“No Gain No Love” (손해 보기 싫어서)

Starring Shin Min-a and Kim Young-dae, “No Gain No Love” falls into the contract marriage trope. But, oh, it offers so much more.
Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
Starring Shin Min-a and Kim Young-dae, “No Gain No Love” falls into the contract marriage trope. But, oh, it offers so much more.
Time travel adds a relatively unique element that differentiates K-drama storylines from other shows, but there is also a very visceral component. K-drama story arcs excel at telling tales of love and revenge. And what better way is there to get these points across than depicting how love and revenge transcend all boundaries, including time?
Like “Under the Queen’s Umbrella,” “Lovely Runner” uses the 우산 to represent how our protagonists fight to protect themselves from countless obstacles — including a messy serial killer subplot that I found redundant and not particularly compelling.
“Record of Youth” is Park Bo-Gum’s swan song before he enlisted to serve his mandatory military duty in South Korea. While it’s meant to be a traditional love story, the friendship between the three male leads and the woman Park loves was the real draw.