MBC’s upcoming Wed-Thurs special dramas

by javabeans

Ha Hee-ra, Song Joong-ki

MBC’s latest Wednesday-Thursday drama series, Personal Taste, ended its run this week, but there are a few weeks until the next miniseries starts up its run (that would be the war epic Road No. 1). In the intervening weeks, MBC will be airing two short special dramas: First is the May-December romance 나는 별일 없이 산다, which translates to “Living Without Incident” or “There Isn’t Much To My Life”; then comes Song Joong-ki‘s marathon-themed Running Shirt.

The first drama (which I’ll call “Living Without Incident,” for lack of a better translation) will be four episodes long and stars Ha Hee-ra (of Catch a Kangnam Mother and wife to sageuk king Choi Su-jong) and Shin Sung-il (Typhoon), portraying a love story of two people with a thirty-year age gap. (His character is 72, she’s 43.)

As a retired civil servant, he’s a man who believes youth is about attitude and mindset, but is ready to accept death like a friend, whenever it should arrive. One day, love finds him in the form of Ha Hee-ra, a woman who has been divorced twice and works in a sushi restaurant. It’s true that she first approaches because of money, but she falls in love for real. However, his son — an unemployed gambler — is insistent that she’s a gold-digger, played by Kim In-kwon (You’re Beautiful).

Also featuring Ahn Sun-young (What’s Up Fox, Who Are You), this project has been in the works for the past two years and is written by Lee Jung-ran, who doesn’t have previous writing credits, and directed by Im Hwa-min of the 2005 drama Sea of Sister. Filming began on March 24 and the first of four episodes airs on May 26.

Afterward, MBC will air another four-episode series, Running Shirt, which I mentioned previously. It is set and filmed in Gyeongju, a city located in the southeast near the coast, and is famous for its cherry blossoms; the drama also promotes tourism of the city as a cultural and historical site.

In it, Song Joong-ki plays the cheerful Dae-gu, who was born in the year of the ’88 Seoul Olympics and had given up athletics because of a painful accident. However, he develops a love of running and starts to participate in marathons. The drama is touted as a “heartwarming story of marathons, family love, and competition.” This is his second time playing an athlete, as he’d played a short-track speed skater in Triple (and had been a national speed skater in his teens).

Running Shirt is produced by Yoon Jae-moon (Return of Iljimae), directed by Lee Dong-yoon (Hero), and written by Go Jung-won (no credits available). Also starring are musical actor Joo-won, Baek Jin-hee (Loving You a Thousand Times), and Kim Mi-kyung (Birth of the Rich, Hero).

Running Shirt will be followed by Road No. 1.

From the set of “Running Shirt”

Via OSEN, Segye

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