Run On (2020)

Be a little selfish sometimes

To be honest, in the beginning, this show made me want to run, away. Though I didn’t give up on it, it’s actually pretty good and I grew a soft spot for it. It’s a slow-paced drama though, so if you’re going into it wanting fights and etc, this isn't really your drama. I would actually recommend this drama even if you don’t like slow-paced ones. The relationships between the two couples are adorable and it doesn’t look forced. Yk how sometimes actors just can’t fit the role, that is not the case. Shiwan’s part in this show is everything, in the beginning, I really thought this man had no emotions, that’s what turned me off from the show completely. But then watching it more I grew to him and now I want to give him a kiss. Though the OST isn’t that memorable they still fit the vibes of the drama. Also, I loved the addition of the LGBTQ characters in the show, though nothing went far with him he had a special place. We’ve seen Se-Kyung in many other shows, her acting in this one is chef kisses, all the actors/actresses in this show are just great. I think this show had enough of everything and in the end, even from the beginning, we knew the two main characters the two main couples were completely different from each other. In the show we particularly grew with these characters, we saw all of them grow,. And in the show, this was repeatedly said to love yourself before you can love anyone else, and sometimes put yourself in front of everyone. It gave a great message, I 100% recommend this whether you like slow-paced dramas or not, it is so worth it. Every episode just keeps leaving you wanting more.

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Refreshing healing drama

"Maintaining your pace is very important when running. You can slow down if you're struggling, just don't give up. You can do that as an adult, right?"

While reading the comment section, I realized, many people didn't want to start the drama because the plot didn't catch their attention or they didn't like it at all. But! they were nicely surprised after they started watching. I was thinking why that could be and came to a conclusion, that maybe the plot isn't the strongest point of Run On, but overall supports the whole drama really well. And it doesn't mean it's bad, it's just that plot itself is not super dramatic and isn't what will keep you watching. (And that might be a good point too. I think a long time k-drama watchers are all sick of unnecessary drama and evil characters.^^)

"Don't do it if you don't want to. You don't always have to overcome everything. So if you don't want to do something, just don't."

For me, what I think that sells this drama are the dialogues. Run On is very dialogue-heavy. To the point where you might be a little taken aback at the beginning. What is this? Isn't it a little weird? And why am I enjoying it so much? I have to say, the warmness of the dialogues made me keep waiting for Wednesdays and Thursdays. I was going through some hard times while the drama was airing and somehow, I found my safe space in every episode. Sometimes, I felt like the dialogues are talking directly to me. Sometimes it made me look at things from a different perspective. I mean, that couldn't be a coincidence. This drama is really personal and will probably speak in some way to everyone.

"Who do you think will end up living with me forever? It's me. Myself. And in your case, it's you. So you need to take good care of yourself and fix yourself whenever something breaks."

When it comes to actors, I can't imagine anyone else playing their roles. Especially the 4 leads. That's what good casting means. After I've seen some behind the scenes, it felt like they all matched in real life too, which made it really comfortable to watch. Above that, what if I told you there is no love triangle? In k-drama land, this deserves applause. I mean, the writer showed us that you really don't need a love triangle and unreasonably evil characters to make a good drama. That doesn't mean they are all perfect, but they have their reasons and I think all the leads and even supporting characters showed us some growth and development. And what I really loved about the show was that everyone had a backstory and a lot of screentime (and despite that, it wasn't boring, which happens a lot).

OSTs were good. Not the best, I've ever heard but I have my favorites in them. The main OST by Lucy is especially catchy and I think it will forever bring memories of the drama to me.

Because this drama started so well, I was a little worried if it can keep its pace until the end. But now, after watching the last episode, I can say that wasn't the case at all. I enjoyed it until the last minute, the drama didn't fail to surprise me even in the last episodes. Sometimes it gave me a good and honest laugh and sometimes it made me teary-eyed. The messages it brings are rarely seen but timeless at the same time. In conclusion, I highly recommend it to anyone. I know people have different tastes and it might not speak to you as much as it spoke to me, but please, give it at least 4 episodes before you decide whether to continue with the drama or not. I am sure it won't be a waste of time.

