If you’re looking for a new show to get swept away by (and aren’t afraid of losing all sense of time and reality for a while), I’d recommend checking out a Korean drama. If you’re in the mood to swoon over a tall, dashing Korean man, who will make you feel as though you’re 16 and falling in love for the first time again, well, you’ve got to watch Lovely Runner.
Korean Millennial Women Are Obsessed with This K-Drama—So Of Course I Had to Stream All 16 Episodes
Be still, my aging heart
•
Published Jul 26, 2024
tvN
Lovely Runner, which, incidentally, has nothing to do with running, is a time-traveling love story that follows Im Sol (played by Kim Hye-Yoon), who slips between past and present day to try and rewrite the fate of her beloved, Sun Jae (Byeon Woo-Seok). Think: Romance novel meets Butterfly Effect interspersed with moments of humor, and even a psycho murderer in the mix. Yeah, it’s a lot.
Chaotic plot and pacing aside, the chemistry between the two leads is so magnetic that if you have eyes and a pulse, you will get sucked into their storyline.
tvN
This brings me to the aforementioned heart stealer, Sun Jae, played by actor Byeon Woo-Seok, who caused a nationwide frenzy in Korea throughout the series run. Towering over his petite costar, the former model is 6’3” and has the broad shoulders and lean build of an Olympic swimmer. The man, by all conventional and objective measures, is attractive.
tvN
But as many of us have learned by now, looks can only get you so far. What’s really captivating about someone is their emotional intelligence, a kind heart, a solid sense of self and humor—all of which Byeon encompasses as Sun Jae. Oh, and get this. The dude can sing, too. In fact, the title track Byeon sings with his fictional band from the show charted on Billboard. (Have I belted it in the car and shower ever since? 100 percent.)
Throughout Lovely Runner, you see many sides of Sun Jae, especially as we time travel between his high school years to his 34-year-old adult self. But one side that remains consistent is his unwavering loyalty to Sol, and his vulnerability towards her. Sun Jae embodies whatever the exact opposite of toxic masculinity is, even though he appears very Alpha externally. You know, I’m just now realizing that Sun Jae reminds me a bit of Channing Tatum’s character in She’s The Man, but even more emotionally aware and expressive. So yes, very swoon-worthy.
There was even a viral YouTube Shorts video titled, “The current state of Korean women (watching Ryu Sunjae videos all day)” that showed fans watching the show at work, in bed, in the car and at restaurants in a trancelike stupor.
Sun Jae Syndrome reached international fans as well. In my very own circles, I know several adult women who get all starry eyed when they talk about him. I texted one such friend (Hi, Helen!) just now, asking, “Why do you think this show and this actor caused such a frenzy for so many women?”
She brought the question to her group chat, and within minutes, it popped off the way the best group chats do:
“His love in the drama was pure.”
“His eyeballs are so pretty”
“Him singing the song himself was the cherry on top. And that he can sing so well when he’s not an ex-idol but looks like one, and his range! He plays a high school swimmer and a 30-something adult, and none of it was awkward.”
Ultimately, though, the group concludes that a lot of it was timing, too. “It’s been a while since we had a good, simple, cute, lovey dovey drama that tugged at your heartstrings,” sums Helen.
After watching the series myself, I agree. There’s something very pure and uncomplicated about the two character’s love for each other. Watching them, you’re reminded of that all-consuming feeling of falling in love for the very first time.
Heart flutters aside, there is also a cathartic element to watching Korean dramas. As a Korean American who grew up watching them, I am clearly biased, so I’ll share this email I got from a PureWow reader recently:
“I had never heard of [K-Dramas] before, but they kept being recommended on my Netflix account, so I decided to give one a try and fell in love with them. It was the perfect G-rated escape from the hard and sad days I was going through. Instead of escaping the pain with alcohol or some other substance, I escaped with K-Dramas. Sometimes I laughed, sometimes I cried, but the stories always reminded me that we all deal with the same struggles and hardships in life and celebrate the same achievements and happy events.”
I mean, what more could we possibly want from a TV show, right? Lovely Runner is currently available to stream on Viki, and will make its way to Netflix on August 1.
