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No Gain, No Love korean drama review
Completed
No Gain, No Love
1 people found this review helpful
by Tanky Toon
Mar 27, 2025
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 8.5
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 6.0
This review may contain spoilers
Noona romances are one of my favorite sub-tropes, and thankfully this is one of the better ones. I’m not really a fan of Shin Min Ah, though I’ve watched some of her dramas and I’m lukewarm towards Kim Young Dae; but in this drama, I think they work and look good together, despite comments to the contrary. I find Shin Min Ah’s portrayal of a woman, who is very calculating by nature, in the sense that is not evil or manipulative, but she measures her life in pluses and minuses. Her enjoyment increases if she thinks she’s ahead in life and decreases when she suffers a setback. So when she finds out that the company gives better perks to married employees, she takes advantage of this by hiring someone to pretend to be her husband.

Enter Kim Young Dae as fake groom Kim Ji Uk, who cruises in life despite his wit, seems to be satisfied with working a low-paying blue-collar job, rather than being a corporate slave. An animosity seems to exist between our main characters, perhaps due to a clash of values or some unforeseen circumstance that will be revealed much, much later. But on the get go, the beef between these two hate-birds was so fun to watch.

The only people who are privy to this facade are Hae Yeong’s foster sisters, Ja Yeon and Hui Seong. Each has their own opinion on the matter, but they have their own problems to deal with. Frankly, I couldn’t care less about these two. Sorry, not sorry. And neither was I really invested in their love lives. Although Ja Yeon’s story might be more interesting, only because of the hilarity surrounding her hidden identity as a popular web novelist who writes smut. And coincidences of all coincidences, Ja Yeon encounters one of her detractors who happens to be boss of so and so, who happens be the son of so and so, and she happens to be friends with so and so, who happens to be the secretary of so and so. You know, typical small world.

Speaking of small worlds, Ji UK’s sudden presence at Hae Yeong’s company shocks her. Despite her efforts of keeping a distance from him, Ji Uk turns out to be a quasi-Peterella, wearing all fancy clothes, driving a sweet ass car, living in a snazzy apartment. The scenes of both Hae Yeong and Ji Uk avoid suspicion are funny as heck. And even more so are the instances where misunderstandings pile on other misunderstandings between Gyu Hyun and Ja Yeon. Then there’s a scene where most of the main cast gathers at Chairman Bok’s table, and we slowly see the faint dots connecting each other. Could it be that the already small world could get smaller?

The second half of the show explores this complicated relationship among the characters, with further plot twists thrown into the drama. You would think that by throwing fruit into a veggie salad and it will taste better. Not only we get mistaken identities; we get countersuits; we get a murder mystery that’s not really a mystery; we get polyamory; we also get a Mother who lived in a shoe, She had so many children, she didn’t know what to do.

And whew, I just got exhausted from that, so imagine watching it snowball into a dildo fight. Yes, you read that right. I’m not exaggerating this time. Then, the rollercoaster ended suddenly...wait a minute...is this a joke? They inserted the very dreaded TIMESKIP, because they do not know how to tie a neat bow without it. What the ever loving duck did you do to me???? Who does that??? Then, as easily as they pulled the plug, they just like flicked the switch and said, here you go, here’s your short happy ending. This is like somebody showing me the laborious way they baked a cake for twelve hours, only to just have me taste a smidge. This is definitely NO FAIR, NO LOVE.
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