"Lovely Runner," A Feel-Good Time Travel Rom-Com

From episode 16 of "Lovely Runner"

I just recently finished watching the K-drama titled "선재 업고 튀어" (transl. "Lovely Runner"; lit. "Carry Sunjae and Run") and I thought I was going to hate it. Let me explain why.

I have always disliked shows or films which feature the element of time travel. The reason for my disdain for it is the fact that it is character-centric. By that, I mean that only the character who has the ability to travel back in time, has the power to change their fate and bend destiny through force of will. Not only that, but they are also the only ones to retain their memories from previous timelines, which robs other characters of the moments that they spent in other timelines. Of course, I understand that these kinds of stories require a good amount of suspension of disbelief for you to enjoy. But it still feels unfair from my standpoint, even if we grant them that leeway.

There was a point in the show when I felt emotionally exhausted from the repeating cycle of Sunjae and Sol's intertwining fates. Sol would go back in time to try and save Sunjae's life, but each time, it seems as though fate was toying with them because they will always return to the seemingly inevitable outcome of their lives, which was that Sunjae would end up dying to save Sol's life.

So, in a desperate attempt to save Sunjae's life, Sol decides to cut ties completely with him by going back to the first moment they met each other. Sol avoids meeting Sunjae which meant that every other iteration of her time travel would be for naught. Sunjae will never have met her during their high school years, and so, all the events that happened 15 years before the present time never occurred. However, the cruel irony of the whole attempt was that Sunjae and Sol were still bound to meet, rendering Sol's efforts in vain, almost.

In the last iteration, even though Sunjae had never met Sol, they still meet when they were adults, while both were attending a film awards ceremony. From that point, fate, in its mischievous ways, has once again brought them back together, albeit Sunjae having no memory of Sol. At this point, it feels as though no matter what Sol did, they could not escape their destiny. Which begs the question, what was all of Sol's efforts for? Were they all just vain attempts to try and change a fate that has been set in stone?

What irked me was the way that Sol tried to carry all the burden of changing Sunjae's fate on her own, without even involving him in the decision-making or the process. I understand that that was her way of protecting him, but as the show continued to reveal, almost every iteration of her time travel led to Sunjae's death or injury in the end. I do admire her determination and her willingness to let go of Sunjae in order to save his life. But as Sunjae himself said, that is such a tragic ending to the story. She may have saved his life, but she lost her love.

Generally, these kinds of stories will get boring after a time because of the repetitive nature of the plot, cycling from one timeline to the next, yet still getting the same outcome. So, I liked the fact that there was tension, not just between Sunjae and Sol, but also with the villain of the story, Kim Young-soo.

Initially, we didn't know Sol's backstory, but eventually, it was revealed that her initial condition of being unable to walk was due to an accident caused by Kim Young-soo. And from that point, almost every iteration of her story was an attempt to prevent Kim Young-soo from causing any harm either to her or to Sunjae. But as with any proficient villain of any story, Kim Young-soo just can't seem to be stopped, with the second to last timeline ending up in Sunjae's death as he falls off a cliff after Kim Young-soo stabs him in the gut.

It seemed that all hope was lost after that, but fate gave Sol and Sunjae one last lifeline by allowing Sunjae's watch to turn into another time machine. It was then that Sol decided to avoid meeting Sunjae, and that brought us to the last and final timeline.

Now, this is where things get interesting. Everything seemed to be in place. Sol had her two legs, working at a film production company, and Sunjae was a singer-turned-actor. But the two never met beforehand. Their first meeting in the final timeline was during the awards ceremony, in which Sunjae mistakenly thought that Sol was a thief who tried to snatch her own boss' purse. Later, they have several more encounters with each other, with the final encounter being that Sunjae insists that he star in the movie that Sol wrote.

Of course, Sol still pushes back against Sunjae and insists that they never work together at all. However, this is the part that I found very cathartic. Sol was the only person who retained her memories of every iteration of her time travel. But, as her grandmother said and this is not verbatim but I am merely paraphrasing, "Memories don't disappear. Where do you think they go? They are smeared into our soul." And that was some really great foreshadowing.

Right at the climax of the show, we have the chase scene between Kim Tae-seong and Kim Young-soo. Meanwhile, Sunjae was being flooded with memories from all previous timelines and he finally realizes what had happened between him and Sol. In a moment of suspense, as Sunjae was regaining his memories, he was directly in the collision course of Kim Young-soo. But at the last moment, Tae-seong bumps into Kim Young-soo's car in order to prevent him from hitting Sunjae.

To me, the fact that Sunjae regained all of his memories and remembered everything that happened between him and Sol was the one saving grace of this show. It redeemed the story for me, because it meant that all the previous episodes were not in vain. It didn't matter whether the other characters remembered the previous timelines or not, what is most important is that Sunjae and Sol's memories were preserved.

The rest of the show after that provided more catharsis, but the most important thing was that Sunjae and Sol's wishes came true. They both got married and they were able to live a long, happy life together.

I think the main point of the show was memories. Having the element of time travel helped explore the idea of memories and how they work to a certain extent. Of course, they also delved into fate, destiny, and free will, answering the question whether we actually have agency to change something that we think is inevitable, but apart from those metaphysical subjects, I think memories took center stage in this show, and I loved how they depicted that in the end.

During the course of 16 episodes, I did get frustrated a bit because Sol was taking all the responsibility upon herself, which she shouldn't have. I think the only reason why everything worked out in the end was because other people got involved and helped. Tae-seong captured Kim Young-soo, and Sunjae also made his decision to try and protect Sol. I am glad that it ended on a happy note, and I would highly recommend others to watch this show as well.