Amazon Prime K-drama No Gain No Love: Shin Min-a proves her worth in fake-marriage romcom

Shin Min-a’s character sees unfairness all around her, not least the benefits married colleagues enjoy, and decides to stage a fake wedding

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Shin Min-a as career woman Son Hae-young in a still from No Gain No Love.

Pierce Conran

Published: 7:15pm, 29 Aug 2024

Lead cast: Shin Min-a, Kim Young-dae, Lee Sang-yi, Han Ji-hyun

Latest Nielsen rating: 3.8 per cent

Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha star Shin Min-a headlines new romcom K-drama No Gain No Love as Son Hae-young, a woman so obsessed with getting her fair share in life that she has been calculating every decision she has made since she was a child and questions all the unfairness she perceives around her.

Shin’s co-star is the up-and-coming Kim Young-dae, also currently on screens in Perfect Family, whose character, Kim Ji-wook, has a somewhat different view of life. He also bristles at the iniquities of society, but he reacts by finding ways to help other people rather than figure out a way to balance the scales for himself.

No Gain No Love: Special Trailer | Prime Video

Hae-young’s view on life is evident to all around her from a young age.

The show opens back in her childhood; while playing dodgeball in her schoolyard she begins badgering her physical education teacher. She wonders why the girls are only allowed to play dodgeball in a small corner of the yard when the boys can use the full run of the pitch to play football.

In the present, her frustrations have only grown. We meet Hae-young again as she arrives at a colleague’s wedding and considers how much money to place in the customary wedding envelope.

To another colleague, she quips that she has filled such envelopes with enough money by now to buy a small car, and has yet to receive anything in return.