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a lighthearted and addicting watch!

All I'm going to say is that this show is such an easy and enjoyable watch! If you're looking for something that will not drag too much and will entice you to keep going, this is the show to go for. Although I did start to lose interest in the end due to an unnecessary conflict, it was such a fast watch to the point where I didn't realize I had already watched 3 episodes (which is literally 3 hours!).

Concept: I really enjoyed the concept! I absolutely LOVED how the female lead worked as a translator and in the movie business, as it made the concept relevant and cute. I also loved when the male lead was a runner, and I loved how when he was asked how it feels to be a professional runner he just said "It feels like I'm always out of breath."

Characters: I found the male lead to be very unique, with the combination of the written character and the way the actor portrayed it creating a very unusual character. To this day, I'm not sure if I necessarily loved him, but to see someone naturally odd and innocent was refreshing. Meanwhile, even though the female lead was a little confusing sometimes, she was a very strong and lovable character. Also, the relationship between Kim Woo Sik, the male lead, and the top runner (sorry I forgot his name) was so wholesome and made me extremely happy. Additionally, the second couple was intriguing enough, but as someone who was expecting to absolutely love them, the way their relationship went was a bit disappointing.

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A Slice of Realism Pie

TW for a verbally and borderline physically abusive relationship.

This drama confronts some issues head on and it really does it well in my opinion. The main message is to be your own star, stand up for yourself, and that it is okay to be different. There are many romcoms out there and very rarely does one shine out from the rest with nary a need for the skip button. This drama filled all my romcom needs while still portraying realistic (or as real as it gets in drama world) characters, relationships, and outcomes. The characters can be eccentric but still came off as refreshing and fun.

There isn't much in the way of a in-depth storyline with Run On if I'm quite honest. This drama is entirely character and relationship motivated. Even though there wasn't much happening outside of the characters daily life, I found myself enjoying the simple moments and becoming attached to the characters. I was happy to watch them grow together or just maintain their wonderfully down-to-earth relationships. There are so many points to this drama that are in the quiet moments or between the lines and I love how honest this drama was.

The acting was wonderful. I laughed, smiled, was angry, and cried along the way. Every person was portrayed well and conveyed the emotions perfectly. The chemistry between all of the actors really carried the drama and made it easy to watch. The OST is lovely and resonates as well.

All in all, a really lovely and simplistic drama. I would say this is a drama for rainy days or when you want something sweet but deep. This is entirely character motivated so it might not be your cup of tea if you prefer storyline motivated dramas.

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Heart touching Drama :)

Minor spoilers
I was browsing through my Netflix and that's when this drama popped up. Was kind of bit reluctant to start as I didn't like any of Shin Kyung's previous dramas. The rest of the crew - this would be their first drama am watching so definitely there was bit of a hesitation from my side to start this drama. Boy, I'm so glad that I decided to watch it as I was completely blown off.
Story wise it was nothing fancy. Normal life being portrayed about Ki Syeong and his family and Oh Mi Joo's work life. Despite being an orphan her character did show us that we can attain anything what we wish for. She was someone who didn't stand to take c**p from other people who mistreated her. And then there were the side couples - One being rich and ill finds joy and love thru Lee Youngs paintings. She struggles to find a bond with her father and siblings but at the end she learns to accept the facts. I like the part where they were able to show the storyline for side cast like Dong Kyung and her kids. Being a single mom she focused more on her job and other kids when she had no clue what was happening with her own children. Ki Syeong's personality was quite blunt or more like speaking with no emotions, which changed once he met Oh Mi Joo. He finally learned to love himself and overcome this issue. Scenes where they showed his friendship with Kim Woo Sik were quite emotional. This drama showed us many motivational quotes which gave me some comfort. Best part, there was no love triangle, evil plot or revenge. This drama was quite a slow paced drama. Only issue what I felt was that it would have been better if they showed more screen time about KS's parents. There were many scenes with the main leads which I felt was unnecessary. Sad that we couldn't see who Ryan was .
Last not the least about the OST's. My favorite OST's are "Sorry" "Run to you" and "Ride or Die" ❤️
This is definitely a must watch drama. It had moderate amount of humor, pain, happiness and more cute fluffy romance.

