grapejuice

You can easily tell that they're ride or die besties by the way that they interact with one another. No two people are so obviously close that they can constantly tease each other and hang all over eachother lol like that without knowing and trusting each other for a long time. And HyunTak talks about how Baku stayed at his house whenever his dad got drunk ... which, as we can also tell ... would have been a regular kind of occurrence.

A comment I can totally agree with!!! And we got to it in the same way. TY :-)

Diva is how he's shown in the webtoon. The drama strips away the major tat work and jewellery but he's definitely a pretty boy in both versions. He's also a more weak looking smart boy, a thinker/tactician that people don't expect to be a fighter. Similar to Si Eun in many ways. He's quite expressionless with almost everything going on way below the surface. Profit is his main motive and that's the easiest thing to understand about him. You realize that there's some psychosis there but I don't think we're meant to understand him totally.

I binged season 1 and then binged season 2 in the same day and loved the flow from one right into the next. They are definitely two pieces of one whole; an excellent continuation. There was a necessary change in key, so to speak but Si Eun's story progression had to have an adjustment after what happened to him, and around him, in season 1. We needed a little bit more humour and we were given it so that we could all recuperate and heal a bit.

And the story was solid. For those who haven't read the webtoon, season 2 is much closer to it than season 1 was; in terms of both the characterizations and the plot. So, I hope that season 3 widens it out again to go beyond what was on the page.

The new cast was excellent and the call backs to the season 1 cast were really satisfying. You know what I mean but both felt necessary to me. I wonder if Beom Seok is still alive or if he really was killed when he got off the plane in the Philippines. Maybe we'll find out in season 3.

To be honest, I really don't understand a lot of the critique in this comment section and it bothers me that the two reviews I see first are so incredibly negative. I hope they don't keep anybody from watching something that is this good. I mean, neither of the two seasons is absolutely perfect or nitpick proof but the whole thing to this point is still a masterpiece to me.

This drama really should have a much higher rating. It's a sweet and slow slice of life providing us with a glimpse of an interesting point of time in history. The characters are realistic but fun and often very funny. There's a sense that life is small but still important. And it's just, overall, a really lovely drama. Don't try to watch it in a fast binge or anything. Pace yourself and enjoy the easy going nature of it. Savour just one or two episodes at a time and I think the characters will settle in with you and become your friends. By the end, they all felt like people I would like to have lived alongside. They're quite lovable in a really genuine way. So, it was an 8.5 to a 9.0 kind of drama for me.

The Grandmaster's slash was just barely preceded by a wave that hit FX. Did that also help him to regain his Qi flow?. And before that, the emporer seemed to transfer enough energy to wake him up after his being wounded had rendered him unconscious.
Also how did you know that the emporer and FX practice the same style? I wonder how that could be.

Were there rumours that he wasn't returning and he's laying them to rest? Or is it really only a goodbye for now kind of statement? Also does that mean back for the third instalment of a trilogy? Or will there be more than three? People who know?

Mizoguchi! I'm more partial to Kurosawa but only by a hair. Kurosawa did so many things well. Ikiru is my favorite film of all. But Mizoguchi knew the depth of people's relationships in a way that Kurosawa could never even get close to. And Ozu is just his own thing. Gorgeous moving still life that makes you hold your breath while you cry.

But, you know, I laughed so hard at Lovely Runner that my next door neighbour demanded to know what was so funny. And I was surprised how much I needed and enjoyed that laughter. Humour is such an individual thing but it's like food for me, in the sustenance way but also in the variety way. I love all kinds. :-)

Anyway, peace :-)

I'm afraid that this is only your opinion. Even though you keep stating it as if it's a fact.

It's possible to enjoy and value the quiet, realistic slice of life dramas and also see the merits of dramas that are aiming for grand themes and resounding laughter.

Perhaps art house is just your preference and you don't see that humour, in particular, is also an exacting art worthy of equal appreciation. It's not an uncommon thing for some people to think that there isn't the same kind of quality in a production that is particularly funny.

Truthfully, there are many quiet, slice of life dramas that some of us will think are better in quality than First Love. I enjoyed it but I also thought that it was a little bit flat and a little bit ordinary. It certainly didn't move me nearly as much as many other quiet little Japanese dramas and films have done. In fact, if you truly want to see what quality slice of life looks like, try out the work of Yasujiro Ozu.

On the other hand, I haven't encountered too many dramas that have made me laugh as often or as deeply as Lovely Runner did. And, to me, that kind of rarity also implies quality. It just doesn't have the same prejudicial snob factor.

Oh come on now. They're not in different leagues. They're in different categories.

One is a fantasy rom-com heavy on the romance and the comedy. The other is a realistic romance drama heavy on the romance and the drama but with absolutely no fantasy and absolutely no comedy at all.

Within their respective categories, they're both excellent at what they're trying to do. But they'll attract and please different people; people who want and are happy with different things.

You don't have to find something excellent about LR. But why try to talk people out of the things that they thought were excellent?

Instead, you could tell them about First love - Hatsukoi and suggest it as a next drama for them to try. I don't agree with you that it's better than Lovely Runner. They really are too different to compare, especially on the comedy front.

But First Love - Hasukoi is a really satisfying drama and it might be a good choice for a lot of the people who enjoyed the fated love part of LR.

Can't people watch and be moved by both of these dramas; each for their own relative strengths? Why compare and put one down when they are both excellent in their own way?

I'll raise your low key to a high key. That's a great idea!!!

The quality has decreased, or it has gone in a direction that you don't like? You would have written it differently and so you are not as engaged?

Why is someone with these opinions here in the first place if not to be a troll among people who accept that kdramas reflect Korean culture; if not to give voice to their ethnocentricity and disrespect others? You can feel whatever way you want about my calling someone out on their prejudices. It's one thing to express shock but it's another thing to plainly put down a culture that is not your own. So it seems we must agree to disagree. Shall we stop it here?

This isn't about my defending a popular drama against the tiniest of criticisms. This has nothing to do with Lovely Runner, at all.

If you are going to watch kdramas, you kinda have to learn, acknowledge, respect and accept that there are cultural differences that you're not always going to appreciate. @kopiko_kdrama isn't criticizing the drama so much as she is critiquing the culture for being different than what she (as, presumably, an outsider) would want it to be.

Sometimes people don't realize the difference. They'll criticize aeygo because they don't realize that Koreans just really like cuteness when others may not. They'll criticize conservative attitudes or particular themes in kdramas without realizing that they are realities in Korea.

But @kopiko_ is an experienced kdrama watcher who should probably have realized the differences by now. And realize what her criticism is actually cutting into.

So, you don't think that's worth a counter-critique? Ok. But I do.

And yes we all have the right to express our opinions on an open forum which means that, once you've spoken, you have to expect and allow counter opinions such as mine since I also have a right to speak my mind.

Troll. Nobody here cares about or shares this opinion. So you should probably take it somewhere else. I mean, what are you even doing here? It's sad that you'd go so far out of your way to try to make trouble.

Yes. You're right! We'll be getting the romance and all the bromances too. That really is an excellent trip to look forward to :-)

Ah a troll is lost in the wrong place for people who think that Kdramas are cringe. This is humour. Not serious or cringe. They literally got together 5 seconds ago. This is the first anybody has heard or seen of it and he has a hundred condoms in his bag. LoL. Also, cultures and times differ ... so try to catch your thinking up to that too.

might you be in the wrong thread perhaps?