 2nd lead guy didn’t had much relevance in the story or on sol’s choices same as many other characters !! The comedy had off timing. One moment something serious was happening and the next moment something totally lame. Sol herself wasn’t serious. As the main character she was lacking and wasn’t doing anything sensible that will make you support her.
Sunjae on the other hand was portraying a “boy in love” and we loved him. Mostly bcz he was unaware of what was going on. He was loveable character. But I can’t say that about Sol. Overall it was okay but bit boring.
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THE PERFECT BLEND!!! ( of romance, fantasy, emotions, comedy, suspense and thrill)
Lovely runner is a coming of age drama that managed to blend together different aspects and actually made it work some how, lovely runner covers the emotional aspects through its plot and then it goes ahead and adds romance which is heartfluttering and heart warming and then goes ahead and adds in a little comedy to balance out the heaviness of the plot and then it continues to add in many other different aspects such as time travel which is done in a way I found interesting and Intruiging...it then goes ahead and adds suspense and thrill...all of this mixed up together to give as a memorable story....now it isn't easy to balance all of this together without giving much priority to one affecting the other but somehow lovely runner makes it work till the end.lovely runner tells the story of a fan who loses her idol and during her time of desparation finds her self travelling back in time to the time when her idol was in his highschool days....hence she takes it upon her self to protect him from harm....and make sure she lives to see the future.
I loved the build up of the idol and fan relationship, i loved how the idol was shown as some one who was their for the fan during her tough times and that added a specific emotion towards her bond with him.
We explore the story more and find out that there is more to these two's relationship than just then being fan and idol and that's when the fun begins.....
There are plenty of things I loved about this drama and I'll try to summarise them into five respectively....
THE PLOT : Any one would say that this story has been seen before and yes maybe it has but I loved how it was executed in a way that made it feel fresh to me as a watcher...like I said I love how they blended various aspects together to create something rather memorable.
THE ACTING : The acting was nothing short of being phenomenominal...every one gave their best and I love how they acted with passion, it was the kind of acting that draws you in as a viewer because you get to feel every little bit of emotion through these characters and it was really amazing....
THE CHARACTERISATION: The characters in this drama were made for the actors and actresses that took them on......my only flaw was that I wished that they fleshed out some of the characters a bit more for example I wanted to see the second male lead as more than just this cool guy but rather a glimpse of his personal life and his family something to get me connected to him as a person not that I wasn't but I needed a bit more...a other interesting character that felt wasted was lnyuk, his passion for music alone could have been a build up for his own story he would have shined.. because best believe he knows how to act but it felt like he was a guest role that only showed up when they needed some comedic reactions from him...I also kind of wished that his friendship with the male lead was fleshed out a bit...it would have been heartwarming to see their bromance...that felt lacking other than that the leads were written perfectly each felt complex and each felt like they had personality...the male lead being showed as this golden retriever and a string willed and headed female lead whose hate O wont entertain btw considering her actions and reactions to things were nothing short of how any human being would react......the characters were written well enough...
THE COMEDIC TIMING: This dramas strongest weapon was the spot on comedy..nothing felt un natural or forced..the characters them selves had amazing comedy timing..their reactions to things felt real to the point that some situations couldn't have really called for laughing but I did because the characters sold it...hearts off to the direction of the comedy scenes they added a charm to the story....
THE ROMANCE: what makes a good romance, the answer is being well written in a way that it doesn't cringe but rather gives you flutters and leaves you feeling single...and then the chemistry.. chemistry is such an important factor for me when it comes to romance having no CHEMISTRY ruins everything for me and thank God the leads had song chemistry..they had the tension, they had the cute interactions that felt natural it all felt right so I have to say in addition to the way their there romance was built I appreciated the chemistry that sold that romance to me...I also loved how their love story was a mixture of different genres...we had first love, live at first sight, he fell first and harder, unrequited love, friends to lovers, highschool sweethearts, college romance, adult romance, meet against, and many more....
