By The Gorgeous Palah Chingu
Running man already garnered their fans worldwide since 2010. If you ask people around 12-20 (that is so into KPOP), running man is not a strange world for them. I have been one of the RM fans since 2010. They created so many creative games and their sense of entertainment is no joke. Running man had 191 episodes already and continuing the show strongly until now. I may not actively watch running man lately due to my busy schedule and some of the episode is so boring that I can’t finish watching it. If you asked me what my favorite episode is, I can’t say. Among 191 episodes, there is some that I enjoyed but people find it boring and it goes vice versa. Today, I didn’t want to spazzing about my favorite episodes or my favorite member in the show. I just wanted to share how amazing Episode 187 is.
The theme of National College Festival is used by Team Running Man in this episode. They went to 7 Top universities in Korea and select 2 students from each institution to try the impossible in the mission of Crossing Han River. Those 7 universities are Dongguk University, Korea University, Sungshin’s Women University, Sogang University, Kyung Hee University, Konkuk University and Jungang University. Running Man Members initiate the mission by going to the mentioned university to recruit the students who can be part of their team. There are so many variety games and challenges that they did in order to ensure they did pick the best one among thousands of students. Why did I say to try the impossible in the above? That’s because they are going to cross Han River with a boat they made from unusual materials that didn’t used to build the boat.
This idea originally came from the episode 159 (couple or gold episode) when they have to made boat from materials given and cross the swimming pool. It is copied from other reality show overseas which I don’t know the name of that program. Running man did show the footage saying they follow the idea from the show. In that episode, the team is partnered up as a couple together with a guest. They all made a boat with a cupboard, plastic, cellophane tape and other materials given by the staff. After finished making the boat, they all set off to cross the pool team by team to record their time. The winner will be the one who took the shortest time to cross the pool. Each of them made a very distinctive shape of boat to differentiate them from other team. I personally like Junchi and JungIn boat because it shaped similarly with the boat and I can see that they felt secure when rowing it in. However, they are not the fastest one. The team that won this race is team Jaesuk-Kwangyu. Despite having the most unstable looking boat, they did row very fast to ensure they arrived to finish line without sinking. The boat maybe one of the factors to win the race but the speed of rowing the boat also contributes in the winning.
In the episode of 178, Running Man program beating the word of impossible once again by using the cupboard boat (that they themselves made) and try to cross the Han River in a time given. They gave a very great episode to end the year of 2013. The format changed on this particular episode where the Running Man Members against the Staff of Running Man. Running Man Members will try to win every game that the staff sets and if they did win, the punishment at the end of the game will be given to the staff. To cross Han River is not easy, if you see the size of Han River, you will say it is impossible to do it. The risk of sinking, the wind direction, the wave and you even might get exhausted in the middle of the river due to rowing the cupboard boat. I was right indeed; they did suffer all of it. One of the boats almost sinking, the wind direction kept stirring them to opposite direction, the big wave passed through the boat and they all look exhausted from rowing the boat endlessly. The amazing thing is they didn’t stop. They finished the race. They divided the running man members into 2 groups and them rowing those 2 boats endlessly. One of the boats manage to arrive within the time given by the program PD. The other boat though they have a rough start but boy, they still finished their race. They didn’t give up. The feeling of accomplishment is so overwhelming that they did cry because of it. They did cross Han River with a cupboard boat and how many people have done that? You tell me.
I would say that being in the show for 191 episodes did help them to build such amazing teamwork. They knew each other so well that even they can synchronize their rowing instantly. The chemistry between the members of Running Man is just awesome. When the recent episode of Running Man (well, not really recent because I just watching it yesterday) showing that they going to do another episode of crossing the Han River with man-made boat, I can’t contain myself. I downloaded the entire episode that I have left behind and start marathon all the episodes. Episode 187 does not disappoint me. I love it. I love how they managed to get 2 students onboard with the idea of crossing the Han River using recycle materials in this episode. They had to play game to determine who can choose the materials first. There are 7 materials given by the staffs and they can only use that material solely for building a boat (except plastic and cellophane tape to wrap it). They are no longer given a cupboard box like they got in the previous episode. Plastic Bottles, Tin Can, Basin, Ball, Balloon, Plastic Bag and blanket are the materials that they had to choose to create a boat. When Gary and Jihyo both got the worst material which are plastic bag and blanket to create boat, people kind of predicted that they are going to sink first.
Unfortunately, those people are wrong. Jihyo and Gary team managed to arrive earlier than that team who had good materials to build a boat. Jihyo proving once again that she’s the Ace among Running Man Members. She and her team arrived first despite having a blanket as a material. Gary’s Team came second and successfully builds a boat using a plastic bag that filled with air (manually). They did fill every single plastic bag without any air pump. Kwangsu’s Team could be in a third place but they got exhausted in the middle of Han River and rowing the boat a bit slower. At that time, Jaesuk’s team managed to cut them and arrived in a third place. Kwangsu’s team in the fourth place is not bad at all considering their sole material is balloon. They even had a hardship at the beginning because the balloon kept popping. The rest of Running Man Member like Jong Kook, Haha and Ji Suk Jin placed at 5, 6 and 7 irrespectively. This episode totally shows that nothing is impossible. You could have the worst material ever but if your mind set that you can do it, you will beat the odds. Gary who had both female members in his team still gets a second place compared to other team who had 2 male members in the team. It showed that gender differences should not be considered as a factor to win or to lose. You could have all guy members in the team and you still lose. Overall, I am really satisfied with this episode. Their commitment, teamwork and dedication are something that we all should admire.
Three Chinguz - Reviews & Rantings 