Letter #134: No Gain, No Love

Good morning, Erin.

I’ve mentioned before that, despite plans to the contrary, things sometimes prevent me from writing to you when I think I’m going to. This letter, specifically, was supposed to be done and ready for you today (Monday, as I write this introduction), but, alas, that was not to be. 

But, as I soon found out, the delay was for good reason: as the universe knew, it was far more delicious for me to start the letter today—because I was about to start the day with the surprise announcement that Theresa is getting married. And what more perfect way could there be to mark such an occasion than by talking to you about a show that kicks off with a fake marriage?

I mean, I suppose it would be more perfect if I knew that Theresa’s marriage was also going to be fake, but…technically I don’t know that it won’t be, so…that sounds close enough for me!

Regardless, I hope you’re ready for a little chat about No Gain, No Love—by which I mean “hope you watched,” because I’m gonna go full-spoilers with this one. 

Because I liked it? Because I didn’t like it? Well, that I’m not going to spoil, so, for now, mum’s the word. 

But, if you’re ready to find out—and, of course, have put the finishing touches on your desired backstory for our whirlwind romance—shall we talk No Gain, No Love?

1. Let’s start with the list of folks I recognized:

• the main girl dentist lady from Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha as Hae-yeong, our female lead

• the in-universe main guy from Extraordinary You as Ji-uk, our male lead

• Ha-ri’s restaurant-owner crush from Business Proposal as Hae-yeong’s ex-boyfriend

• Chae-ran(!!!) from Our Beloved Summer as the ex-boyfriend’s wife (whom I just call “Chae-ran”)

• Ok-hui (the best friend) from Behind Your Touch as Hui-seong, Hae-yeong’s foster sister

• Director-senpai from Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha as Mr. Bok, president of Hae-yeong’s company

• Grandma from Start-Up as Ji-uk’s grandmother

• the shrink from Doctor Slump as Hae-yeong’s father

• the main girl’s sister-in-law from The Matchmakers as teenage Hae-yeong

• Dan-oh’s fiance’s father from Extraordinary You as Mr. Bok’s father

• the love interest from 20th Century Girl as a convenience store clerk

• the “eonnie!” guy from Behind Your Touch as a convenience store manager

• the idiot male friend from 100 Days My Prince as Hae-yeong’s childhood gym teacher

• not-quite-Brazilian girl from Doona! as a job interviewee

• the main PTA mom from Crash Course in Romance as a rich woman

• Geu-rami from Extraordinary Attorney Woo as the rich woman’s daughter

1A. You should have seen me during the wedding section of Episode 1, squinting and angling my head at the paused screen, audibly wondering if the bride was my Chae-ran. And when I found out that it was, in fact, her? Oh my stars and garters, Erin—I’ve missed her so, so much! I don’t know why they felt it was important to keep her…not obscured, but a seemingly unimportant background character during that whole sequence—especially when she turns out to be as significant as she is. (I mean, she’s not that important, but she’s around and influencing things pretty much the whole time.) I just remember that we caught a couple of distant glances at her, and my radar went off. And I was right! 

1B. I had a similar (though less intense) reaction to realizing not-quite-Brazilian girl was in the first episode. Or, more specifically, I was wondering why I was so charmed by this girl who was clearly not going to stick around for more than just for that single sequence—and then I realized it was because it was that charming girl I’d already been charmed by in Doona! Which was also a bit of a bummer, because we weren’t going to get to see her anymore. 

1C. We’ve got a mini-reunion gumbo, this time around: Hae-young was in Cha-Cha-Cha with Mr. Bok; Mr. Bok was in My Demon with Ji-uk’s grandmother; Ji-uk was in Extraordinary You with Mr. Bok’s father; Ji-uk also made a cameo in True Beauty which Chae-ran was also in; the rich lady was in Doona! with the job interviewee; and Hui-seong and the convenience store manager were, of course, both in Behind Your Touch. (And, as I understand it, the well-known actors playing very minor or one-off characters are all connected via Strong Girl Namsoon, which had the same director as No Gain, No Love.)

1D. Also, in Episode 8, Hae-yeong starts watching Lovely Runner on TV—which stars the dude playing the convenience store clerk in Episode 4. Now, I haven’t yet seen Lovely Runner, but I thought the guy on the TV looked like the dude playing the convenience store clerk and so assumed it must be footage from Lovely Runner—but what sealed it for me was Kim Hye-yoon saying something. That is, while we never see her on screen, there is a brief audio clip of her dialogue from the show that we hear, and…well, I’d know that voice anywhere. Maybe the only one I’d recognize without visuals. 