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Natural, quirky, sweet, thoughtful and emotional. This is such a cathartic drama. A great show about what it means to live according to your values and to be an adult and to grow as a person. So enjoyable to watch. Even when things were difficult and wrenching, I still enjoyed it and felt comforted by it. I heard people criticize it and say it was boring, but it simply had a pace that was slower and more character-driven, and had lots of subtle, quiet moments. The lead couple is compelling, adorable and has incredible chemistry, as does the romance between the second leads. Every character, even the secondary ones, feels interesting and fresh. Ki Seon Gyeom is my new crush, probably forever. Also, Shin Se Kyung was EXCELLENT in this and I just wanted to give her a shout-out because the last thing I saw her in was the Bride of Habaek which was just so awful that I was basically put off of her for years, but my love has been rekindled! That is the power of Run On.

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A K-Drama with real dialogue

Run-On is a bit of a mixed bag for me. I was drawn to it because of Shin Se Kyung 🥰 but I couldn't get into it for the first few episodes. It didn't seam like a traditional KDrama and I just didn't get what all the fuss was about. I later realised that it was written as if they were real people and was a genuine love story between our two main leads (Im She Wan as Ki Seon Gyeom). I was frustrated as I felt the dialogue was too slow.
However come around episode 9 or 10 it suddenly came alive and went from good to great. A lot of this was that the second leads story line - that was teased in the first half of the season - came to life. For me this was a great arc and had so much potential. Also the leads were now interacting with each other which further enhanced the story.
If I have a negative it's that this should have happened sooner as there seamed to be a lot of key moments that happened in the last four episodes and maybe they deserved more time to develop if they had been fleshed out earlier on.
I also felt Seon Dan Ah's (Sooyoung) story arc has the most potential in her fight as a woman in a male dominated family business - this was teased but again never really featured much.
Having said that, this was a very satisfying drama. Easy to watch and had a lovely ending. I think if you're new to KDramas or still on the fence, Run On may be a good intro as it's so relatable. Enjoy

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First K-drama I've finished in almost a decade

First of all, I am not a fan of k-dramas. Like really!!! I can count in one hand all the dramas that I was able to finish.
Full House, Secret Garden, My Love from the Star and now Run On..

Maybe because I hate too many conflicts, too many uncomfortable confrontations, too many plot twists which makes the story difficult to follow, too many misunderstandings and too many overly dramatic scenes and I think some of you might agree with me when I say that the K-drama world is full of these.

Now, I only watched Run On at first because I am a fan of Choi Sooyoung and of Girls Generation. She's my bias because she is so pretty, she sings well even though she's not one the main vocalist of the group, she dances well and most importantly, she's hilarious in all of their TV appearances.

I must say that I was not really quite hooked yet at episode 1, to me, 1 hour per episode is a little bit too much. True that there were some funny moments and unorthodox exhange of dialogues but most of the time, I was just looking into how much time is left before the episode is over (but I am proud to say that I didn't skip a second when I was watching this).

Despite this, I chose to stay because, well of course, Sooyoung is soooo pretty here and the main female lead is an eye-catcher as well. And I was so happy that I did.

And as the series progresses, I found myself wanting more at the end of each episode. I was like "no, it's impossible that 1 hour had passed already". I fell in love, not just with the series but the characters and the actors portraying them as well. For my taste, it was so well written. Every single frame was so well planned, detailed and executed. No moment was wasted. From the mismatch sleepers of Oh Mi Joo to the symbolic touching of the pens in Dan Ah's office.

The chemistry across all characters is overflowing. Be it the two couples, the two female leads, the two male leads, the supporting characters. Each has an overflowing chemistry with everyone.

The story is really simple and yet the turn of events where mostly unpredictable and I really don't know how they did it.

For my personal taste, this is definetely worth my time and would really love to re-watch it!!!

