PD of Lovely Runner Incurs Netizens Ire for Being Sexist and Paternalistic Towards Kim Hye Yoon in Asking Her to Improve Her Looks for the Role

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• In others words he felt her looks were not on par with the lead. Ouch so mean but at the same time she looks good. So maybe the hard work paid. I hope she does not get scarred psychologically. Health comes first. This trend they have to have jade white skin with no flaws is such a stretch. Must be hard on celebs there in general with such strict aesthetics. Also the forced anorexic skinny aesthetics on them too. Like do they want their celebs to live a long blessed life or not?

  • no, he values visuals in general. sadly so do most knetz.

    in the same interview he also said he told bws to work on his visuals as well because his acting wasn't that great. he spoke about how he had to coach him independently.

• Ew. What a sexist piece of shit. Did he think that by saying he felt like a “proud dad”, he would be deemed heroic? 🤢🤮

  Hope she didn’t actually even listen to him and just did what she felt was the best look for her role. This guy sounds like an absolute prick. Glad he showed himself to everyone.

  • her team changed her styling and makeup, nothing else. she will be fine considering she has dealt with worse her whole life.

    it's actually even worse because he said at the end he saw her as a woman and not his daughter, which was his goal. the man is weird and rude. i think his whole point was her having "womanly aura" instead the cute princess image she has.

    but still gross on many levels.

• What piss me off is that he didn’t even film the “love at first sight” scene, it was by other PD. Also he is sexist because he has double standard with male lead saying he doesn’t need to improve anything because he looks good at any angle. I’m sorry but some scene with BWS did not look good, his face was a bit chubby or maybe it was his hair style during the college era. I really love lovely runner and the PD has to ruin things for fans. Way to help fans move on…

  • Wow did he really say that? Damn what a shitty guy

  • I mean ml's face is normal. He is tall and has great body proportion, but his face isnt super handsome or anything. Asking fl to improve her look but not ml is clearly sexist when nothing wrong with their face at all.

    • actually he told him to improve his visuals and styling as well. even said his acting wasn't good it's in the same interview. he degraded them both in the same interview lol.

      he wanted them both to look a certain way, but he didn't need to announce it to the world. it could been a personal conversation, but he is desperate to take credit for everything.

    • Yeah I also think bws face isn’t that impressive

  • I actually don't find BWS that attractive either, at least he didn't previously catch my eye in the previous dramas. I saw BWS in Record of Youth, and didn't think much of him. Then I didn't quite get all the hoopla around his villain role in Strong Girl (I also just really didn't enjoy that drama overall). He's a decent looking guy, but I would prefer Park HyungSik over his visual. This is all personal preference of course, and visuals are very subjective by nature.

    He did mention in interviews that he has bloating issues. His face tends to be fatter in the mornings, and it thins out quite a bit by the end of the day.

  • Yup I thought khy looked pretty good throughout? In all the scenes so this was unnecessary. The ML.. I don't get the hype over his looks, not v good looking tho he fit the physique n height needed to make the swimming scenes believable. Didnt find his styling or hair nice in alot of scenes tbvh

  • That director’s comments are gross and so sexist. I’m glad he’s getting backlash for it.

    I agree with many of the comments that BWS is not that attractive to me (I’ve also watched him in other roles esp, Record of Youth). His lips are also very large (fillers perhaps?). I think I saw a before picture of him and his lips seemed smaller (though still full). All of this is to say I think it is Sun Jae’s character that makes BWS appear so attractive (because we love Sun Jae!). I was also thinking about EY and Hye Yoon’s lead there (Rowoon) and unlike in LR, I remember from Rowoon’s first scene in EY, I said wow that guy is attractive hahahah.

    I thought Hye Yoon looked great throughout LR (and especially beautiful without bangs). So if anything, it’s the styling. I also appreciate that she doesn’t just look like everyone else in the industry.

    • I feel the same, Sun Jae is an amazing male lead. If I remember correctly, this PD made the comment about BWS having no bad angle in the BTS and not in the interview during the last scene ep 10. He made comments to KHY about her looks and then complimented BWS saying he looks good any angle. I think the situation was awkward and BWS tried to smooth things over saying KHY is adorable like a cat.

    • I don't think BWS got fillers because he has said himself his full lips are a complex for him and he was always self-conscious about them so doubt he is ging to plump them up some more!

