5 Time Travel K-Dramas To Binge If You Are Enjoying "Lovely Runner"

What would it be like to turn on a switch and miraculously be transported in time? You could be your old self and even have the ability to rearrange your destiny. Sounds freaky, but it could well be the ultimate adventure. 

“Lovely Runner” is the evocative and beautiful story of Im Sol (Kim Hye Yoon), who slips in time to save her ultimate bias and pop star, Ryu Sun Jae (Byeon Woo Seok) of Eclipse. The drama has made many go weak in the knees. It goes beyond being just a time slip romance, but it also handles issues such as surmounting your deepest fears. It imparts hope as well as a delightful love story.

If you are loving “Lovely Runner,” here are five more time travel K-dramas to revisit and binge!

“Twinkling Watermelon”

Eun Gyeol (Ryeoun) is a high school student who is wise beyond his 18 years. He grew up fast and has been responsible for his family, which includes his parents and older brother, since he was a young boy. Eun Gyeol is the only person in his family who can speak and hear and is their connection with the outside world as he interprets their signs into words. Though his parents want Eun Gyeol to pursue medicine, his world revolves around music. He can strum magic with the guitar and has it in him to make it, but his family would not have it. One day, he finds himself back in time to the year 1995, only to end up meeting the younger version of his father, Lee Chan (Choi Hyun Wook), an aspiring musician. But his father can hear and speak. He also encounters Se Kyung (Seol In Ah) and the aloof Chung Ah (Shin Eun Soo), an artist who has been deaf since birth. But could this time slip help him rearrange and change his future?

“Twinkling Watermelon” struck a warm chord for its evocatively moving storyline. The drama is all heart and comes packed with life lessons, music, and excellent performances.

“A Time Called You”

Han Jun Hee (Jeon Yeo Been) has been having a tough time ever since the tragic demise of her boyfriend Ko Yeon Jun (Ahn Hyo Seop). She is wrecked by guilt, since he was on the way to see her before he passed, and is unable to get closure. Exactly a year after his death, she receives a cassette player as a gift. As she turns it on the moving strains of “Gather My Tears” by Seo Ji Won, it takes her back in time to 1998. Jun Hee not only wakes up in the body of her doppelganger, a high school student named Kwon Min Joo, but she ends up meeting her boyfriend’s look-alike Si Heon. Si Heon is the school’s poster boy—he is an outgoing and playful character. Si Heon’s best friend is the introverted In Kyu (Kang Hoon). But it seems the three are entwined in a strange fate.

A remake of the hit Taiwanese drama “Someday or One Day,” “A Time Called You” is a cleverly written show as it switches between past and present. The stars of the show are the performances and chemistry shared between Jeon Yeo Been and Ahn Hyo Seop.

“Mr. Queen”

Imagine going back in time but ending up in a different century and a gender other than your own. Is this retribution of some sort? When the chauvinistic and arrogant master chef of the Blue House (the South Korean presidential home) Jang Bong Hwan (Choi Jin Hyuk) meets with a freak accident, he lands in the Joseon period. Not only is he taken to a time hundreds of years in the past, but he is also trapped in the body of the queen, Kim So Yong (Shin Hye Sun).

As Bong Hwan’s spirit takes charge of So Yong’s body, she starts behaving rather oddly but also unearths the palace’s deep dark secrets. This gender-bending time travel drama goes beyond the typical stories of palace intrigue but also explores a romance on the queer spectrum as well as highlights the gender inequalities and sexism inherent in patriarchal societies. Shin Hye Sun shines as So Young, and her impeccable comic timing with Choi Jin Hyuk is a riot.

“18 Again”

It is often said that your present could be a representation of the choices made in the past. Hong Dae Young (Yoon Sang Hyun) is 37 and frustrated in life with deep anger issues. He has lost his job, his wife Da Jung (Kim Ha Neul) wants him out, and neither is he an admirable father figure in the eyes of his two children. But it seems the universe has heard his prayer, and Dae Young goes back in time. He finds himself in the body of his 18-year-old self (Lee Do Hyun), a star basketball player who is being scouted by universities. He realizes he does have a chance to start all over again. As he ends up going to the same school as his children, he forms a deep bond with them, which he was unable to do as a dad.

A heartwarming drama, “18 Again” gives an insight into society and its stereotypes. The constant stress of work-life balance and its impact is well brought out. Lee Do Hyun does super well as Dae Young and impressively portrays both aspects as a student and a father of two. 

“Go Back Couple”

Another drama which finds its cure of a problematic present in the past is “Go Back Couple.” University sweethearts, Choi Ban Do (Son Ho Jun) and Ma Jin Joo (Jang Nara) couldn’t wait to get married, but after 18 years of being together, they cannot stand the sight of each other. Ban Do is struggling as a pharmaceutical salesperson and barely has any time for Jin Joo and their son, since he is constantly networking to increase sales. Jin Joo, on the other hand, is tired handling their home and being a homemaker with no help. As the couple reach a breaking point, they travel back in time and are university freshmen again. Well aware of the situation that lies ahead of them, the two decide whether it would be best if they had neither dated or married.

“Go Back Couple” is a breezy watch, and though it has several tropes and cliches, they are well done. Jang Nara and Son Ho Jun are hilariously cute together, and there is never a dull moment in their playful banter.

cr: Soompi