RUNNING MAN CLASSICS Episodes 131-140 Review
The classic episodes’ cast was Jaesuk, Seokjin, Jongkook, Haha, Jihyo, Gary, Kwangsoo--7 members.
Episode 131
Guests: Choo Sunghoon (MMA fighter), Lee Siyoung (boxer and actress)
Location: Incheon (library, mudflat, Airport Railroad Yongyu Base)
Games: Bounty Name Tag Ripping, Cushion Quiz, Mudflat Ssireum, All-Kill Ddakji Tournament
Highlights or notes:
King of Ddakji Special. Each game was played for “money” that the members could use to purchase different types of ddakji for the final battle. After the bounty game, everything was played in 3 teams of 3.
Bounty Name Tag Ripping was a fun concept. Each member was given a bounty amount, which could be earned if another member removed their name tag. Any bounty that a member may have earned would poof into nothing if they were ousted, so ONLY the final member would receive money and ONLY the amount that they personally collected.
In the cushion quiz, the members had to race across the room and put their cushion on the table to get the opportunity to answer a question. The first team to have all members answer a question correctly wins.
Mudflat Ssireum was played in an all-kill manner.
My rating: 8
Penalty: none - prize for the winner
Episode 132
Guests: Hwang Jungmin (actor), Park Sungwoong (actor), HyunA (singer, currently soloist, formerly in WonderGirls and 4Minute)
Location: Han River (opening), Hongdae
Games: Hide and Seek, “Cops and Robbers”, Briefcase Race
Highlights or notes:
Life-Or-Death Briefcase Race…with spies! At each game (location) a team can earn a hint about a hidden briefcase at the final location. The team to collect all 7 briefcases and deliver them to the “Boss” wins. Each team had a leader and a spy from the opposing team who were known to each other. If the opposing team won, the spy would also win (So in this case, if team singers won, Jihyo would win OR if team actors won, Gary would win…these spies were shown in the opening, so I’m not spoiling anything. I promise.)
The Cops and Robbers Game was played in a best of three rounds fashion where each team had an attacking and a defending turn. On the defending turn, each member of the team was given a card. Only one card was different. For five minutes, the attacking team could ask questions to try to find the person who held the different card.
My rating: 8 - honestly, the sheer paranoia and betrayals of this episode are funny. I had forgotten about it, but it's pretty good.
Penalty: None- prize to the winner
Episode 133 - continued to episode 134
Guests: Han Hyejin (actress), Lee Dongwook (actor)
Location: Macau (fisherman’s wharf, Macau Tower, Senado Square, Hotel “S”)
Games: Find the Guests, Macau Tower Spelling Mission, 3-Way Tug-of-War, Find the Flag at the Hotel
Highlights or notes:
This is the first in the Running Man Asia Tour. It takes place in Macau for this episode, then Vietnam for the next. The overarching theme is “Mystery of the Nine Daggers”. A dagger was awarded for each mission (4 in this episode).
Jongkook was not available for the first day of filming due to a scheduling conflict, but he did join the race, albeit with a foot injury.
The guests were located by finding a citizen with a R suitcase and then traveling to the wharf to find the guest who had the key.
At Macau Tower, members had to do several dizzyingly high challenges to find letters that would spell out the next location. Bungee jumping (the highest in the world at the time), a skywalk, and literally climbing the tower to the tippy top were all on the menu!
For the tug-of-war, each team gathered 7 citizens to assist. The member at the back of the rope needed to ring a bell behind them so that the team would win.
My rating: 7
Penalty: none- continued to episode 134
Episode 134 - continued from episode 133
Guests: Han Hyejin (actress), Lee Dongwook (actor)
Location: Hanoi, Vietnam (Hoàn Kiếm Lake, 36 Old Streets, Seafood Restaurant, Hanoi Landmark Tower 72)
Games: Heavy Rock-Paper-Scissors, Restaurant Missions, Name Tag Ripping.
Highlights or notes:
To start the episode, each team had to pick a person that would give them instructions for the next morning. One instruction was given in Korean, one in English, and one in Chinese. They simply had to make it to the airport on time.
The Heavy Rock-Paper-Scissors game was played in a market area. Each team was given two baskets of fruit to carry. At specific stations along the way, they could bet a number of fruit and play rock-paper-scissors against the store owner there. If all 3 members beat the owner, they would get rid of the fruit bet. If not, they would take back double their bet. The first team to finish getting rid of all the fruit wins.
For the restaurant missions, each team split up and sent one member to each of 3 different locations. One mission was the 31 game, where the goal is to NOT eat the 31st plate. The second mission was to guess the k-pop song sung by a local. The final mission was a modified close-quarters hide and seek.
Each team got as many name tags as the number of swords they had accumulated up to that point. Any team that started with less than 3 name tags would need a member to start the game in jail. For teams with more than 3 name tags, no member could have more than 2 lives. Shields were hidden around the hotel which could revive a member from jail or work as a mirroring ability for the member that found it.
My rating: 7
Penalty: none - continued in episode 136
Episode 135- Special Episode
Guests: Jackie Chan (actor), Choi Siwon (singer of Super Junior and actor/model)
Location: A Shopping Mall
Games: Find the Opening, Bottle Cap Flick (to the end of the table), Acupressure Mat Jump Rope (10 consecutive jumps for each team), Hot Potato, Gather Masks, Darts
Highlights or notes:
This was a “Treasure Hunters” Special Episode. Each game earned a number of darts for the teams to use in the final mission. A bullseye on the dart board earned a win for the day!
The hot potato game was played as a Q&A where the members would ask and answer questions to pass the potato. The potato was a phone. The member that started each round could set the phone’s timer for any amount from 20 seconds to 2 minutes 20 seconds.
