Time Walking on Memory (2024)

Had high expectation but felt short!

Lovely Runner has been on my plan to watch list forever and I finally completed it. Unfortunately, I am disappointed after watching it, especially given the high rating and awards the show has won. I struggled with the first 10 episodes, from episodes 11 to 15 it got better and then there was the last episode ( not sure if we even needed it…)
What’s good:
1) ML’s acting. I thought he did a decent job as a ML. Only saw 1 movie of him prior to this show so no real expectation.
2) Chemistry between the three actors, BWS, SGH and LSH. Whenever there was a scene between them it brought a smile to my face or a LOL.
3) Decent OST
What’s not great:
1) The plot - too repetitive, boring and confusing. I did want to drop the show because of it but I preserved until the end because I don’t like dropping dramas lol.
2) Chemistry between ML and FL. I know this is possibly an unpopular opinion but for me it was just average. I really don’t feel the electrifying chemistry between them, which made it difficult to watch because the show is about great first love who timed travel many times over to save each other. I felt there was better chemistry between the FL and SML (SGH).

Overall, I would not rewatch this show. If you like the actors/actress then give it a go. It is an ok show to watch but definitely no more than that, in my opinion.

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I really don't know what exact feeling am I giving to this drama...

The story is nice and understandable, though I was kinda annoyed by how it goes because she kept coming back and forth through all the episodes. Like I was very confused and was about to drop this drama on episode 4 or something because I was so confused and I felt kinda sorry to Sol too. Like if I was her I'd end my life right away due to confusion that leds to depression....... anyway!
Actually if someone I liked told me that they are annoyed by my existence I'd never show up infront of them ever like EVER.. but this Sunjae mf still insist to follow her anywhere which is very annoying like...
I somehow don't really like the OSTs except 4 songs. ..
But the feeling when they reunited with the memories they had is so heart warming, I didn't cry the whole season but that scene made me very emotional.

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my experience with the show

lovely runner (2024)
I was hesitant when deciding to watch it, but it really got me out of my kdrama slump,
it reminded me so much of extraordinary you that I couldn't stop myself from continuing. This was my first time watching Byeon Woo-seok drama, he played well and of course I love Kim Hye-yoon, she was made for this role.
I feel bad that I didn't decide to watch it when it came out, I thought the hype was a little too much, usually when a show get too hyped it's not really that good, but I was wrong, from the plot to the soundtrack, it was absolutely wonderful. I'm a sucker for time traveling and the FL I was familiar, it felt nostalgic. I really do think that everyone should at least give this show a chance. It was worth it, even if I was 6 months late, it was quite an enjoyable experience.

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The More I Watched It, The More I Got Pissed Off

First and foremost, how the hell do you able to mess up such a beautiful idea like this? The idea for this drama is really good, but yet the writer decided to screw it up. This drama should be ended in episode 12, even 8! The third time travel is uneccessary. Also the serial killer idea is really awful. Out of 9 million citizens of Seoul, why did the serial killer have to keep choosing Sol IN ALL OF THE TIMEFRAME? The serial killer in the third time travel already feels unecessary because Sol has dodged it in the second time travel, but maybe they need it because he kills Sun-Jae in the present. Yet the serial killer should not even show up in the present after the fourth time travel, because the timeframe have been changed! Those two premises are there just only to support the ending that the writer's intended, nothing more. This drama might be too long that they have to add ridiculous things such as the second watch, that one is horrendous! I understand that most K-Dramas has strong start and hollow ending, but I really don't expect this one became silly only after half of the season.

On the contrary, thanks to Hye Yoon, Woo Seok and Geon Hee who plays their characters excellently, they literally carry this drama. Overall, this drama is still enjoyable since it brings a lot of morale of the story, but you may get frustrated with the storyline after watching several episodes.

EDIT: After watching several more shows, I noticed that this show has a good example of how a last episode should be.

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loving this drama but SML

older FL version goes into past and destroyed Younger FL's first Love
Your FL doesn't love ML or even notice him, Her first Love was always SML which was forced to breakup by older FL
which i find disturbing
adding SML even after they grown up, is dragging a love triangle which doesn't even have any hope for SML
Younger FL feelings were dismissed and neglected by her older self and forced her love on younger version

