Running Man: Episode 135

by gummimochi

Ever wish your childhood hero would drop by? It’s time to cha-cha-cha with Jackie Chan as he joins Running Man on a treasure hunt to recover some gold. The great thing about variety is that it teaches us that lifelong friendships built on hilarity can transcend even the greatest of language barriers.

EPISODE 135. Broadcast on March 3, 2013.

This episode, brought to you by Running Man Pictures, starts off giving us a glimpse of a very important guest: Jackie Chan. For now, we check in with our lovable cast who gathers at Namsan Tower at daybreak.

I love it how some members stumble over today’s theme (“Treasure Hunter”) because the phrase is written out phonetically in Korean. Haha: “What’s ‘teu-re-juh’?” Yeah, I’d be confused too. Kwang-soo: “Oh, THAT ‘treasure.’ You should have written it in English!” Lol.

They’re tasked to crack a hidden code with just a pencil case at their disposal. Then Suk-jin just laughs that all you need is the case itself and tries to decipher the code by looking through the teeny holes to read it. HA.

But lookie here – there’s another guest here to amp up the fun: returning guest Choi Siwon (Super Junior). Completely stumped, the cast has no choice but to head off to different locations to pick up some clues.

As expected, Jong-kook hones in on the repeated word “mal-ah” (to roll) in the kimbap restaurant and brings it to the others’ attention. Too bad that Jae-suk is too hungry to think much on it and tells him to stop his jabbering (the word for don’t/stop is also “mal-ah“).

So while the others eat breakfast (and Siwon joins them), Jong-kook starts to roll a strip of paper, trying to guess a few words. The characters line up to a possible address in Sindang-dong, and he heads out with Haha.

Elsewhere at the hair salon, someone else has taken the phrase “to roll” a bit more literally and Kwang-soo ends up with another perm. Heehee. But leave it to Ji-hyo to figure out the code as well and she starts packing her things.

Pretty soon, everyone’s cracked the code. Well, everyone except Kwang-soo, who’s left alone and confused. Aw.

Kwang-soo heads to another location (a children’s park) where he’s soon bombarded by Lol Lols and literally rolled like a taco. His bewildered expression is understandable as the captions teach us that he’s at the last hint location.

Haha and Jong-kook arrive at the building and they huff and puff their way to the sixth floor whereas the others just take the elevator. By the time Ji-hyo arrives, there’s an empty seat right next to Gary and Jae-suk teases her to sit next to the ex-Monday Boyfriend.

Kwang-soo finally arrives and his post-perm look gets teased as a likeness of the Welsh actor Rhys Ifans in Notting Hill. You’re still the Asia Prince to your loyal fans, buddy.

Mr. PD formally introduces today’s theme: Treasure Hunter. Then the screen flickers and Jackie Chan appears onscreen. Explaining that he lost a precious treasure, he’ll need the cast’s help to recover it. He calls out the Grasshopper in particular, who replies back in English: “No problem!”

Jackie rises from his seat, which prompts some confusion from the cast. But that’s because they’re in for a bigger surprise because a minute later, Jackie swings open the door to greet them in person. Jaws drop.

Commence fanboy/fangirl mode as the cast excitedly greets the world star. Much of them are still in disbelief and start snapping selcas. ‘Cause it didn’t happen if there aren’t any pictures!

Jackie starts comparing noses with Big Nose Hyung (“They’re not the same”) and then slips out of the group selca. Why so cute?

I already love Jackie to pieces. The cast lists off his numerous projects and Jackie acknowledges the fact in Korean: “There are a lot!” He notes that Siwon is pretty famous in China and when Suk-jin tries to get on the bandwagon, he shuts down the mat hyung: “I don’t see you [on TV]! I see everyone [but you]!”

Jackie interacts with the cast pretty easily despite the language barrier and I’m impressed by his Korean-speaking ability (he mentioned in a recent Knee-Drop Guru episode that he lived in Korea for some time). And his one-liners are pretty freaking hilarious.

Jae-suk opens up the floor to the cast and Haha’s first words are “Phone number…” As in, you want Jackie’s digits? Ha. Jackie replies, “You’re not a woman!” and then turns to Ji-hyo instead. HAHAHA.

Mr. PD briefly explains today’s Treasure Hunter Race where they’ll play games to acquire darts. The team who throws a dart into the golden zone of the dartboard wins. Then Kwang-soo’s English explanation has me in stitches. Basically it’s: “Gold dart. Throw. Ppyong. Good.”