THE OSTS: “ cause Iam falling slowly in love with you.." I have this on repeat....the osts were absolutely amazing.
This drama was the perfect blend...the romance was done well and so was the thrill and suspense in addition to the time travel and fantasy in addition to the comedy it was the perfect blend!!!
I'll wait to conclude my review before I watch the final episode.....
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One of my favourites.
I really like this drama, it was really easy watch and it didn't make me feel like it's a struggle for me to finish it.I really liked the idea of fate and going back in time, usually it's not potrayed that well but this time it actually made sense. Also loved how it was showed that when you change one bad thing for a good thing in the past it can change everything, and then because you don't know what will happen you don't know if changing this one thing was a good idea. Maybe leaving it as it was was the better option?
As for the plot, I also was afraid that the crime aspect of this drama would feel like they made it out of nowhere or something but it actually was played well!
I wish that we would see Inhyuk and Taeseong get their happy ending. Yes, we saw that they are happy but it didn't feel full for me at least.
Loved the chemistry between the main couple, on-screen and off-screen they made it well-known that they have love and respect for each other. I really like how it was Sunjae that was first one to fall in love and HARDER. Also, I was happy to see that they are not "afraid" of skinship.
I was scared that Sol's personality will be only this cute, obsessed girl but it was a nice surprised to see that she was actually really mature but still with a little bit of fun.
Wish we would see more of the friendships in this drama, because I really enjoyed the episode when they went looking for Inhyuk. It felt warm.
As for the not so good points of this movie, well..
I think if this drama had only 12 episodes it would be better, it wasn't tiring to watch don't get me wrong – it just started to feel repetitive. They forgot each other, then they loved each other again, they forgot, they loved etc. etc. It def could fit in 12 episodes.
Sometimes I felt like the love between those two felt too obsessive, I understand the deep bond between them but they made it seem like they literally can't live without each other. Especially in the first episode it kinda felt parasocial.
I feel like the director made her disabled without really putting any meaning to it. It felt like one day she was disabled and the next day it was already forgotten, I actually forgot that it was the plot in the first episodes when I reached the episode 7/8. Which is again coming back to my first point – it should be only 12 episodes drama.
But in the end, even with those not so good things it still a really good drama.
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Some stories do manage that suspension of disbelief just a bit more smoothly than others. And Lovely Runners seem to be able to introduce us to the logics of their little fluffy, rom-com universe quite seamlessly and therefor making the more unbelievable moments feel both earnest and earned enough that is just might work. Or you are willing to forgive it despite how much of a fan fiction this story feels like it is.
The drama has a tendency to use excessive amount of tropes in it's storytelling, like the clumsy heroine, noble idiocy, miscommunication and so forth. The amount of times the two leads fell into each other arms was way to excessive to become endearing after a certain point. It also does have a tendency to drag out the plot and the twists on a bit too long as we get further into the story resulting in some pacing issues.
Towards the end the story, the convoluted timelines and the murder mystery subplot does becomes more of a burden to the drama, causing it to lose some momentum - I feel like episode one and until around 10 is this dramas sweet spot. Things just seem to be happening to the characters without too much depth but the character have such a good emotional core within them, despite me wanting a bit more development from them as the timelines become more messy and annoyed as things are just happening to keep the plot going, no matter what you are rooting for them to get together in the end.
The actors certainly add more spunk and feelings into these characters than they have on paper and really sell the earnest of the story and keep you coming back for more. It's a fluff, it's tropy, but it's fun and bubbly and compelling enough and you never really get the sense that the drama is trying too hard to be something more than it is. It's a breezy, cute watch with very likeable leads and characters that you enjoy spending times with despite it's flaws - I just wish we could have gotten more scenes with the second male lead.