      It shows just goes to show how subjective looks because I think BYS is very handsome. On the other hand, I can't watch Rowoon in dramas because-aside from his stiff acting-I find his face unappealing and too plastic particularly the very obvious nosejob.

    • @Sunny agree with you. Looks indeed very subjective. BWS looks appealing to me. He may or may not have work done but overall looks natural compared to certain K actors with obvious nose jobs or distracting veneers.

• As a women I see no reason to be offended. What Hye yoon was asked to do is no different from what her male lead need to do in having such a great body. I see no uproar to be offended because an actor job relies on their looks beautiful or ugly, the pd wanted both of them to oooze cuteness and they delivered. Like I can't properly explain it but I can understand what the pd was saying. We sometimes lack in taking care of ourselves but when you do take care of yourself don't you have others looking at you as if your a different person. Go watch both actor previous works and look at lovely runner, the maintenance worked they were stunningly cute that you couldn't look away. You all want make it sound as if he called her ugly.

• This is such a nothingburger. Acting is a visual medium. But I guess people always love an excuse to act holier than thou and pretend that they don't care about looks lol.

  • Of course you will defend male sexist behavior, so on brand for a pick-me girl like you 😂 When have you stood up for your fellow women anyway? Sad clown behavior.
    You and Pearl Davis would be besties for real 😍

    • Lol, are you calling her a sexiest, and using "pick me girl" - sexiest termin, used only for hate towards women, at the same time. How hypocritie

    • Aww, I'm sorry my opinion bothered you. Don't forget to take your medications next time.

    • @Olesya

      Isn't it ironic that bullies use the term 'pick me' to silence women that they disagree with?

      Lots of internalized misogyny comes out to play with the anti pick mes!

• What he said is that Hye Yoon's a good actor that didn't care about look as much as about acting like all good actors so he had to scold her into caring because he wanted to capture Sol beautifully as somebody's perfect first love. He said Woo Seok on the other hand is very pretty and took credit for bringing out the best acting from him which took efforts, lol. He was blunt and definitely has a foot in mouth but I don't thing its a big deal.

  • as long as she's not harmed psychologically or suffering health consequences, I think what he said was fair.

    Like @Rina says, acting is a visual medium and while KHY naturally fits the 'pure first love' type of look (it's completely understandable how the ML fell for her at first sight and stayed hung up on her for fifteen years), the PD pushed her to achieve her peak visuals and it showed.

    But anyone saying KHY is not pretty enough to be a female lead needs to get their eyes checked, girl fit the 'princess' look in Sky Castle equally well as the girl-next-door look in Lovely Runner and even the Joseon pulled-back-hairstyle in that one scene.

    • Lovely Runner had two PDs. She calls Yoon PD, the man speaking here Appa and Kim PD omma. The gist is that there was good cop, bad cop dynamic. But I don't think Yoon PD bullied her or damaged her psychologically because there's just way too much warmth and ease in their relationship for that to hold true. Yoon PD definitely needs media training. A lot of what he said is probably something that flies well in private settings with the cast but the outside audience will always get weirded by it. I think Yoon PD was not wrong to want to make Sol shine more visually. Hye Yoon is beautiful actress but there is nothing wrong if you want to bring out the absolute best if it is nothing too demanding. The camera message basically means he asked her to focus on appearance. It doesn't mean he asked her to change herself. The styling, beauty care, skin care etc. This is standard conversation many directors have with their actresses in every industry be it Hollywood or Changmuro. Its just never spoken of in public. The people that are up in arms would be the first ones calling Hye Yoon ugly if her visuals didn't come out right. Remember, how Kim Go Eun got ripped to shreds before and even after Giblin. Or else, how did no expression Hong Suzu land a Disney+ show? Look entertainment world is shallow, so is the audience....lot of what he said was that he knew his audience and people just don't like it when people clock their game and call it out.

    • @Gem - seconded on him needing media training, I can see it from both points of view but ultimately I don't think the goal was a wrong one to strive for, even if it isn't politically correct to admit it.

      I would rather have him help along a talented and beautiful actress like KHY by highlighting her looks to the best of their abilities (both her as actress and him as PD, talking about styling and cosmetics specifically), than hire someone like Hong Suzu or leave Hyeyoon to face netizen criticism over poor styling. Hell I think he's just very blunt and outspoken since he did not hold back on the subject of BWS's acting skills either, or the amount of work needed there.