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A Well-Made Slice of Life Drama

This has got to be one of the best slice of life dramas I have ever watched. From the witty dialogue to the realistic lessons this drama holds, I would definitely recommend people to watch this. The characters are so well written, and the actors/actresses really brought the characters to life. I must say that this drama is very refreshing. It touches on many issues people face everyday, from coming out to loving yourself. I felt that there were some small plot holes, but it didn't throw the drama off-track. Nothing about the drama feels forced and it is overall a very enjoyable watch.

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Sometimes it's ok to be selfish.

I don't normally write reviews for dramas, but I had to make one for this. This is one of the underrated dramas that deserved more recognition.

At first glance, the storyline may seem like a typical romcom, but NO. This drama is unique in such an amazing way. Let me start with the characters. The characters in this story are not the typical romcom character you've seen, even the supporting characters are unique! We have Oh Mi Joo who's a freelance translator, who found comfort in watching movies despite having a rough past and happens to have a unique hobby of collecting fake guns. Ki Seon Gyeom who's a national athlete with elite family background and may seem aloof at first, but actually cares a lot about the people around him. He cares so much about the people around him that he forgets that sometimes he has to be selfish and take care of himself. We have Seo Dan Ah who may seem like some rude and sarcastic CEO who only cares about herself and her company and likes to play with other people's feelings, but as we get to know her more, she's actually just lonely and has no one who would look out for her. Lee Young Hwa who's seems like an easy-going, sometimes childish, art student, but we get to see that he's not as immature as we think he is. I could go on about how amazing the supporting characters are too but this review would be too long. All I can say is Seo Tae Woong is my favorite supporting character and I'd love to be an alphabet (you'll know what I mean once you watch the drama).

The storyline itself develops at the right speed, not too fast or slow, and there were no boring episodes. The storyline was just BEAUTIFUL. They gave enough time for each character to develop and the ending was perfect. The ending did not feel rushed and they gave each character the ending they deserve without ruining the plot. This is by far one of my favorite romcom dramas, where I didn't feel like the main couples had cringe-worthy moments from being too cheesy. Everything felt natural and I love how they did not make the female lead as someone who's overly dependent on the male lead. The main couple displayed a great example of what a healthy relationship should be like. The drama taught me that it's ok to be selfish sometimes and that we all have to fall in order to learn how to stand up on our own. I also think that we all need a boyfriend like Ki Seon Gyeom (or a girlfriend like Oh Mi Joo). The actors definitely did justice to the storyline and characters they played, they did such an outstanding job.

The OST for this drama is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! I have been listening to them nonstop on Spotify because it's so good! The songs all matched the scenes they were used in. There wasn't a time where I felt like the song they used was inappropriate or unsuitable for the scene.

Do give this drama a try and I promise you will not regret it! I couldn't stop watching the drama once I started. I would love to rewatch this drama soon!

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Slice of life at its finest

Run On is so creative, fresh, and fun! I found myself holding back from watching the last couple episodes because I didn't want it to end. Heck, I even watched Misaeng in the middle to cure my impending Im Siwan withdrawal (which, by the way, is now out in full force).

Run On is a show about communication, and shines with its wonderful pacing. Somehow, there's enough conflict to keep things interesting, but without too much drawn out noble idiocy or frustrating conflicts. It's light, fluffy, and warm — the perfect kind of show to help you feel better during the crazy times of 2020/2021. The cinematography is BEAUTIFUL, the dialogue is witty, and all the characters are loveable and redeemable (except maybe the slimeball director at the beginning, although he ultimately became irrelevant?).

Above all, Oh Mi Joo and Ki Seon Gyeom SHONE in this show. I rooted for them so hard, and I wished I could've seen their subtle care for each other for episodes on end. I mean, the other storylines were great as well — but I always felt sad when the scenes stepped back from these characters, and wanted to see more of them interacting with each other and their broader orbit. For once, the two leads stole the show (how rare is that in a kdrama?!). I loved how Seon Gyeom was less innocent and cheekier than he seemed. I loved how straightforward Mi Joo was, and how resilient she was too (plus, a lifestyle like hers is hardly ever depicted? How refreshing! I want to be friends with her!). Their chemistry made me want to watch all the behind-the-scenes clips. And although I know it's not the right thing to do.......... let's just say I wouldn't be opposed if they started dating in real life.

