Overview of Lovely Runner

‘Lovely Runner’ is a South Korean romantic fantasy drama released on 8 April 2024. It features Byeon Woo-seok and Kim Hye-yoon in lead roles. The 16-episode drama was co-directed by Yoon Jong-ho and Kim Tae-yeop, and the screenplay was written by Lee Si-eun.

Profile

• Name: ‘Lovely Runner’
• Starring: Byeon Woo-seok, Kim Hye-yoon
• Genre: Romance, Fantasy, Time slip, Comedy
• Directed by: Yoon Jong-ho, Kim Tae-yeop
• Screenplay by: Lee Si-eun
• No. of episodes: 16
• Country: South Korea
• Language: Korean
• Release date: 8 April – 28 May 2024
• Running time: 70 minutes
• Based on: ‘Tomorrow’s Best’ by Kim Bbang

Cast

Main Cast

Supporting

Special Appearance

Synopsis

Im Sol receives a call from a radio station when she is lying on her hospital bed, half paralysed after an accident. Annoyed, she picks up the call, and on the other end, Sun-jae, an upcoming K-pop idol, talks to her. Im Sol shouts back at Sun-jae and the RJ because she feels that they are making fun of her when they offer a cycle or a pair of shoes as a gift.

Sun-jae understands that Im Sol is going through a hard time. Therefore, he patiently talks to her and motivates her to overcome the challenge with a positive mindset.

The words of Sun-jae open a new door to a happy life in front of Sun-jae. Five years later, she is still in a wheelchair, but she manages to find a good job. By the time Sun-jae’s band grows into a major K-pop group. Besides, he also became a famous actor. However, the busy schedule and high expectations make Sun-jae depressed.

During school days, Sun-jae was a promising swimmer, but due to a shoulder injury, he quit swimming. Even after achieving success in his career, he felt lonely and depressed. Unable to bear the weight on his shoulders, Sun-jae commits suicide in a hotel after a concert. Im Sol has also booked for the concert, but unfortunately, she could not enter the concert hall on time. However, she enjoyed him singing by sitting in her wheelchair outside. On her way back home, her wheelchair gets stuck, and sitting in the snowfall, she thinks about how terrible her day was.

Seeing a girl sitting in her wheelchair in the cold, Sun-jae, who was heading back to his hotel room after the concert, stops his car. He appears in front of her with an umbrella and offers a lift, but by the time her friend comes to pick her up.

After reaching home, Im Sol wakes up from her sleep by listening to the suicide news of Sun-Jae. In her wheelchair, she heads towards the hospital to which Sun-jae is taken, but on her way, she tumbles into a stream when she tries to take her watch (Sun-jae’s watch that she brought by spending a lot of money). When she presses a button on the watch, she time-travels to her school days.

Living her school days once again, she decides to save Sun-jae at all costs. On the other hand, the young Sun-jae has a secret crush on Im Sol. At the radio station, he intentionally dialed her number to know about her well-being. Im Sol, who time-traveled from the future, loves Sun-jae, but the time she goes back to the present, the young Im Sol (when she was in high school, she had a crush on a popular boy, and it is due to this reason Sun-jae refused to approach her when they were in school) shows a love interest in another boy.

Whenever Im Sol travels back to the future, her younger self takes control of the scene. Nonetheless, the things that she does after traveling to the past make changes in the future. Her back-and-forth time travel creates confusion for her ex-boyfriend and Sun-jae. When Im Sol from the future (who loves Sun-jae) travels back to the future, young Im Sol, who is unaware of the existence of Sun-jae, starts to ignore him. Nonetheless, whatever happened in the past, Im Sol re-establishes her friendship with Sun-jae and tries to be with him always when she time-travels back.

Im Sol believes that it is due to her friendship that Sun-jae starts to fall for her. But in reality, Sun-jae has already been in love with her from the first time he saw her. Once he has traveled with her on a bus to confess his feelings, but, unfortunately, he misses the stop where Im Sol gets off.

Im Sol misses her stop since she was sleeping on the bus. Therefore, she gets off at an unknown station, hoping to find a taxi. Sadly, the taxi that she asked for help from is a psycho killer’s car. Though she tries to run, he follows her in his car. At the same time, Sun-jae, who deboarded at the next station, comes to her help. It is that accident that made her half-paralysed.