1E. …of course, I say that, but the only reason I recognized Geu-rami from Attorney Woo was because of her voice. (I think my note literally says, “Is it her? ‘Cus it sure sounds like her…”) Of course, I could see her, but she didn’t really look like her. I mean, she looked sort of like her (because it was her), but she was done up to be, well, hotter than she normally looks. So…yeah, it wasn’t until she spoke for a bit that I recognized her. 

2. This show has two separate time jumps, Erin. Two. And I don’t mean there’s an exposition-y segment at the start where we see the main character as a kid and then jump forward to the present. No, I mean two present-day-plot’s-already-going time jumps. It’s…it’s just inexcusable. 

3. That said, much of my rage was quelled by the appearance of the Subway sponsorship scenes, which I love almost as much as I do the fake relationship trope. 

3A. There were also multiple product placement moments for those coffee candies, which also helped. 

4. …okay, I was trying to come up with things to mention without yet revealing my thoughts on the show overall, but I feel like most of what I’d want to say needs the context of how I felt about the whole thing, lest my points sound more like a an alternating list of pros and cons instead of support for my opinion—which is that the show was mostly entertaining, but also consistently flawed, from its execution to its narrative choices to its structure. The storyline is a little busy and more than a little contrived, at times. But the actors are all quite good, even if they are saddled with characters who are not especially complex (and, in some cases, flat), which is quite the boon to the series. A less talented cast might have ranked this show almost as low as Bad-Memory Eraser, even though it’s clearly a better product in almost every way. So, I mostly had a good time, but it’s not one I’m going to remember. 

5. …except for the second leads and their romance storyline, which I really, really enjoyed. And I can’t imagine anyone who saw the show would think otherwise. The online hate comments being the thing that brings them into each other’s orbits is a bit wobbly, as far as plot goes, but the rest of it is just great—and probably what got me through to the end of the show. Because, while the main couple’s storyline stagnates and subverts itself as the series goes on (having wrapped up its core elements well before the runtime of the series was up and, as such, had to come up with reasons to continue), the second leads’ arc more naturally (and compellingly) spreads across the whole season, building bit by bit as the two come closer together. They were easily the best thing about the show.

5A. Well, best thing that wasn’t Chae-ran. Obviously. 

5B. It’s killing me that I haven’t yet been able to watch their spin-off/side story, Spice Up Our Love. I’m so excited for more of them—even if they’re maybe not really playing themselves. 

5C. Also, to clarify something: while I think the hate comments stuff is a bit contrived as a means of bringing these two into contact, I absolutely LOVE that the whole thing starts because Mr. Bok stumbles across his mother’s hidden “copy” of the erotic web novel. 

5D. Relatedly: I find it worrying that the only thing the police consistently seem vigilant about in K-dramas is people saying mean stuff on the internet. Everything else is rife with laziness, indifference, and corruption—but mean tweets? They will hunt you to the ends of the earth.

6. The company essentially encouraging its employees to marry is really contrived—for the first couple of episodes. Then, there’s a fairly convincing explanation for it in Episode 3: that A) married couples have babies, and babies become the children the company sells its educational products to; and B) Mr. Bok’s mother doesn’t want her philandering husband anywhere near single women. Which is definitely still contrived, very much a product of the show’s over-justifying Hae-yeong’s decision to fake a marriage, but at least it’s somewhat grounded in character stuff. I mean, it’d be way better if the marriage benefits were more of an open secret/well-founded rumor about it being at the behest of the Chairman’s wife…or if, y’know, it wasn’t part of the story at all because it’s weird and unnecessary for moving the story forward, but…again, at least it’s somewhat grounded in character stuff.

7. Joo Min-kyung, who plays Hui-seong, is one of my favorite Korean actresses. This is the fourth thing I’ve seen her in, and her performances have never been anything less than exceptional—across the board. I’ve talked about how great she is before (particularly in the letter for One Spring Night), and that’s absolutely still the case here…almost to the show’s detriment. That is, the actress is too good for the script. 