I have no problem with ML and Fl being together , i got this is light hearted but Love triangle make no sense
there is no need after she broke up with him peacefully
why dragging SML ? because there is no other story then love and a kidnapper is promoted to killer

reduced my ratings from 9.5 to 6.5 after watching ep 12 and 13
this was a good drama and it should have ended withing 10 to max 12 episodes, but for more money they will drama four Hour they don't even have any story for that, they don't even have 2nd lead couple neither they want to give screen time to her brother and besties love story,
ML and FL are good to look at but they are being forced together that is showing on there face
all chemistry vanishes after they finally had a proper kiss, that all there love was One kiss and after that there chemistry just leave the planet..
and drama try to become some confusing time traveling epic but its just a mess, when writers don't have any story they are just filling 4 hour to get some commercials
it stared very well then like every other Kdrama it went downhill from mid of the show....
common thing between most of Kdramas

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The Best of Actors Can't Fix a Poorly Written Script

**Disclaimer... This is just my opinion. I recognize and truly appreciate all of the hard work that has gone into producing this drama. Thank you.**

There are already many detailed reviews that go over every aspect of the series so I'll keep this short and try to avoid spoilers. The Lovely Runner started out strong but floundered in the end. Though I didn't like the choice of time travel device I was interested in the characters and the female lead's quest to save the male lead. He had inspired her to keep living when she was at her lowest. He was gentle and kind towards a total stranger over the phone and then again when he met her in person. The female lead's despair after her accident was moving. I wanted them to be able to change their fates. Unfortunately, there are so many gaps in logic and my ability to overlook them that I became increasingly frustrated as time went on.

I think that the actors did a great job with what they had to work with. I found Im Sol's immaturity grating. She was supposed to be 34 in a 19 year old's body but she didn't act like it. She had good intentions as far as saving Sun-jae but she was also often unnecessarily mean and selfish. Both Ryu San-jae and Kim Tae-sung are genuinely good guys but their characters and stories were not developed enough.

Lastly, the soundtrack has some beautiful songs on it, particularly the ones by Byeon Woo-seok.

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Started out strong, downhill ep 12 on

The moment she left the train, all logic lost.

The story started out fun & interesting, so I thought it was going to be as strong as the drama "Extraordinary you."
Favorite aspects of this drama:
-ML Byeon Woo Seok did an amazing job and surprised me with that singing voice.
-FL Kim Hye Yoon always does a great job with these kinds of roles.
-The pairing is super cute, great chemistry

Not so great....
-Weak supporting characters & stories.
-Pacing started to slow down midway, and the constant crying scenes got repetitive. Nowadays the most annoying trend is for dramas to replay scenes that JUST happened 10 seconds ago as if viewers need a reminder.
-Ep 12 on the script went south as the FL made illogical decisions. And if you just go with those decisions she comes back to current time, shouldn't she try to find the SAME one-dimensional suspect? Girl has a cop friend/2wk ex/15 yrs 2nd lead she can ask..... Running away from the killer situation is not really fixing the source of the problem.

Downfall of many fluffy romances with strong beginning is the sloppy writing at the end.

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Solid typical K-drama with a time travel twist

If anyone were to recommend a k-drama to get into k-dramas, this would be a good one.

It has the modern day green flag male falling for oblivious distsy female, with a sprinkle of second lead. And can't forgot a random thriller twist that all Korean romance dramas need to have! In this one, we have a psychopath who is out to kill the male lead.

If you watched Someday or One Day, the Taiwanese drama, the time traveling kind of reminds me of that. But they were able to incorporate their own flair to time traveling to make it so clever and binge-worthy.

It's crazy this one psychopath serial killer affected their lives so much. A little too draggy for me. And as a result, there was way too much filler for me towards the end. I couldn't even watch the last episode cause I know it'll be filler. It's not a romance k-drama without a random cute date of visiting stores and winning plushies! I also couldn't stand the female lead and her siloed decisions. She is literally the (lovely) runner.

The music, is phenomenal.

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More over-the-top comedy than I expected, especially from a supposedly 30-year old woman.

Subjective Gut Rating: 8.25

My expectations of the drama might have ruined “Lovely Runner” a little bit for me. I was expecting a back-to-the-past sweet and innocent romance with some longing, angst and uncertainty due to the fantasy element of the show. But in reality, this drama is full of over-the-top comedic moments and loud characters that I was not prepared for. I am not adverse to comedy. There are actually a few very funny laugh-out-loud moments that I enjoy tremendously through the creative writing of the team. I just had some troubles adjusting and re-calibrating to the tone difference (expectations vs reality) and I believe this dampened my enjoyment a little. Of course, this is all on me.