  • Haha fair for the director for taking credit In bringing out the acting. Cos wow the amt of specific detail n instructions he for each scene was quite mindblowing to me. I've yet to see a director in awhile give so much of direction to the actors especially bws whom I actually don't think is that great of an actor which is why the specific instructions are necessary. His next work will really make or break things for him I think. Cos not all directors are gonna be that patient n specific with their cast n he'll have to rely on his acting skills more

    • @Anne - I agree, I find BWS a good actor and perfect as Sunjae but he doesn't have KHY's natural talent for acting, it seems to be more an improvement as the result of effort in a range of smaller roles, he's improved hugely since 2020. Which is to his credit, but yeah I can't be so confident he'll do as well without such a detailed and specific instruction from the PD either.

      but when it comes to a kdrama romcom, high level acting abilities are less important than chemistry between the leads - something even otherwise good actors with strong acting abilities often can't manage (and it's an X factor that's not as simple as 'pair two attractive actors who are good at acting' because I've seen that fail enough times and plenty of kdrama male leads who consistently have no chemistry with their FL). BWS seems to have that part on lock, since I've heard talk of second lead syndrome/him having better chemistry with the FL than the ML did in the last three dramas he played 2nd lead in. There are some actors who manage to vibe with everyone they're cast opposite e.g. KHY herself, and it probably serves them better than having perfect speech abilities or a pretty face.

    • @royal we - i dont really agree with the take on chemistry tho as chemistry can absolutely be manufactured and directed as well. Alot of times its down to the direction given by the director, the writing as well as the camera angles. For eg park seo joon had very nice chemistry with hwang jung eum in kmhm but not much in she was pretty cos both their characters werent well written, esp his. There are alot of takes for all the scenes where they get to change movements to make it look a certain way on cam. But the director has to make an effort in executing the writers vision and communicating that to the actors.

      Which is why I praised the director, his specific instructions down to what feeling to give/how to move/where to put hands is the most detailed Ive seen in a long time. KHY has natural ease with all her costars but this is the best onscreen chemistry for her tho offscreen she has stronger friendlier vibes with rowoon n lee jae wook. Just shows that offscreen rapport doesn't alw translate to onscreen cos there are so many elements involved. She's so also quite proactive in suggesting things which shows her natural acting talent.

      I've watched bws in a few things. In record of youth I didnt think he had better chemistry with park sodam than park bogum. In fact I felt him n bogum had the most chemistry of the onscreen rlshp between the characters becos of their rlshp. Strong girl namsoon looked like there was chemistry becos of his character's intentions but I honestly felt nothing and it was a bad show. 20th century movie the ML was just a terrible actor so a poor comparison. My first intro to him was joseon dating crew and I thought he was really bad there.

      This show is such a success cos of the combination of the cast rapport, the genre, the writing of sunjaes character n alot of it the direction n possibly his own improvement. tho that remains to be seen for me and would require more future work from him to evaluate better. He has also only taken on youth/romcom stuff which isn't challenging imo n hard to evaluate true acting skills cos SK likes to sell visuals and fanservice for these sorta genres.

      On the same note I also hope that khy starts to move out of these sorta genres and tackle more "adult" ones as that's where she can truly show her range. She tends to get swept aside in favour of the males in these kinda dramas cos of the type of fans they pull, not to her favour tbh

    • @Anne I think writing and direction can build on something and improve or detract from it - I saw this in Arthdal Chronicles, where Kim Jiwon had romantic scenes with Song Joongki as two different characters and had way more chemistry with one SJK character than the other.....she had a spark with both, because they're good enough actors to bring it even when the writing was basically killing their vibe... but real heat with only the one.

      but they can't magic it out of thin air if it's just absent, and sometimes even otherwise good actors consistently have tepid at best chemistry with their costars in romance stories (ex. Yoo Seung Ho and Lee Je Hoon - technically good actors with a consistent track record of being chemistry dead zones because they look too stiff, unnatural or overly mannered). At some point it's necessary to admit that it's not just a writer/PD problem, it's an actor problem too and a highly undesirable trait in romcoms - with romcoms/romance storylines being part of the bread and butter of kdramas (there are only so many Squid Game and crime dramas to go around).

      personally, the only dramas I remember BWS in are RoY, Moonshine, Strong Girl NamSoon and now Lovely Runner, and I can see it for Moonshine and Nam Soon, with Moonshine it was especially noticeable because the male lead was Yoo Seung Ho (see above) and he had more chemistry with both YSH and Hyeri than they had with each other as the OTP.

