Hello! And welcome back to my recaps. I’ve been gone for a while and the times that I was posting in the past, I was literally posting random ish that you probably don’t even care about lol. But I’ve started watching a new drama and I want to share my thoughts with you guys.
If you are new to my recaps, I literally just talk about what happened in the episode, share my thoughts, and award arbitrary points to whatever the heck I feel like giving points to.
I might be dating myself with that gif but I used to love watching that show with my dad when I was younger so it brings back good memories. Anyways, on to the first episode!
Mr. Heart is the follow up series to Where Your Eyes Linger which came out earlier this year. But do not think it is a sequel, because it isn’t. It’s just another story/series written and directed by the same person. I already have a review on my website for WYEL so if you’re interested, go take a look and then come back and finish reading this recap.
Mr. Heart follows two runners. Jin Won who is a marathon runner who has fallen from his former high school glory and wants to get back on top again. And Sang Ha, another runner, who is a freshmen at their university, who becomes Jin Won’s pacemaker. Jin Won doesn’t like Sang Ha right off the back. Sang Ha is honest and forward and Jin Won gets all stupid about it because he thinks Sang Ha should be quiet and submissive just because he’s younger. And right away I’m already deducting points for that. -5
But I’m jumping ahead of myself here, let’s start from the beginning. We open up to Jin Won tossing and turning in bed because he can’t sleep and we soon find out that he can’t sleep because he has a race in the morning. This race has him nervous because he can’t stop thinking about how good of a runner he used to be.
He checks his phone and searches for his name and finds a lot of articles talking about how he has pretty much just fallen off. He was a record setting marathoner in high school and now he struggles to come anywhere close to those records. So he’s stressed and can’t sleep. And can I just say, I feel his stress on a personal level.
I used to be a track runner. I ran all four years of high school and all four years in college. I know what it’s like to win medals, trophies, and run at national championship meets. But then, when trying to pursue running post collegiately, things changed, and well…let’s just say I never reached my running goals. So seeing him stress over this…wow. I feel it. +10
So instead of going to sleep, he decides to go for a run to try to clear his head and just relax a little so he can sleep. But like….yo. You have a whole marathon race in the morning and you’re going for another run in the middle of the night? As a runner, that’s a huge no-no! It’s okay to do a little warm up or a shake out to loosen up your leg muscles and get rid of stiffness but a whole run?? You are tiring out your legs before you even get the chance to run! So, -20
After his run, he goes back inside and starts stripping his clothes off so he can go to bed. He doesn’t even take a shower after getting gross on his run and just hops in the bed. That’s nasty so, -5.
But then! We see that homie is not even in his own room. He crawls in bed with someone else only we don’t see his face. Then it’s a quick backward jump in time so we can see how this all started. And now we’re back to where I started this recap off at: the initial meeting between Jin Won and Sang Ha.
Jin Won is at practice and he’s not running the times he’s supposed to so his coach calls him over to talk to him. Sang Ha is there and starts to tell Jin Won the times he is supposed to be running in order to reach his desired final time. Right off the bat, Jin Won doesn’t like him because of this and he’s very rude to him. Sang Ha apologizes for not introducing himself first but proceeds to tell him what he’s doing wrong.
Jin Won’s coach tells him that he is the one that invited Sang Ha and he wants him to be Jin Won’s pacemaker. Sang Ha is a very accurate runner and runs the exact times desired which is what Jin Won needs right now. But Jin is so up is own a** about the age hierarchy that he gets all up in Sang Ha’s face and tells him that he doesn’t like him. Sang Ha asks him why and do y’all know what this man’s response is??
“You make me uncomfortable…”
And this was me:
Umm….okay..? Who freakin cares. You need a freakin pacemaker because you’re running is not up to par. And he makes you uncomfortable just because he’s younger and is accurate in his running? -5
Swallow your pride and get over it.
Anyway. Sang Ha isn’t taking no for an answer and proves to him that he is the perfect choice for a pacemaker and just generally shows Jin that Jin needs him. Instead of coming up with any real reply, Jin just tells him that he doesn’t like him and walks away lol. When I tell you Jin is all types of petty, I mean it lol. But Sang Ha is completely unfazed and screams across the track that he likes Jin Won and Jin is too surprised to say anything in return.
I like Sang Ha so far. He comes off very confident and like someone who is not afraid to go after what it is he wants. +10
Now we’re back to where we left off and that’s in bed with Jin Won and…yep, you guessed it. Sang Ha.
When Jin Won finally wakes up, he becomes shocked and nervous that he is in bed with Sang Ha and immediately gets up to grab his clothes and leave. They didn’t do anything. Jin literally came in the room, stripped, curled up with Sang Ha and went to sleep. But he’s still nervous and embarrassed. Sang Ha on the other hand takes joy in rubbing it in his face lol.
Jin hurries and leaves after this but Sang Ha teases him by shooting love arrows at him until he is out the door. Like I said, I like Sang Ha. He doesn’t really put up with Jin’s foolishness and he knows how to smile, despite being treated rudely. +20
And that’s all for this episode! These episodes are what I would call “bite sized”. They are all only between 9 and 12 minutes, just like WYEL. So, each episode is very digestible. So let’s tally up the random points counter, shall we??
Random Point Counter:
- Jin Won not liking Sang Ha just because he’s not submissive and adhering to the stupid age hierarchy. -5
- Jin Won being relatable (to me) and stressing out over his race in the morning +10
- Going on a run in the middle of the night when there is a race in the morning -20
- Jumping in bed after said run without taking a freaking shower -5
- How dare you talk to me like that? I’m your senior!…shut up Jin. -5
- Sang Ha being a confident king +10
- Sang Ha not putting up with Jin Won’s mess and teasing him +20
Total: 5
Eeek. Not the greatest of starts. I’m hoping that things get better as we go along. I guess I have high hopes since Where Your Eyes Linger was so good, but I’m trying not to compare. I guess we’ll see how it goes.
Until next time ~
**Update Nov. 20, 2020** So, all the episodes of this show were removed from VIKI for a long time which is why I hadn’t been posting recap updates. VIKI finally has the episodes back up but they are no longer free and you have to pay for a plan in order to watch them. I’ve tried looking on YouTube for the episodes, but all the videos I have found have wonky audio or are strangely edited with constant zoom-in jump cuts that really take away from the viewing experience and give me a headache.
Oh well. On to the next show, I guess.
**Update March 19, 2022** I was actually able to find a way to watch the full series online back in 2021. But it turns out that I wasn’t a huge fan of it and didn’t care enough to finish these recaps. Some of it was cute, some of it was dumb, and some of it was weird. Like the whole thing with Sang Ha and those loan shark men. Like…that was just over the top and I found myself rolling my eyes. It wasn’t a horrible series, I just didn’t care.
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