7A. Now, it’s not so much that I’m taking a dig at the script when I say that (...though, yes, I also am certainly doing that), but rather that I want to emphasize how Joo Min-kyung’s acting talent sort of conflicts with both the tone and the shallowness of the writing, particularly with regards to her role in the story: she plays her scenes very, very realistically. That is, where the script will have a scene just to hit a plot beat or pepper in an emotional point, requiring only that the actors get the sentiment of what’s written across, Joo Min-kyung’s natural gravitas will make the scene much weightier, much more grounded than it was intended to be—again, because the writing is…if not frivolous, then certainly not particularly serious. (Though, we’ll talk more about that later.) So, if there’s a scene where Hui-seong’s just there to voice her disagreement about something Hae-yeong does, she doesn’t stomp her foot and say she doesn’t agree; she looks Hae-yeong dead in the eye, deeply offended by what’s been said, and tells her she disagrees, tension from their moral conflict hanging in the air—but supported by little more than lukewarm, perfunctory dialogue. The script just isn’t equipped for her. And while one might argue that this is a failing of the actress, an inability to adjust her style to the lighter tone of the script…well, let’s just say I think there’s more than enough reason to think it’s the script rather than her. (And you bet your bippy we’re gonna talk about that.)

7B. Now, to my surprise, in a couple of the instances where Joo Min-kyung does what I’ve just described above, the actress playing Hae-yeong actually steps up her acting game to meet Joo Min-kyung’s level of intensity, suddenly putting a lot more weight into what she’s saying. I say surprising only because I haven’t seen much of…checking the actress’s name—ah, Shin Min-a. So, yeah, I haven’t seen much of Shin Min-a, and what I have seen has been relatively fluffy. But she can obviously bring it, if the occasion arises. And Joo Min-kyung’s performance clearly prompted her to do exactly that, reacting to the other actor’s energy rather than simply emoting in a bubble (as so many actors—even the good ones—often do). Which kinda makes it that much more disappointing that the script isn’t better. 

8. Which doesn’t mean the lighter, fluffier stuff was an issue, for the record. Like, the ridiculous “adorable marriage proposal!” scene is actually really adorable. And Hae-yeong’s ridiculous attempts to fake flirty-fun boyfriend/girlfriend videos? Hilarious. Or Mr. Bok’s mom going full-incognito to fangirl her way into bankrolling the webnovelist’s radio drama adaptation of her latest story—also hilarious. I kinda wish the show had more fully embraced the silliness, actually, because it was generally pretty good at that. Like with Ji-uk’s repeated snide remarks about Hae-yeong’s smoking. Good stuff. 

9. Speaking of: I really enjoyed the actor playing Ji-uk—at least in the early parts of the show. I’ve seen the actor a couple of times, and he’s always very…stiff? deadpan? stone-faced? He’s not great at emoting, from what I’ve seen, is what I mean. But he’s quite good in the early parts of the season—when he’s got his messy mop of hair and big glasses on. And part of me feels like the hair and glasses are what let him loosen up a bit, let him feel freer to be the character and not just…himself. Or whatever he’s doing when he’s playing another edition of generic handsome boy. Which is pretty much what he becomes after the wedding—especially after the first time jump, when he’s ditched the glasses and cut his hair. 

10. Relatedly: Ji-uk’s got lenses in his (presumably) fake glasses. I appreciate that. A lot of the time, they won’t bother when dealing with fake glasses, because worrying about the lenses reflecting the light in the scene is a hassle. 

11. The envelope of money Ji-uk gives Hae-yeong as a gift after their wedding is filled with American $2 bills. Which is an interesting choice. And a strange one. And probably only about $30, from the looks of it.

12. Shin Min-a is a very good looking woman. I think that’s pretty safe to say. But f*** you Hae-yeong’s 33, show. That woman is 40. A lovely 40. But a worryingly rundown 33. You cannot tell me you thought you were going to get away with that. Were you that worried about the size of their age gap? Or did you really expect me to think she looked young enough to be 33?

12A. That said, I dunno what witchcraft they pulled out to make goth college girl flashback Hae-yeong look 15 years younger, but…well done. 

13. The fancy spiral staircase from Hae-yeong’s imagined version of Ji-uk meeting her at their wedding is the same one where the leads had their “meet cute” in Dreaming of a Freaking Fairy Tale.

14. I’ve always found the actor who plays Mr. Bok to be a bit…boring. But he’s pretty darn good in this. He’s very funny, very sympathetic, and very locked into the lovestruck romantic feelings for…uh, what’s the webnovelist’s name? Ja-yeon? Yes, Ja-yeon—he’s very locked into the certainty of his character’s affection for Ja-yeon. Best performance I’ve seen from him, to date. And he was easily my favorite character in the series. 

14A. And…dude can sing. Did you know that? I didn’t know that. 

15. By the end of the show, I’d genuinely forgotten Hae-yeong’s older friend from work was a character. That’s how irrelevant she ended up being to the story. (To say nothing of how little she was in it, past a certain point.)

16. I may have sniffled a bit during the segment of the wedding episode where Hae-yeong had arranged for everyone to essentially say their goodbyes to her dying mother. But just a bit. Maybe. 