    • @Anne - seconded on hoping KHY moves out of playing high school/college roles (or roles with that image since nearly half of LR showed her in her 30s), she's an amazing actress but typecasting will do her no favours even if the actual characters are very different between say Sky Castle and LR.

• What's so mean? He's the director, that's his requirement. What's so offensive?

• While I'm sure it's not the best thing to hear... I feel like many viewers are extremely shallow. People will think she's not good enough for their oppa. I've seen past comments on KHY, and how she doesn't have a "main lead face", and she should stick to support roles when she was the lead in Extraordinary You. I actually think she has a great chameleon-like visual, but that might not fit the general korean beauty standard. I hope he didn't come off as harsh to her, and that there's something lost in translation. She calls him appa in BTS, so I'm assuming they still have a decent relationship. I personally thought she looked beautiful in LR.

  • He is blunt. He knows his audience and you know what, I am glad he captured Sol beautifully. We can all yap but there's a reason people like Hong Suzu land roles easily compared to others who act well. Because they are pretty. Kim Hye Yoon has been a great actress for how many summer, spring and monsoon now? Many. We can all pretend kent isn't superficial or we can be real about it. I dont think he called her ugly from what I understood but he definitely asked her to step up the hair, makeup, styling to make things look the best. I am glad for it. Because if that makes people notice her more, so be it.

    • ugh stab me in the heart with that Hong Suzu name. I am a huge fan of LJW and could not power through her bad acting in the Impossible Heir. She is pretty, but needs so much more training before she takes on lead roles. Meanwhile, KHY was an extra for 6-7 years before landing her Sky Castle role.

      Everyone is shallow to an extent, but Korea is plastic surgery capital for a reason. They place a lot of emphasis on visuals. I don't believe he called her ugly either, but simply that she needed to focus more on her visual because it's a rom-com and SJ is supposed to fall in love with her at first sight. He even said her good acting is a given. I think it's fair to get rid of those bangs, horrible outfits/styling, and make sure you're filming from an angle where the camera emphasizes her beauty.

  • people are on something really weird if they think Kim Hyeyoon of all people is not pretty enough to be a main lead, if anything she fits the kdrama female lead look to a T - she even looks pretty when she's ugly crying in the hospital at the start of the series with those ugly bangs (which I assume Yoon Jong Ho got rid of when he re-filmed the high school parts)

    At the same time I get what the PD was saying, it doesn't sound ill-meant and if she took his advice on board, it clearly paid off.

    • @Royal We, even if you looked at the comments on just Koala's site for Extraordinary You back when it was airing, there were a lot of similar comments about her not being main lead material. When all her costars have nothing but praise for her.

      I also felt like PD Yoon was just the "strict dad". There are a few BTS where you can see him looking at them lovingly like a proud dad. I think it was probably just a poor choice of words. The bangs, and the way the new PDs adjusted the styling was levels better for her. I'm not a huge fan of raging on someone before actually understanding intent and whether it was just someone accidentally putting their foot in his mouth.

    • its the korean beauty standard. there is a reason why kim ji won received zero complaint while kim hye yoon needs to face all these bs about her looks

    • @didilia
      Kim Ji Won was on a diet for a year for QOT filming. She changed her hair, make up, styling. It wasn't discussed publicly by directors, but KJW said about it herself.
      And let's think real, despite being amazing actress, this is also helped her to get more recognition and popularity for Qot.
      I'm pretty sure things like this discussed behind the door with other actresses/actors as well.
      Song Hye Kyo changed her style and was on a diet for Glory as well. There can be different reasons to change their visuals, but it's the ordinary thing for most of dramas.

    • @Olesya1 is right, Kim Jiwon herself talked about how she was on a diet for a whole year so she could look her best on-camera for Queen of Tears, and this is an actress whom knetizens considered 'someone who wouldn't lose to even Song Hyekyo' in terms of her looks. Hell she was still on the diet (avoiding Chinese food) during QoT promotional period!

