Love All Play Episode 1 Recap: Park Ju-hyun’s Dramatic Return To Badminton

Love All Play, alternatively known as The Speed To You is 493 KM (너에게 가는 속도 493km) is a 2022 Korean Sports Rom-com directed by Jo Woong. The series runs for 16 episodes and stars Park Ju-hyun, Chae Jong-hyeop, Park Ji-hyun, Kim Moo-joon and Seo Ji-hye in lead roles. Love All Play Episode 1 has a runtime of 70 minutes.

– Love All Play Episode 1 Recap Contains Spoilers –

We are introduced to Park Ju-hyun as Park Tae-yang who has been working at a fish shop and has learned to make Sashimi but now, it’s time for her to go back. She thanks her boss before going and while her boss thinks that she is going to Seoul to work at a Sushi Place, Tae-yang has different plans. Tae-yang lands directly in a badminton stadium.

The Seoul City Hall team and the Yunis National team are competing in a group tournament. Both the teams have their best players who are least interested to play and show up at the last minute when their coaches scold them. Park Tae-joon from the Seoul City Hall team has been playing Badminton since he was 7. He always makes excuses before coming to play because he has been losing interest in Badminton.

Yuk Jung-hwan from the Yunis team is a Silver Medalist and refuses to play in local tournaments because he wants to rest. His tantrums have only been increasing as he asks his sponsor company to either keep him or his coach. He doesn’t want to train and demands to let him practice whenever he wants and with whoever he wants. Though he looks like a proud and arrogant person with such behaviour, there is a different reason behind this.

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Jung-hwan has been mentally exhausted and he feels pressured to win a gold medal. His mother advises him to see a therapist but he refuses to do so. He is insecure about his own image and feels that people will walk all over him if they think he is weak. His effort to save his image is becoming an obstacle to his sport.

The teammates of the Seoul City Hall has more camaraderie than the Yunis team. Tae-joon forfeits the match when his teammate in the doubles match gets injured. When his injured friend refuses to leave the match, he tells him to not put his career on top of his life. They lose the match and Tae-joon shockingly decides to retire. He takes his teammates out for a drink at his retirement party.

At the restaurant, they see the Yunis team and are about to leave when Tae-joon stops them. Tae-joon sees Tae-yang at the Yunis team table and he seems to know her already. Tae-yang used to be a badminton player but she got into a scandal of bribing the officials and disappeared from the sport, but now, she is back after three years. No one from the Yunis team is welcoming toward Tae-yang and she already has issues with Yeong-sim, whom she used to play with before.

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Love All Play Episode 1 Ending

Tae-joon has been applying to become a badminton coach and at a gymnasium, he meets Tae-yang and her father. Though Tae-yang denies not recognizing him first, she later agrees to know him. Tae-joon had met Tae-yang when they were in school. It is because of Tae-joon that Tae-yang plays Badminton. She used to live with her grandmother and was caught by Tae-joon when she tried to steal his bicycle. He found out that she is a gifted badminton player when she beat him in a match.

Tae-joon told about her to his coach and his coach adopted her and made her the badminton player that she is today. That is why she advises Tae-joon to not retire from the sport. Tae-joon didn’t find Badminton fun anymore but he jokes to his friend that if he gets a 60 Million Won salary, he will think of not retiring. To his surprise, the Yunis company offers him the same amount which wavers Tae-joon’s decision and he joins Yunis instead of retiring.

Love All Play Episode 1 Review

In the first episode, Love All Play rushed the story too fast. For a story with so many characters in the front, not every character gets enough time to introduce themselves. Even though Tae-yang and Tae-joon get more screentime, the parts of their stories have been dispersed in the episode and it is difficult to connect them. There are many instances where the story could have been held back to create a climax but it unexcitedly gives off the answers. Hopefully, the story will develop better in the upcoming episodes.

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