My main criticism of the show (maybe a little more objective than my preference of the tone) is the decisions made by our female lead, Im Sol. I have a hard time believing a 30-year old woman would act quite immaturely and without a plan. I understand the initial shock of going back to the past. But once that wears off, and you have a mission to change the past, all you could come up with is to bulldoze your way into Rye Seong Jae’s life? There’s no plan of action. Instead of behaving like a mature adult (who has gone through some really tough times in life), Im Sol behaves like a teenager. The only way the drama shows her ‘maturity’ is when she yells at the kids for misbehaving.

I also feel that the drama could be shorter. After a while, it feels rather repetitive going back and forth. There aren’t enough intimate moments between the leads during their high school days. The only I could think of is in ep 12 when the leads were lying in each other’s arms and professing their love. These are the moments I want more. I would have loved to see more of the present-day timelines stories and how the leads fall in love with each other all over again. Therefore, I was especially happy in the last few episodes. That’s what I was looking for. That’s the tone of the drama that I was expecting. The last few episodes probably bump the rating back up to an 8.25-8.5.

Having said all that, there’s a lot to like about this drama. First of all, I think the acting is pretty good. I was a little unsure of Byeon Woo Seok’s acting at first, but he did a good job, especially with the more emotional scenes. He’s so tall and lanky, and really does have the body for a swimmer. The drama doesn’t shy away in showing us his perfectly toned torso and abs. He also doesn’t mind showing his sillier and pettier side. Kim Hey Yoon is such an experienced actress at a young age. I realize she’s not the young high school girl in “Sky Castle" anymore. She has matured and her acting as well. Does she look different to you? Her role as Im Sol has a lot of comedic moments. I think I like her emotional scenes more enjoyable though. Song Geon Hee plays the role of the second male lead, Kim Tae Sung. Tae Sung is a lovely bad boy character, but a typical second male lead in a K-drama. I think I would have developed second lead syndrome if I found the actor, Song Geon Hee, attractive. Well, no second lead syndrome from me. It’s Seong Jae all the way.

The supporting cast has some amazing veteran actors such as, grandma Sung Byung Sook, FL’s mom Jung Young Joo, and ML’s dad Kim Won Hae. FL’s best friend is played by Seo Hye Won. Her pairing with FL’s brother as a couple is just a little too much for me. They provide a lot comic relief, but they are too loud and annoying for my taste.

I don’t mind the mystery/crime element of the drama. At least I felt that is justified to start this whole going-back-to-the-past process. However, as mentioned earlier, it felt repetitive. I was never sure why he’s so dialed into our leads. Is it mainly because of the cell phone or a mentally ill, psychotic state of mind? The drama never really fully explains how and why the fantasy element. One can only guess from the last episode who started it all. It’s OK, I won’t judge the drama too hard for that. I am more bothered by the illogical decisions and loopholes of the drama.

“Lovely Writer” was really hyped up in the Feeds during its airing. Everyone is in love with the drama and especially how cute Byeon Woo Seok is. Because of that, I might have expected a lot more. At the time of this review, “Lovely Writer” is rated 9.1 on MDL. That’s really high for a drama from any country. I have an enjoyable time watching, especially the first ⅓ and the last ⅓ of the drama. But I could only give it an 8.25 (rounding up to 8.5) rating.


Completed: 7/7/2024 - Review #458

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Not worth the hype

Was excited about this drama because I saw the potential in Byeon Woo Seok from Record of Youth days and was anticipating another hit like Start-up. A even-paced drama that shows emotional growth and turmoil, underdogs succeeding in life, complex navigation of relationships, and maybe themes of self-acceptance and gratitude perhaps.

What we get instead is a promise that is never fulfilled. The first episode set us up for excitement and anticipation for a deep dive into the many issues in modern day society that could resonate with so many people, yet the topics are disappointingly, never explored.

1) Let's start with the obvious thing that disappointed, which was the drama showing us a suicide of a well-known celebrity (ML)suffering from depression. You think, oh god, this drama will definitely hit close to home as a nation who has lost a lot of celebrities and whose fans are still in mourning till now. You are eager to see how they will portray the events that led to such a tragic end for such a gentle spirit, how the character develops the illness, and how he might overcome it as well. The intricacies and challenges faced by celebrities who are both loved and hated, and the loneliness of these people who usually hide all the signs, struggling on their own to either come out of the darkness, or get engulfed by it. The scene where ML kindly asks the FL (who we think) is only a stranger at that point, 'Why are you crying, I never made you cry?' followed by his suicide not long after, literally broke my unguarded heart! This was the scene that made me decide on following this unique storyline. But the writers decide against allocating any time to delving into the psyche of such a character, and chooses to focus on a serial killer subplot to drive the story forward instead.