      Hair, makeup and styling for a drama are generally managed by the production, not the actors personally - that's what costume designers and hair and makeup artists are for. Doesn't mean the actors themselves don't have a role to play in it though. And a focus on looks is far from exclusive to k-ent, even back in 2006 Anne Hathaway had to lose weight to star in The Devil Wears Prada, and openly talked about clutching her other female costar and crying because they were so hungry. And this was after Anne got famous for having literal Disney Princess looks. At least there's no talk about KHY being told to go on a diet or get work done or whatever, considering how openly k-ent actors and idols speak about diets and managing themselves that's a relief.

  • I'm hoping something got lost in translation too. The director, for better or worse, does have a pulse on the viewing audience on wanting pretty aesthetics.

    Rather than the burden of societal lookism falling on women, I'm more side-eying the mansplaining as if KHY, as an experienced actress, didn't know that she had to be in good physical form. I'm sure, most actresses, before a role make sure to take care of their skin in front of those high definition cameras. It would be like my boss telling me that I shouldn't wear shorts and unbrushed hair at a national conference I'm presenting at. KHY didn't look that much prettier than her pretty self in extraordinary you. There were times she looked extra pretty because of the way the director expertly manages the angles and lighting. And the hair and makeup - shouldn't this be directed and managed by the production? Or do actors just let their personal makeup artists do whatever?

    Anyways, I hope LR leads to more acting offers for KHY.

• Have you checked out the recent photos that came out earlier today, the ones from the photobooth before the retake? PDnim’s comment suddenly makes more sense more from the visual styling perspective. To me this is on her agency and styling team. If you noticed as well her styling at the finale watch party, it was underwhelming when compared with BWS, SGH and LSH.

  • I saw those pictures. I remember thinking the bangs in her birthday video for Taesung looked terrible. I am glad they refilmed most of the high school stuff. She switched to a new agency in April, so I think it was still the mostly the old agency during the shooting of LR.

    • yeah some parts of the old high school timeline had those terrible bangs too (the original phone call from Sunjae to Sol at the start of the series, her first kidnapping/almost drowning, parts where she's in hospital), I assume it was filmed by the previous PD along with that Taesung birthday video.

      I assume the new PD paid a lot of attention to aesthetics and how things look beyond just telling KHY to look better on camera, because Sol's ugly bangs are absent from all the scenes of Sunjae seeing and falling for Sol for the first time in the OG timeline, her bangs in that yellow umbrella scene and the 'Sunjae watching her sleep in the video store' scene look normal and pretty instead of the 'cut with kitchen scissors' look of the old one.

    • I thought the terrible bangs on teenage Sol in the flashbacks were an intentional choice to show the visual difference between her "former teenage self" and her "adult self". Never knew it was because the PD changed and they refilmed stuff lol. Now I'm curious if there are more pictures out there from the other scenes other than the photobooth pic.

    • @Cb - the ugly bangs from the flashbacks are absent from the scenes of Sunjae seeing Sol and falling in love at first sight/developing a crush on her though (which is from the same timeline as the flashbacks i.e. he's seeing her original teenage self).

      of course he could have seen her before she got the hideous bangs cut in but If they were meant to differentiate between 'original teenage Sol' and '34 year old Sol in her teenage body' that clearly wasn't consistent. And now it's known that scenes even in 'adult Sol in teenage Sol's body' timeline were re-shot to look better because they were originally shot with the hideous bangs (HB), I assume the second PD re-shot scenes that he considered important to establishing Sol/Sunjae's relationship (the seeing her for the first time scene/their date and photobooth pics) but for budget reasons, might have left in some of the scenes with the HB that were less about the visuals. Notice that she has the hideous bangs in scenes of her OG accident and where she wakes up in the hospital, but not in the opening scene of the drama where Sunjae calls her on the phone when she's still in hospital.....though this is explained by it being like 10 months since her accident so presumably she grew her hair out, it's still messy and not 'prettied up' as she's shown to not care about her looks at that point but it's not actively hideous like the bangs were!

  • Can you please sent a link?

    • Here's a couple of links to pictures of initial filming. My original comment showed up and then disappeared. Reposting this. Sorry if this ends up showing up twice!

      https://x.com/DHayls95/status/1797487094363013372

      https://twitter.com/Yayahappyy/status/1796806049665782169

    • Thank you!

• KHY had to portray Sol at different stades of her life. The adult one was older than KYH real age. So I guess, he wanted her to express these different stades in a different way and for the adult one to be more feminin in her styling, expression and posture. I don't see an issue with that. But why being harsh about it? He could just ask nicely...