Run On (Review)

(런 온; aired from December 16, 2020 to February 4, 2021; 16 episodes)

Run On is a romantic comedy focused on the romance between a former professional sprinter and subtitle translator (I know, sounds odd, fortunately it’s better than it sounds). As slightly unusual for romcoms, though, second leads get nearly as much screentime as main leads, so their romance arc is nearly as important as the main plot.

Main male lead, Im Si-wan plays as Ki Seon-gyeom, a former athlete (sprinter) who is starting a career as a sports agent. He has difficulties with social interactions which often causes misunderstandings. Also, he has a strained relationship with his father (Park Yeong-gyu as Ki Jung-do).

Shin Se-kyung is a main female lead as Oh Mi-joo, a translator who mostly does subtitles for film but also works as interpreter. She is an orphan and had to rely only on herself in her entire life. Shin Se-kyoung is here her usual self in a very warm performance, gaining sympathy of the audience straight away. However, her character often resorts to irony as a coping mechanism. This, together with Ki Seon-gyeom’s problems with interacting with others often causes awkward moments in their relationship. At the same time, Mi-joo often has almost motherly feelings towards Seon-gyeom, what is typical for Shin Se-kyung it seems.

The most surprising is the second female lead, in that role Choi Soo-young as Seo Dan-ah. It’s almost like the show creators couldn’t decide between her and Mi-joo, so they gave her nearly the same time in the series. Seo Dan-ah even has her own musical theme in the series (aptly named “CEO Seo”), unlike other characters. Dan-ah is a CEO of a talent agency, which initially works with Seon-gyeom. She often has a condescending and imperious approach to people, which is actually a mask for her real, more sensitive personality.

Dan-ah gets involved with Lee Yeong-hwa (Kang Tae-oh) in a sort of slow burn romance, which gets to full speed only around the half of the show. Kang Tae-oh offers here a very similar performance to his role in Extraordinary Attorney Woo, as a cheerful art student who helps Dan-ah to find her better self. Among all the four leads he gets the least screen time, I think. Nevertheless, Yeong-hwa starts out as a character everybody in the show knows and likes.

Aforementioned Ki Jung-do (Park Yeong-gyu), Seon-gyeom’s father, acts as a main antagonist of the show. He is keen on ending his son’s relationship with Mi-joo, and blatantly uses his whole family for his political career.

The series has an ongoing sports arc focused on sprinters and Seon-gyeom’s involvement in sports. Starting as an athlete, Seon-gyeom ends up training and promoting one of his younger friends (Lee Jung-ha as Kim Woo-shik). While the sport is not as important in this show like in Twenty-Five Twenty-One, Run On still takes a title from it, and this plot serves as a spine for the series. As a sort of counterbalance, a lot of time is devoted to Mi-joo’s work as well, although often other characters are weaved in this arc as well.

Dan-ah and Yeong-hwa relationship is mostly focused on Yeong-hwa’s paintings: Dan-ah starts as a person who commissions Yeong-hwa to make a painting for her, but ends up as his girlfriend (obviously). Their romance arc is very turbulent and dynamic, it might be intentionally contrasted with the relationship between Mi-joo and Seon-gyeom, which is more balanced.

In sum, Run On is a somewhat typical Korean romcom, heartwarming and lighthearted, but with no surprises. Its somewhat unusual aspect is the equal screen time given to second leads.

Run On on Wikipedia and MyDramaList