Jong-kook picks up the first golden dart for arriving first. Now it’s time to determine teams and the breakdown is as follows: Blue (Jackie, Jae-suk, & Ji-hyo), Red (Siwon, Jong-kook, & Gary), and Green (Kwang-soo, Suk-jin, & Haha).

The Betrayal Trio vows to win using their traitorous tactics against the other teams.

I love the “non-stop” games where the staff keeps the cameras rolling. It’s like we get a bit of the behind-the-scenes action that’s usually edited out. Like when Kwang-soo preps to clap for the camera and Jackie steals his thunder. Heh.

Stage 1 is simple – the team that slides a bottlecap closest to the edge of the table moves on. Both the Red and Blue Teams fall pretty short to the edge and poor Kwang-soo’s slides right off the table. Aw.

Gary gives Ji-hyo a word of encouragement before her turn (“Think of me!”) and by the time it’s the Blue Team’s turn again, Gary’s bottlecap is closest to the edge.

Finally, it’s Jackie’s time to shine and everyone waits with bated breath. His cap falls short of Gary’s. But no worries because Haha slides his and in a surprise twist, knocks Jackie’s cap closest to the edge. Daebak.

That enables the Blue Team to move on and Jackie agrees to give Haha his number in gratitude.

The Blue Team heads to the roof and here, they’ll have to collectively jumprope at least 10 times. The catch? They have to do it barefoot and on a spiky bumpy surface. Omg Jackie – are you wearing toesie socks? Why that’s just adorable.

Every jump is like a wave of pain that shocks their bodies and hell, I’m in pain just watching them! Even the health addicts (Jong-kook and Siwon) can’t help but feel the pain and they flop after a single jump.

Okay now I’m convinced that the Easy Brothers should never hold a line connecting them together again. Suk-jin switches places with Kwang-soo, who tries to figure out which hand to hold the jumprope with and ends up facing his back to the camera. HA.

The dunce-like moment gets a laugh out of Jackie (and me) but it turns out it actually works. Eureka!

Jackie suggest that they jump slowly and he means really slowly. As in: jump, stop, jump, stop. Jae-suk laughs, “We can’t do that, hyung!”

All the teams start running into a general issue as time ticks by: They’ve learned to speed-jump to endure the pain, which leaves their teammate unable to jump in. Gary bides his time as the rope whips in front of him again and again. Then his team finally gives up and he gets an earful from Kookie.

Coach Kookie even shares a tip with the class: “If you think about how it’s healthy for you, then it won’t hurt!” Easy for you to say.

When it’s the Blue Team’s turn again, the rope slips out of Jackie’s hand and he adorably cries, “I’m sorry!”

At this rate, it looks like the teams will be here all day so everyone agrees to change the rules. But then the Green Team suggests they jump totally barefoot and you can hear the staff cry: “It’s like the same thing!” No it’s not!

And as expected, the Easy Brothers jump once and crumple to the ground.

I feel like I shouldn’t find pleasure in someone else’s pain this much but it’s too darned funny. After a few more rounds, the Red Team manages to complete five jumps barefoot and pick up three more darts.

On their way to the next stage, Jae-suk asks Jackie about a stunt that involved him sliding down a cascade of lights. The cast marvel at the numerous scars on Jackie’s body, astounded that the man did all of those stunts himself.

Jong-kook admits that as a kid, he thought Bruce Lee and Jackie were both Korean (because Jackie is known as “Sung Ryong” and Bruce Lee “Lee So-ryong”). They gape as Jackie gives them the rundown on Where are Your Nostalgic Martial Arts Stars Now? Then he sums up: “It’s all the same!” Like, we’re people too!

Jae-suk asks after one of his favorite actresses, Maggie Cheung, and Jackie replies that she’s looking for her next new project.

Kwang-soo pipes that his favorite Jackie Chan film is Drunken Master (1979) which prompts Jae-suk to ask how old Jackie thinks the Giraffe is. Jackie: “45?”

Anyway, back to the game. It’s like a Hot Potato Conversation where the member who gets stuck with the phone when time runs out is eliminated. Everyone switches seats and whaddayaknow – the ex-Monday Couple sits next to each other. It’s fate. Gary: “Just accept it!”

Jong-kook starts off the round and passes the phone to Suk-jin, but with five seconds left, Suk-jin hands it back to him with this question: “How’s your love life?” Needless to say, Spartakooks is eliminated.

Suk-jin sets an unknown time and turns to Jackie who in turn hands the phone to an idolizing Haha. The phone ends up back in Jackie’s hands. He starts to panic and then attacks Siwon with: “Do you have a girlfriend?” Omo omo omo.

