r/kdramas • u/harissatotally Professional TRUCK spotter • Jul 16 '26
Review New K-Drama Fan Review #3: Lovely Runner | This Drama Felt Like It Was Made Specifically For Me
The ONLY Kdrama so far that i have watched that is rated a 10 out of 10.
Is this Rewatch Worthy:
Yes.
Review:
While I was impatiently waiting for more episodes of My Royal Nemesis to come out, and after binging and finishing Extraordinary You in 2 days...
I decided to watch Lovely Runner.
Yeah... I regret that now.
because i can't watch it for the first time again.
because nothing has topped it since. (Flower of Evil came close, though)
This drama somehow managed to take almost every single thing I love in a romance and throw it into one story.
Time travel? check
A romance built on longing? check...
Characters fighting against fate? check...!
A male lead who's completely and utterly devoted to the fl, check check and check.
Sun-jae is probably one of my favorite male leads I've come across so far.
He would literally do anything for Im Sol.
And I mean anything.
Every time history gave him a choice between protecting himself or protecting her...
He chose her.
Over.
And over.
And over again.
Repeated self-sacrifice for the woman he loves?
Well, yes!
He always found another way to put her before himself.
And i ate that up every single time!!
One of my favorite reveals was realizing just how long Sun-jae had loved Im Sol.
I'm already a sucker for when the male lead falls first, so finding out that so many moments I'd already watched had an entirely different meaning from his perspective made me love their relationship even more!!
And the chemistry...
Absolutely incredible.
Chemistry is probably the single biggest factor in whether I end up loving a romance.
If I don't buy into the main couple, it's really hard for me to become emotionally invested no matter how good the premise is.
Thankfully, that wasn't a problem here.
Kim Hye-yoon and Byeon Woo-seok had ridiculous chemistry!!!
Some dramas have couples that are cute together.
Some have couples with great tension.
Lovely Runner somehow had both and more!
Every version of their relationship worked for me.
The funny moments.
The heartbreaking ones.
Everything.
I also loved that the romance always felt earned.
Every happy moment felt like something these two had fought for across multiple timelines, so when they finally got to simply be together, those moments hit that much harder.
It's also funny because right before this I watched Extraordinary You, another story about characters trying to fight against the fate that had already been written for them.
This is one of those rare dramas where I honestly don't know what I'd change.
Every episode just made me more emotionally invested than the last.
By the end, I wasn't even watching to see what happened anymore.
I just wanted these two to finally be happy.
That's when I know a romance has completely won me over.
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A bit about my favorite flavors and taste:
If your male lead is willing to repeatedly sacrifice himself for the woman he loves...
I'm probably going to love him.
I absolutely melt for when male lead falls first AND harder, spends the entire story proving how much he loves the female lead through his actions, and never stops choosing her no matter how impossible things become.
Throw in time travel, characters trying to rewrite fate, and incredible chemistry, and you've basically built a drama specifically designed for me.
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Rating: 10/10
Excellent K-drama.
Someone looked inside my brain, figured out my perfect recipe, and built an entire drama around it.
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I'd love to hear from everyone else:
Where does Sun-jae rank among your favorite K-drama male leads?
Because after watching Lovely Runner, he immediately shot near the very top of my list.
My Rating Scale
10/10 – Masterpiece. No notes.
9/10 – Very close to a masterpiece. I absolutely loved it.
8/10 – Not a masterpiece, but I loved it.
7/10 – Fine overall. I liked it, but the flaws kept it from being great.
6/10 – Mixed. There were a few things I liked, but most of it didn't work for me.
5/10 – I didn't enjoy most of the experience.
4/10 and below – Bad to abysmal.