First Impression: Run On

“Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.” – Thomas Wayne (Batman Begins)

Drama Profile

Title: Run On
Main Cast: Im Si-wan, Shin Se-kyung, Choi Soo-young, Kang Tae-oh
Writer: Park Shi-yun
PD: Lee Jae-hoon (The Ghost Detective, Chief Kim, A Beautiful Mind, Page Turner)
Timeslot: Wednesday and Thursday / 21:00 KST
Network: jtbc
Episodes: 16
Genre: Romantic Comedy

Plot Synopsis:

A former ace sprinter resets his life as an aspiring sports agent after a bullying incident. His life is changed forever after meeting a spunky movie subtitle translator.

Major Trope: Poor girl meets rich boy

Grumpy’s First Impression:

My Geurae is back! This my first Si-wan romantic comedy, and the last that I saw of him was The King Loves, which makes Run On one of my most anticipated dramas for 2020. I didn’t watch Strangers From Hell (his comeback drama) so this is also my official taste of the new and improved version of our cutesy innocent boy turned sangnamja! Okay enough fangirling over Im Si-wan. Let’s get right into the drama’s first two episodes…

The introduction was pretty decent for a K-drama romantic comedy. It was a very refreshing meet-cute with all the fake gun hurling fiasco. Ki Sun-gyeom (Im Si-wan) was a borderline male lead stereotype – rich and mysterious – while Oh Mi-joo (Shin Se-kyung) was a straightforward poor girl who will change the way the Ki Sun-gyeom sees himself and the world. Can I just say, I love how the main characters were ordinary people just living very opposite lives. A track and field athlete and a translator falling in love? YES. Subtitling is one of the most underrated jobs worldwide and we all couldn’t thank them enough for translating all the beautiful dramas and movies we watched over the years. Subtitling in itself is hard enough, and the job requires them to convey the scene into the right words to make the audiences feel the perfect emotion.

It’s also pretty refreshing to see a drama without a love triangle for a change. Ugh, 2020 is the year of love triangles and I’m sick of all the second leads stealing the limelight and bruising our weak hearts.

ANYWAY, another thing I wanted to point out was that the drama gave me some Record of Youth vibe towards the beginning. Maybe because of the showbiz backdrop? Or the agency of CEO Seo Dan-ah (Sooyoung) reminds me of Jjampong Entertainment? Or Mi-joo was just like Ahn Jeong-ha? Is it the fast development between the two leads? Or maybe the color grading was similar? I don’t know! But hopefully, it wouldn’t disappoint just like the other one! Ack.

This is an Im Si-wan drama so this means the acting is topnotch. I’d like to be honest, though, that I’m not the biggest Shin Se-kyung fan here and I’m worried about her acting at first. But the two episodes were really promising and given that she had the most screen time among all four leads, she was able to pull through the needed emotions for the blunt and struggling Oh Mi-joo.

Now for the main storyline, the two leads had so many chance encounters and I loved every single one of them! I am so excited to see their dynamic and how much of Sun-gyeom will Mi-joo be able to penetrate. He’s an oddball who could really appear as mean to other people, but I honestly like his personality. He says what you need to hear and doesn’t hesitate to tell you as it is. (I think basically everyone in this drama had no filter when it comes to blurting out what needs to be said.)

The only question I have for now is that are we pushing for a Candy in the name of Mi-joo? Because I don’t want her to be one! Well, at least for now, there are no signs of her being a candy except maybe Sun-gyeom’s connections. But as to her personality, she’s very strong and capable. Although I was absolutely amused that the movie line she mentioned to Sun-gyeom in the second episode was from “Batman Begins!” LOL. Just when I thought she’s very predictable, she surprises me in a good way.

I still don’t know what to say about Dan-ah. She seems like she has a lot of angst against her family, most specially her half-brother. Hopefully, we’ll get to know her and her love interest Yeong-hwa (Kang Tae-oh) in the next episodes.

GRUMPY ALLEY

🏃 Same, girl, same.

🏃 Sad that they had to make Mi-joo apologize to that misogynistic professor! Why do poor people have to suck it all up just to succeed in life??? WHY???