She realises that the things will repeat again. Therefore, she decides to keep a distance from Sun-jae to stop him from following her and from becoming a prey of the psycho killer. Therefore, the second time the same thing happens in the past, she runs away from the killer’s grip by taking away his car’s key. Also, she tried running on a different path in which the killer cannot follow her in his car. Her mindful action and Sun-jae’s timely arrival saved her from the accident. The next time, when she time-travels back to the future, she finds herself standing on her feet and doing her dream job that she once lost due to her health condition.

Also, she learns that Sun-je is still alive and has the same feelings for her. To assure the safety of Sun-jae, she time-travels once again to the time when Sun-jae first met her, but, instead of appearing in front of him, she hides from him.

Afterwards, the future scenes show Sun-jae as a prominent actor. Also, he does not know her, since he did not meet Im Sol in the past. However, destiny brings them together again. This time, both Sun-jae and Im Sol are out of danger. Later, Sun-jae discovers his forgotten memories and approaches Im Sol with his pure love.

Theme

‘Lovely Runner’ is not just a romantic fantasy drama that tells the story of two people. It is the type of drama that leaves an emotional impact on its viewers. The romance story blooms when the female lead character, Im Sol, gets a chance to travel back and rewrite their tragic story. The idea of traveling to the past is impossible in reality. However, with the assistance of the theme, Im Sol is writing a love story by changing the events that will lead to tragedy in the future.

The drama discusses themes like true love, fate, destiny, and hope.

Awards

• APAN Star Awards 2024
  Best Couple – Byeon Woo-seok and Kim Hye-yoon
  Popularity Award, Actor – Byeon Woo-seok
  Excellence Actress in a Serial Drama – Jung Young-ju
  Best OST – Eclipse – “Sudden Shower”
  Global Star – Byeon Woo-seok
  Popularity Award, Actress – Kim Hye-yoon
• Asia Contents Awards & Global OTT Awards 2024
  People’s Choice Award – Kim Hye-yoon
  People’s Choice Award – Byeon Woo-seok
• Brand of the Year Awards 2024
  Actor – Hot Trend – Byeon Woo-seok
  Actress – Scene Stealer – Jung Young-ju
  Actor – Rising Star – Song Geon-hee
  Actress – Hot Trend – Kim Hye-yoon
  Actor – Idol – Lee Seung-hyub
• Asian Television Awards 2024
  Best Theme Song (Korea) – Byeon Woo-seok
• KAA Awards – Korea Advertisers Association 2024
  Program of the Year – “Lovely Runner”
• Korea Grand Music Awards 2024
  Best OST – Yoo Hwe-seung (N.Flying) – I Think I Did
• Seoul International Drama Awards 2024
  Outstanding Asian Star: Korea Popularity Award (Male) – Byeon Woo-seok
  Outstanding Asian Star: Korea Popularity Award (Female) – Kim Hye-yoon
• MAMA Awards 2024
  Favorite Global Trending Music – Byeon Woo-seok
• Melon Music Awards 2024
  Best OST – Eclipse – Sudden Shower
• Asian Academy Creative Awards 2024
  Best Cinematography (Korea) – Yoon Dae-young

Interesting Facts about Lovely Runner

1. Initially, ‘Lovely Runner’ was scheduled to stream in 2023, but the streaming got delayed due to the modification made in the streaming time of Monday and Tuesday shows on tvN.
2. ‘Lovely Runner’ streamed on platforms like TVING, U-Next, Vidio, Viki, Viu, and Netflix.
3. Kim Hye-yoon was praised by the film critic Jung Duk-hyun for the lively portrayal of Im Sol.
4. The principal photography of ‘Lovely Runner’ began by the end of 2023.
5. ‘Lovely Runner’ is based on a web novel released on KakaoPage in 2020. Later, in 2021, Doong Doong illustrated the web novel written by Kim Bbang into a webtoon.

FAQs

1. What is the Instagram ID of Byeon Woo-seok?
   @byeonwooseok.
2. Which actor played the lead roles in the drama ‘Lovely Runner’?
   Byeon Woo-seok and Kim Hye-yoon played the lead roles in the drama ‘Lovely Runner’.
3. Who is the director of the drama ‘Lovely Runner’?
   ‘Lovely Runner’ was co-directed by Yoon Jong-ho and Kim Tae-yeop.
4. When was the drama ‘Lovely Runner’ released?
   8 April 2014.
5. How many episodes are there in the drama ‘Lovely Runner’?
   16 episodes.