With the premiere just a few weeks away, a new video teaser has been released for JTBC romance Run On, featuring lead actors Im Shi-wan (Hell Is Other People) and Shin Se-kyung (Rookie Historian Gu Hae-ryung).
The drama stars Im Shi-wan as a retired sprinter who meets foreign film translator Shin Se-kyung and the two fall in love. As their relationship grows, the drama explores how communication can be challenging, even when speaking the same language, and how we learn to understand each other’s personal languages.
The newly released teaser brings attention to the drama’s themes as well, using Im Shi-wan and Shin Se-kyung to re-enact a parody of Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman’s famous scene in the Hollywood classic Casablanca.
The video starts with the camera following Im Shi-wan as he joins Shin Se-kyung in the room. And the two enjoy drinks together as they listen to a pianist playing music. When Im speaks, he seems to be saying the film’s lines in translated Korean which match the Korean subtitles. But the audio is dubbed over by a narrator who reads Im/Bogart’s lines in English.
The line, “Here’s looking at you, kid,” is a point of much debate due to the curious way it was translated in the Korean subtitles for this film. Literally, the line in Korean can mean making a toast to or cheers to “your eye pupils.” (Side note: Sohn Seok-gu’s take on this line in Be Melodramatic is pure gold.) And although this is a case of moving between two different languages, it’s a clear example of how words convey different meanings and intents, further complicating how we communicate with other people.
Written by Park Shi-hyun and directed by PD Lee Jae-hoon (The Ghost Detective), JTBC’s next Wednesday-Thursday drama Run On premieres December 16.