2) FL has a disability and she is shown in a wheelchair, losing a chance to get employed because the building where she applied for the job has no wheelchair access. You think awesome, we're going to see how this character lives day-to-day and get a realistic perspective on the challenges she might face as a disabled person living in such a beauty-discriminating society. However, this also gets thrown out the window once a travel back in time changes her fate. It's as if the wheelchair was just there to satisfy an arbitrary box that needed to be ticked on a 2024 what we need to do to show that we are a progressive kdrama kind of inclusion checklist.

3) We think, because both leads have incredible set-ups as characters faced with a certain level of adversity, that we will be graced with well-written scenes showcasing character growth and fortitude. No such development takes place and what we get are just repeated visits from a two dimensional eye-twitching serial killer who doesn't have much of a backstory either.

3)We never understand why the ML likes the FL. The incomprehensible attachment that the ML has for the FL does not make any sense to me. With the 2ML we at least get hints that he is suffering from lack of attention from his family and we can UNDERSTAND why he would like the FL. In the face of the 2nd ML, the FL is a little eccentric but has moments of maturity, and loves to nag and support him, showing him the care and affection he so desperately yearns from his parents instead. They have more workable chemistry than the ML has with ImSol because we get that he likes her for her and accepts her crazy ways and seemingly bipolar personality, while with the ML we only see that he was mesmerised by her because of the way she ran towards him in the rain with a yellow umbrella...?? Enough to make him move next door to her? The scenes they shared with each other also didn't convince me that he would not date anyone until 30 because he was holding onto the memory of her... Why? What was so special about her that he could not let go? As the audience, we are only sold on why she might have liked him so much (because she still carries the memory of him having thanking her for staying alive, with that becaming her motivation to live when she was at her lowest point). But what of him? It's 15 years... And they never dated or went through anything exceptionally monumental, so what was the pull?

4th) I feel that the two leads lack chemistry. I like them separately as individuals, but they are lacklustre together.

5th) Plotholes - FL can change some things, but not others... the inconsistency made it hard to stay immersed in the story because there was not a consistent basis for cause and result.

6th) it seemed like all other characters were irrelevant or unimportant to the story so it didnt really feel like a story anymore, just a show forcing us to like the main characters as a couple even though they had nothing to work with.

The good : The first few episodes were nicely done with good humour borrowing music that I remember from that time to poke fun at over-dramatic scenes that were a feature of those dramas back then.

Byeon Woo Seok is handsome, kind, and softspoken.

Kim Hye Yoon does what the role requires and does her best to not be annoying. She is not preoccupied about how she appears on screen, delivering emotional scenes without the baggage of worrying about whether or not she looks pretty doing it.

You never get the vibe that Kim Hye Soon or ImSol is trying to seduce the ML and that in itself is a big deal bc so many actresses and actors go off tangents and forget that they are there to portray their character properly, not to give us some perfunctory facial expressions as a smokescreen to enjoy cosplaying with their costars or simply indulging in the design of the character.

But the negatives outweigh the positives and this is nowhere near as satisfying for me as other kdramas ive seen such as Signal and Start-Up. If they wanted to avoid disappointing viewers, the writers should not have made the protagonists out to be more interesting than they actually are. Whats the point of having an amazing pilot only to disappoint everyone after a few episodes? I think I have outgrown kdramas for now and until Kim Seon Ho returns, I have little interest in trying anymore of these superficially written "hits".

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This drama will bring you joy and smiles from beginning to end. It's the kind of love story where fate will intervene no matter the time. A lesson in living in the moment while also fighting against fate. I truly enjoyed watching this and the beginning of my week is going to miss the giddiness this show brought me.

The story is pretty lackluster and not something overly new or exciting. Im Sol wakes up to find her entire life changed as an accident had caused her to lose the use of her legs. In her most desperate moment Ryu Sun Jae gave her the spark she needed to keep living. This spark carried her through her days and years as she fan girled for the one that saved her. But when Sun Jae unexpectedly dies her despair and a magic watch take her back in time where she can rewrite his history and save him. In the process of trying to save him she realizes things she did not know before and it takes her several attempts to try and change the fate they seem to be entangled in.

What this drama did best was the chemistry of the cast. I will never not fall in love with Ryu Sun Jae and Kim Tea Sung. Im Sol's interactions with both male leads are so much fun to watch and this cuteness is what attracted me each week wanting to watch them again and again. While the plot had its holes; such as no explanation for the stalkers obsession and no established rules for the time travel; this drama was a solid 9.5 rating for me until the last 4 episodes. In the final stretch this drama does lose its charm but still provides the happy ending fans were wanting.

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