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Run On (Initial Thoughts)


2020 was a great year for drama fanatics, with a plethora of Netflix Original K-dramas being released. As we move into 2021, it'll be no different as humanity undergoes a drastic evolution in our media consumption methods. A number of these dramas started late last year and will finish airing this year, with Run On being one of them. Starring Shin Se-kyung (A Girl Who Sees Smells, The Bride of Habaek) as female lead OH MI-JOO and ZE:A's Im Si-wan (The King in Love, Hell Is Other People) as male lead KI SEON-GYEOM, this romcom revolves around the blooming romance between a former celebrity sprinter who aims to become a sports agent and a feisty subtitle translator. Let's dive in.

INITIAL THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS (SPOILER ALERT)

Let me tell you that my biggest takeaway from this drama so far is how hilarious some of the moments are in episode 1. Man was cackling at some of these scenes and the humour is in no small part due to our heroine Mi-joo. Working as a Korean-to-English subtitle translator for a variety of projects, with her most recent being an internationally-acclaimed film directed by her ex-boyfriend, Mi-joo finds herself often overlooked, with her hard work and achievements going unnoticed by those around her. To her credit, while most would keep their head down and prefer to go unnoticed, our feisty female lead stands up for herself and doesn't take nonsense from others. Her strong personality creates an absurd moment early in the episode where she gets into an argument with her drunken ex-professor Hwang Guk-geon and what happens next is a completely ridiculous altercation that only a K-drama could be capable of, and she ends up embarrassing Guk-geon in front of many others. 

Unfortunately, this doesn't go well for Mi-joo, who loses an important job opportunity to her spiteful former teacher. Wanting any chance to further her career, she goes back to apologise in another snort-inducing exchange and ultimately, she's given the chance to be a pro bono interpreter for track star Ki Seon-gyeom. Seon-gyeom comes from an affluent family, with his father being powerful assemblyman Ki Jung-do and his mother being famous actress Yook Ji-woo (who Mi-joo is a huge fan of). It's quite clear to see that Seon-gyeom's parents seem to be quite detached from him, focusing more on their careers than their son, so we see that Seon-gyeom and his older sister Eun-bi share a close relationship. 

Seon-gyeom is a fairly good professional sprinter and is quite obviously favoured by the coach due to his powerful status. Coupled with his strange behaviour, this makes him stand out negatively to his teammates, with most of them finding him annoying. However, we find out that underneath what others might consider his attention-seeking nature, our hero is a sensitive and caring soul, figuring out that the sprinting team's maknae is being physically abused by the older members, and he tries to step in to help. As we go through the episode, Seon-gyeom ends up helping Mi-joo twice, once by aiding her "escape" from her ex-boyfriend and the other time by helping her catch a thief. Their contrasting personalities make their interactions with each other a riot and it's super entertaining to watch them just talk. Naturally, Seon-gyeom ends up meeting Mi-joo again at the end of the episode, when she's hired as his interpreter. Shenanigans are bound to ensue as we move along. 

I foresee this drama to have some form of corporate politics and while we get a glimpse of that in conversation between Guk-geon and Jung-do, we get a closer look at this with second female lead SEO DAN-AH [Girls Generation's Choi Soo-young (Man in the Kitchen, Tell Me What You Saw)], the CEO of the sports agency that Seon-gyeom is under. From the little we've seen of her, she's evidently a business-minded individual who shows a really condescending attitude towards Mi-joo, who she considers a gofer or a suck-up, using connections to become Seon-gyeom's personal interpreter. We really don't know too much about Dan-ah's personal life yet except for the fact that she has an idol half-brother Tae-woong who desperately wants her sisterly attention. Another character that we didn't get much information on is second male lead LEE YOUNG-HWA [Kang Tae-oh (My First First Love, The Tale of Nokdu)], who we only get the tiniest look at in episode 1. What we've gathered about him is that he's an artist who will inadvertently end up as Dan-ah's love interest, as is the way with most K-dramas (I'm pretty sure it'll turn out this way anyway). Kang Tae-oh is a pretty good comedic actor so I can definitely see his character giving us a lot of laughs. As the drama progresses, I'm sure we'll get a better idea of what our second leads are like. 

This series is still airing and just like some of the others I reviewed previously, my watching schedule should allow for a perfect finish just as it finishes its run. I'm a sucker for romcoms and after the intensity of the previous drama (shameless plug for my posts on The Uncanny Counter), it's a nice change of pace to go back to something simpler. Sports is a drama genre that I've never touched on extensively so it'll also be interesting to see how much they delve into that aspect. I mentioned earlier that Seon-gyeom will go from being a sprinter to a sports agent and while that's not mentioned in episode 1, it'll probably come into play in the next episode. You know I've heard that some people are disappointed with the way this drama is turning out and there are those who say you'll either love or totally hate this drama, no in-betweens, so I do wonder where I'll end up on that spectrum. As of right now, I'm really liking the comedy, it fits my brand of humour (then again most things do) and I'm very much looking forward to seeing our characters Run On into their futures. 

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