Seo Dan Ah and Lee Yong Hwa's relationship in one word would be "COMPLICATED." There was so much angst and a lot left unsaid. I must admit that some of it might've gotten lost in translation, or simply flew over my head. I'm satisfied with the ending here, although they definitely got me in the last couple of episodes. I think my perspective was like Yong Hwa's, so it was cool to be able to see Dan Ah's perspective too. I didn't understand what was wrong with the original painting until I saw the final one. I didn't understand the distinction between forcing Yong Hwa into Dan Ah's world until I saw the foil with Seon Gyeom and Mi Joo. The bbq and food scenes helped assure me they figured it out eventually.

Also, can we appreciate all these side characters? Candy is a BAMF mother. I loved the little pairing of May and Mr. Jeong. The inclusivity was done well — I like the coffee shop apology and the fact that no feelings were ever discounted. I liked the camping scene to demonstrate how families can reconcile and overcome differences. I liked our little idol for finding the love and support he always sought after (haha!). Even our hatable Assemblyman figured it out in the end. Can I say that ending this show in a movie theatre was PERFECT?

My only regret is that there were SO MANY movie references throughout the show that flew way over my head. I am not a film buff, so they ruined the immersion for me at times. And Seon Gyeom's friends never felt that necessary to me (Woo Shik is a golden retriever; you can't convince me otherwise), but I'm glad they existed. I also wish Kim Seon Ho's cameo was as Ryan, but hey, we're really grasping at straws to critique here.

Run On is a great show to watch when you want something light and lovely. This is slice of life at its peak form.

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BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN UNIQUE CHARACTERS WITH AN AESTHETICALLY PLEASING ATMOSPHERE.

First and foremost ,this is not a sports drama. So people who are not into sports and find sports dramas boring dont worry,this ain't one.
Ki seon gyeom is the main male lead and he's a sprinter. His character is so unique and realistic that most of the times i felt that he was so unreal.
The way he treats everyone around him,the way he stands up for his fellowmates (how he took responsibilty for having assaulted those two guys for hitting his junior) etc.
He is not like other kdrama characters. He is innocent but also mature.
Mijoo on the other hand is the main female lead . She is not a damsel in distress and can always stand up for herself. (no wonder seon gyeom fell for her ). She is the only one who helps and support KSG for who he is and likes him genuinely. She corrects him if he's wrong or appreciates him if he's right. A very straightforward strong woman I'd say.
Younghwa is a painter as you may all know .He acts like he's innocent especially with KSG ( i love their bromance and interactions.They're so cute) but when it comes to painting its serious business. He fell for dan ah at first sight but its more like an attraction.I can't wait to see how it develops .
Dan ah is one hell of a complicated character... there were a few references to her being gay ,but maybe it was all a reason to avoid marriage . So far her relationship with her family seems to be somewhat broken even though i've not seen her disrespecting her father ,even though she does'nt like her family. Her brother is such a cute and dumb kpop idol and it would also be interesting to see how his relationship develops with seo dan ah. Currently she hates him because they're from the same family .Well that's the excuse she gave (i find it kind of weird) but there might be more to it .
The rest of the cast are also lovable ,like seo dan ah's secretary ,KSG's parents (his dad might seem to be annoying but whatever he does is done by all dads tbh ).
KSG's sister reminded me of gu jun pyo's sister in boys over flower . A badass strong woman who is strong and also supportive of her brother.
There are no villains or bad guys in this drama ,so its free of evil.
Every character has it own flaws which makes the plot more interesting .
Overall this drama is not like other ones where its driven by its plot .Its the characters that make the drama interesting to watch and hence it might not be interesting for all people ,but I'd recommend this to all since it actually a mind healing one ...trust me it really boosts your spirit whenever you feel down .
So for having said that ,i hope you all enjoy it :)

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