The first team to find and gather 7 out of 12 hidden (zodiac animal) masks would win.
My rating: 8
Penalty: None- gold prize for the winner
Episode 136 - continued from Episodes 133 and 134
Guests: Han Hyejin (actress), Lee Dongwook (actor)
Location: Trang An, Hoa Lu - both in Vietnam
Games: Name Tag Ripping
Highlights or notes:
This was a prequel on the “Mystery of the Nine Daggers” to explain the lore of the absolute golden dagger.
The first 30 minutes or so was set up where the absolute golden dagger was found and the members gathered at the final location. Then the whole rest of the episode was a name tag ripping game.
The Absolute Golden Dagger had a different helpful ability each time it changed hands. To start it would freeze the person closest, so that the name tag could be taken without a fight. Then there was a glove to simply touch the name tag, a name tag scramble…you get the idea.
I absolutely LOVED this episode…Haha being utterly absorbed in a character is just about the funniest thing ever.
My rating: 10
Penalty: None - gold prize to the winner.
Episode 137
Guests: Noh Sayeon (singer), UEE (singer of AfterSchool)
Location: Various
Games: Fool’s Quiz, Pepero Game, Princess Carry Limbo, Piggyback Princess Name Tag Ripping
Highlights or notes:
OnDal and the Princess Special Episode. Each girl was the princess who needed to make her two fool teammates into great generals. Each game won would earn the team an extra name tag for the princess to use in the final game.
For the fool’s quiz, the men were shot with a water cannon for every wrong answer…and whenever another team got a correct answer. The quiz for the women was on sports and the quiz for the men was on fashion. (This was played in a sauna or pool).
The name tag ripping game was played in a boxing ring. The men that piggybacked the princess had to wear blindfolds, and this take directions from his princess.
My rating: 9
Penalty: None- gold R ring for the winning princess and the fool of her choice.
Episode 138
Guests: Kim Sooro (actor), Kim Woobin (actor, model), Lee Jongsuk (actor, model), Lee Jonghyun (guitarist of CN Blue), Min Hyorin (actress, now wife of Taeyang)
Location:
Games: 2 v 2 All-Kill Name Tag Ripping, Cafeteria Triathalon Games, Island Control (my name, not the shows), Capture the Flag
Highlights or notes:
This was played as the Track Club (Running Man members) vs the Drama Club (the guests with Jaesuk). The team who captured the flag and had it on their flag pole at the end of the day would win.
The first game was a name tag ripping game for a change of pace. The team with the last member standing would get the flag. The games that followed were for control of the flag until the final capture-the-flag game.
The name tag ripping was played continuously. Two members of each team started. Any time a name tag was ripped, a different member of the team would replace the ousted member until one team was completely defeated.
In the cafeteria, each team submitted 3 different games that could be played there without a lot of props. Three of the six were chosen and the team that won 2 out of 3 games would not have to pay for the snacks everyone ate. The first game was a relay food eating race where each member of a team had to finish a specific item (hard-boiled egg, cup ramen, ice cream pop, chocolate bar, bottle of water, and bottle of soda) before the next member could begin eating. The team with the fastest time wins. The second game was unshown. The third game was Relay Splits. For that, members had to touch toe-to-toe and stretch the farthest from the starting line. Longest record wins.
Floating mats were set up in a pool and the teams (in a best of 3 rounds game) needed to push the other team’s members into the water. The team with the final member on the island wins the round.
The final capture the flag game was played throughout a school building. Flag poles, specific to each team, were set up around the building. At the end of 30 minutes, the first team to get the flag onto one of their flag poles wins. A team could win earlier if they got the flag put up and were able to protect it for at least one minute.
My rating: 10!!
Penalty: No prize or penalty was shown.
Episode 139
Guests: Lee Yeonhee (actress), Go Ara (actress),
Location: Various (coffee shop, field, Kintex M Hotel)
Games: Couples’ Red Light, Green Light, Queen Dodgeball, Melodrama Name Tag Ripping Game
Highlights or notes:
Running Man Mini-Series Trilogy. Each game was tied to a ‘scene’ from the ‘drama’...and the couples in true drama fashion could change after each scene. One guy needed to be a girl for the sake of each game and one guy would be left out to play a different part in the games.
The man had to carry the woman in a piggyback for the red light green light game. Only the couple that isn’t caught will get to see the ‘ending’ of the drama.
In queen dodgeball, the man can be hit as many times as necessary to protect the female. A team is only out when the woman is hit. This was played 2 couples v 2 couples. Then the winning 2 couples faced off to determine the winners.
For the final name tag ripping game, the members needed to find clues to discover who the ‘blood siblings’ were. If the siblings could meet up and go to the ‘name tag DNA’ center together, they would ‘inherit’ wealth in the form of gold prizes. If someone else correctly placed the sibling name tags on the DNA reader, that person would win the gold.
My rating: 8
Penalty: None
Episode 140
Guests: None
Location: West Coast (opening only), Seocheon Service Area, National Institute of Ecology
Games: Happiness Agent Test, Get the Vaccine Race
Highlights or notes:
The goal of the members was to save the world from the ‘anger virus’ using the ‘laughter vaccine’. This was a GREAT episode.
The first game was to determine the ability of the members to combat the anger virus. Starting in the safe and uninfected zone, the members would use a helium balloon. Then they needed to run to the service station, order the food randomly chosen, and return with it….still sounding affected by the helium. The last member to complete the mission, fails to qualify and becomes infected.
The final game was to get the laughter vaccine. To do so, they needed to get the ID card of a researcher by tearing the name tag. ‘Security guards’ littered the area and would remove the members if the members were caught.
TWIST: Someone is using a water gun to infect everyone else!
My rating: 7
Penalty: None