17. Chae-ran predatorily picking out more and more outfits for the (equally smitten) wedding shop attendant to make Ji-uk try on for them was hilarious. 

17A. …though a weird segment to include in a show that isn’t afraid to go to the ol’ “sexism!” well whenever it serves to bolster Hae-yeong’s righteousness. (To say nothing of how Ji-uk’s character introduction is centered around him taking issue with the sexist/sexist-adjacent questions asked of the female applicant during their job interview.)

17B. Then again, Because This is My First Life did teach us that sexism is a one-way street, so…maybe I’m the weird one, here. 

18. Relatedly: good on the new hire for reporting Hae-yeong for workplace harassment—particularly since it was something that was set up in the aforementioned job interview scene, where this guy was one of the interviewees who saw Ji-uk bristle at the sexist/sexit-adjacent questions the female applicant in the group was asked.

19. It was hilarious seeing Mr. Bok struggle to lift weights at the gym when I know just how ripped the actor playing him is. 

19A. Also, don’t think I didn’t notice that, when Mr. Bok lifts Ja-yeon in his arms after she passes out, the theme from Iron Man 3 plays. For some reason.

20. Almost by default, Chae-ran was obviously only ever going to be #bestgirl—but she genuinely earned it, you see, because she was the only one of the ladies I never once got mad at for being a stupidface: Hae-yeong’s general attitude annoyed me, Ja-yeon’s behavior during “mean comments” plot thread eventually made her very unsympathetic to me, and Hui-seong…ugh, we’ll get to it, but suffice to say she doesn’t come out of her storyline smelling like roses. (And, yes, these are the results of bad writing decisions—in all three cases.)

21. Speaking of Chae-ran: I thought the show did a really good job slow-walking the reveal of her calculating, power-driven side. It’s a pity she has so little impact on the story, especially in the final third of the series. 

22. And tangentially speaking of Chae-ran…this show manages to do what Our Beloved Summer could not: spell out “CONGRATS” correctly with balloons. 

22A. …you remember: 

23. Wait, did…did I say I was ranking my favorite song covers you did on instagram? In my previous letter, I mean. Out of nowhere, it just hit me—I said instagram, didn’t I. I meant TikTok. I don’t know why I said instagram. Wow, that’s embarrassing. Like, misspelling-“CONGRATS”-in-balloons levels of embarrassing. 

24. I was not a fan of the whole ex-boyfriend storyline. I thought it was stupid, both in terms of her anger at his lying to her and at his “I’m still in love with her!” shtick—and none of it ever really goes anywhere. Which maybe isn’t all that surprising since I never really thought it made much sense to begin with. 

24A. And, yes, I say this even as I acknowledge that it led to Chae-ran being angry/huffy, which is one of my favorite things in the whole of Korean entertainment. 

25. The scene where Ji-uk and Mr. Bok argue in the lobby of the office building is done as a boy-boy trope gag—which doesn’t work AT ALL: A) the situation surrounding their confrontation is far too dire for it to be given comedic undertones, and B) it’s being seen as such from the perspective of a character who’s been invented just for this scene—meaning it’s not just an odd place to put the gag, but the very idea of the boy-boy frame is introduced for the first time AS THE CONFRONTATION HAPPENS. Terrible writing. 

26. After discoverst Ja-yeon is in love with Mr. Bok, Hae-yeong chases her into their house, threatening to beat her with an umbrella. As the chase continues within the house, we can see that both women have very politely removed their shoes—which, though I would think it unlikely, is believable enough: it’s just so ingrained in them both that they’d naturally fling their shoes off hastily as they entered. Fine. But…Hae-yeong’s wearing slippers. So, in her rage, she not only removed her shoes at the door but also took a moment to get into her slippers? No. Nice try, show. Not buying it.

27. Hae-young and Ji-uk’s first kiss left something to be desired.

28. Ha-yeong and Ji-uk’s pre-sex kissing, on the other hand, was, as the kids would say, fire. 

29. Mr. Bok and Ja-yeon’s first kiss was very tame—and cute as f***. 

29A. …as was the “office tour” they went on for their date. Ugh, I love them. 

30. I’m 90% sure Mr. Bok’s secretary makes reference to an “Indian rain dance,” but the subtitles claim he says something about a “rain ritual.” Like, you can hear him literally say the word Indian, guys. Don’t lie to me. 