The drama manages to blending humor and cliché with heartfelt moments and I do think the drama does a good job making you feel very at home in it's world and therefor invested in it and so light and airy that you just enjoy these moments with the characters. The drama creates a narrative that is light-hearted yet earnest, as it finds the most absurd situations and gives the characters enough stakes that you want to cheer them on and make sure that they finally get their happy ever after.
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This review may contain spoilers
"Memories don't disappear, they're all smeared into one's soul"
"Memories don't disappear, they're all smeared into one's soul, the brain may forget, but one soul's been keeping every piece of it" - Im Sol's HalmoniThe above quote perfectly describes what this drama is about. What started as saving one's life ended up being created memories with that special person. Those memories will always be there in one's soul, trying to find its way back no matter what.
Although the 2 episodes before the final 2 episodes felt like a slow progress, this drama was written pretty well overall. I love how this writer always included events that happen in a previously timeline back to the current timeline. The development of Im Sol's feelings to Sun Jae from being a fan wanting to save him, to wanting to save him because of her love for him.
The only repetitive part that I found in this drama was Sol keeping pushing away or avoiding Sun Jae (during college and then Eps 13-14). I get why she did that but still, I'm not a fan of those kind of tropes as I prefer the leads just communicating with each other and not hide anything from each other. Still, it was great seeing Im Sol's love for Sun Jae grow each time she travels back in time and Sun Jae getting chance after chance to be with Im Sol since his love for her never changed.
A huge amount of comedy between the main characters and their friends. Even when the preview for each week shows seriousness, there's so much more laughter that occurs in me when watching each episode and a lot of romantic and cute scenes between the leads.
THIS DRAMA IS THE DEFINITION OF A ROMANTIC COMEDY!
Even though there was a killer/kidnapper in this drama, I'm glad the writers stuck with the idea of keeping his screentime at a minimum towards the very end. It would've been okay to find out his motive but at the same time, since they barely showed him, I'm glad they got rid of him quickly as well.
The whole cast was awesome! From the best friends to the parents. Great acting! I like almost every character in this drama, and I find that as a rarity in dramas.
The ending was great. Although I kind of wish there was a wedding at the end, I'm glad we got a glimpse of what their wedding look like as our leads both saw their future together. At least they ended it with a proposal. I'm satisfied.
We're about halfway through 2024 as I'm writing this, and I haven't found any k-dramas that I would consider rewatching again, but this one definitely makes the list.
THIS IS MY FIRST FAVORITE KOREAN DRAMA OF 2024
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I might be biased?
I might be biased towards this drama but I have my own reason. Ive stop in watching korean dramas long time ago, i mean in terms of fangirling and binge-watching but Lovely Runner blows my mind!My fingers are all curl up during “Sun Jae-ya!”. I love Hyeyoon cutesy and Wooseok’s smiley eyes. I love them, i love my pawrents!
Time-travelled story is quite difficult to understand unless you are slowly into it and a lot of questions for sure will pop up here and there, I do find myself in that situation but I keep on watching as I want to know the ending and ya! a super great ending!
All the OSTs are so great and I am still listening to them. Byeon Woo Seok has a nice voice, very good in acting, and he is just a perf-
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Just Go and Watch it!
Initially, I was contemplating whether to watch it or not. And I am glad that I watched it.I think rather than the storyline, the chemistry between leads hooked me till the end. Gosh.
My single soul craves such love.
If you're in the drama slum and nothing's catching your interest, this drama may be a good choice as it was for me.
HIGHLY Recommended!! <3
But be ready to cry your eye out because it is worth it.
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The loveliest of them all
I love this drama with all my heart. It has become quiete rare that I rewatch episodes right after airing to savour them again. This is peak kdrama, that made me squee, cry and laugh. The acting, OST and chemistry between the leads is top notch. It catapultated Byeon Woo Seok to Superstardom, because his romantic lead was so endearing, Kim Hye Yoon did the emotional heavy lifting.The story wasnt perfect, but the romance was so sweet, that I still feel all fuzzy thinking about it and writing this review almost one year after watching it.
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