Ultimately Suk-jin’s strategy works against him and he inadvertently eliminates Kwang-soo. Haha defends: “Give us a dart for eliminating our own teammates!”

Jae-suk gives this long-winded answer in the next round and then turns to ask Ji-hyo a question. Did you not learn from what happened just two minutes ago?

Ji-hyo nervously gives her answer but snaps at Gary when he asks her a question. Gary explains: “I’m always curious about you!” Hee.

Haha gets eliminated but the first question in the next round piques everyone’s curiosity (“Have you ever thought about dating Gary [for real]?”) Ji-hyo answers: “I’ll think about it later.”

She in turn asks the same question to Gary who puts her on the spot: “Can you answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ right now?” She answers that she’ll consider it if Gary gets her the ring they saw at Macau, but then time runs out before she finishes.

Gary uses a multi-question tactic on Jackie which backfires and a few rounds later, it’s down to Jackie and Jae-suk vs. Siwon. The idol-actor stays calm and asks Jae-suk a loaded question: “In your opinion, who do you think is the ‘Nation’s MC’?” Jae-suk is eliminated before he gets a chance to answer.

The RM staff rolls clips to remind us that both Siwon and Jackie excel at shooting questions. Jackie starts off with some praise about Super Junior but when he asks a question, Siwon asks one right back a few seconds later. LOL.

But Jackie manages to squeeze in another question before the phone blares and wins it.

In Stage 4, the team to collect seven animal heads (of the Chinese Zodiac no less!) the fastest wins the round. But watch out – there are other animals hidden too!

The Blue Team finds two animals right away and why am I not surprised that Kwang-soo has a giraffe tucked under his arm? Kwang-soo: “I want one to keep forever…”

We get this quiet hilarious moment as Siwon waltzes into the Blue Team’s corner, whistling, and swipes the two animals with ease. Jae-suk notices them missing a little later, so he does the same thing and steals one from the Green Team.

Jackie stows away one of his stolen animals before he rejoins the chaos. Soon, animals get stolen left and right and the teams make off with whatever animal they can get. As a result, the Red Team has five animals whereas the Blue Team has two.

Jong-kook attempts to keep the Green Team from approaching the loft where their animals are hidden. Jae-suk watches this scene unfold from a distance and then figures, I’ll just climb the ladder. He plucks one from its hiding place and looks down… to see Haha.

So Jong-kook decides to protect the rest of his team’s animals by putting it in one bag. That just makes it look more obvious, and what’s worse is that Jae-suk has seen the whole thing. Jong-kook defends: “I was just cleaning up!”

The Blue Team has set up a pretty good defense system and when Kwang-soo tries to peer over the edge using his height, there’s Jae-suk to greet him. HA. Further attempts leaves the Green Team even more unkempt in appearance.

Jong-kook barricades himself and then he tosses out a deal with the Green Team: help us and we’ll give you two darts. Sold. They attack the Blue Team and make off with their animals as Jae-suk cries: “Thief! Thief!”

The Red Team ends up with seven but then Kwang-soo tries to run for it with the huge bag of animals. Jong-kook stops him with a smack on the head. Ow, but at least Kwang-soo laughs about it.

The teams head to the final stage with their darts in hand. It’s no surprise that the Green Team’s aid didn’t earn them extra darts (caption: You just helped another team…). They at least laugh about their situation and chant: “Betrayal Cross!” That’s the spirit!

Remember – the first team to hit a dart in the golden zone wins. Both Siwon and Ji-hyo miss. When it’s Suk-jin’s turn, Jae-suk digs that the mat-hyung used to stay out at night to play darts and get scolded by his wife. Heh.

The distraction tactic works and the dart falls off the board. LOL.

Jackie tosses his – it’s close but misses. Then Haha asks for some of Jackie’s ki and he obliges with a little puff of air. It swerves to the side. Kwang-soo gives himself a pep talk (“It’s your first and last try!”)… and then it bounces off the board. Aw.

Then Siwon throws his dart and it lands right in the golden zone. He wins it for the Red Team. Is that… a golden boot?

Jackie is given the golden boot and then asked to say a word to the audience. Jackie: “I love you! *blows kisses*”

We love you too. ♥

RELATED POSTS

• Running Man: Episode 134
• Running Man: Episode 133
• Running Man: Episode 132
• Running Man: Episode 131
• Running Man: Episode 130
• Running Man: Episode 129