31. There was a two-week gap between watching episodes, for me, right around the midpoint of the season—and, when I came back to the show, I’d forgotten that Chae-ran was in it! So, when she showed up for the first time in that new episode I was watching, I sat up in my chair and said, “Oo, and who might this be?” And then, a split-second later, I remembered that Chae-ran was in the show, which is obviously why I thought she was so cute. So…at least I’m consistent. 

32. For her 30th birthday, Hui-seong gave Hae-yeong a box of dildos from around the world. I…don’t know what to make of this. 

32A. …except to say that seeing Mr. Bok beat Ja-yeon’s psychopath father into submission with a couple of the more exotic ones turned out to be really, really funny. Surprisingly. (I don’t know that it should be funny, but…it definitely was.)

33. “And that’s when Ja-yeon and Mr. Bok officially get together.”

“Incredible. Such a high note. I love it. What happens next?”

“The mom dies.”

“...what?”

34. Which brings us to the biggest issue of the series, my dear seonbae—and no, I don’t mean that we have yet another murder subplot (sort of) in our K-drama romcom. No, I’m talking about the most baffling, inexplicable element of the entire story: Hui-seong. 

34A. Now, earlier in the letter, I said the character was underwritten compared to the gravitas of Joo Min-kyung’s performance—and that the disparity was absolutely an issue with the script, not a failing of the actress. Because, if you look at Hui-seong’s presence in the story, there are two very obvious problems with the character: that she serves no narrative purpose, and that the whole of her subplot is at odds with the rest of the storytelling.

34B. First of all, I defy anyone to tell me why Hui-seong is even in this story. Sure, she sometimes disagrees with Hae-yeong’s perspective, but that seems to be the only real connection she has with the storyline proper: she’s the perfunctory pushback that enables Hae-yeong to explain (and, in so doing, enables the story to justify to the audience) her unconventional, it’s-a-TV-show decisions—a role that could just as easily have been taken up by Hae-yeong’s (even more narratively pointless) older friend at work and not changed how anything plays out.  

34C. Further, Hui-seong is essentially a character from an entirely different story—not just because most of the focus she is given is as the protagonist of her own disconnected pocket dimension (...that is, because her subplot is nearly unrelated in even the slightest way to the main and/or secondary stories), but also because the contents of her subplot are so gravely serious, concerned with intellectually, morally, and philosophically more complex topics than those of her sisters’ storylines: she’s a “blue collar” voice actress whose career is ever-teetering on the edge of fragility…who disdains lying and becomes morally outraged at her sister’s cynical view on love…who dreams of marrying her long-time boyfriend…but also won’t get married to her long-time boyfriend because it will disturb the success of their secret polyamorous relationship…that results in her getting pregnant without any way to know who the father of the baby is…which threatens the status quo of her polyamorous relationship and leads her to want an abortion…which she’d always said she’d get even if she was in a committed relationship because she assumes she’d be as bad a parent to her child as her parents were to her…who’s worried an abortion might hurt her vocal skills…who’s worried a pregnancy might hurt her vocal skills…who can’t bring herself to get an abortion…then can’t decide if she wants her long-time boyfriend to marry her and raise the child or encourage her to get an abortion…then accepts his marriage proposal…then dumps him for momentarily worrying about what happens if the baby isn’t actually his…then gets back together with him because they still love each other. I mean, no wonder the actress is playing Hui-seong like she’s in an intense adult drama! Meanwhile, Hae-yeong and Ja-yeon are off wondering if they can let themselves be loved by the handsome men wooing them even though they still have unresolved issues with their pasts. Color me crazy, but I feel like these are incongruous narratives.

34D. What’s worse is that there's just SO MUCH going on with Hui-seong! She’s got such a strong traditionalist ethos, yet lives a philosophically unconventional life, governed as much by irrational concerns as by righteous idealism. Any one of the things she’s dealing with could fill several episodes of a show, let alone all of them intermingling with each other in all their seeming contradiction. So, obviously, the show dedicates about 25 minutes of the total runtime to all of it. And doesn’t improve its shallow dialogue. Because why bother. 

35. …but Chae-ran, so 10/10.

And that’s No Gain, No Love: generally enjoyable, frequently underwhelming, and ultimately forgettable. Certainly worth the watch, but probably better with tempered expectations. 

Or, translated into Chae-ran:

Unrelatedly, I’ve got this sudden lingering urge to join TikTok. Not to post anything, just to follow along with stuff. But, like, I don’t wanna do it if it’s just one of those things that I’ll stop thinking about in a few days. But if it sticks with me for a while…but, like, is it really worth getting into another—

Wait, no, I meant instagr—dammit, I meant instagram.

…sigh.

More soon.

—Daryl