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Beautiful Story and Beautifully Shot
First, this is not for everyone. If you're expecting a BL, you can stop expecting a BL - it's not one. There is an LGBT aspect of the story, and the male gaze is present as Atom wears very little thorughout which is a goldmine for shallow people like me, and when he is dressed up, he looks amazing.Reading the comments section, there is a bit of overstatement of the theatricality of the series. It is intentionally play-like, but the purely visual elements are of equal importance to the dialogue, and I think that because this was deceptively marketed a BL, the audience was looking for BL and not seeing what was really there, and you can't blame the audience for that.
If you approach this as a straightforward story, you may hate it - it's an allegory, so it's important to think about what everyting symbolizes and what is metaphor, and what the message is.
There are many related themes, a couple of the more surfacy ones being the futility of second-guessing past decisions - and the utility of atonement in order to move on.
The structure of the story has Sunshine given the power to totally erase a person from the universe each night for 7 Days before Valentine('s - I wish these productions could get the grammar of the title correct), and the correct decision will bring love back to him. Each erasure has a lessson, but this causes the biggest problem with the series and what I think is the main reason so many people disliked it and/or dropped it:
it's too long, One of the erasures is a self-indulgent political statement by the writer, which didn't belong in here. What would have been more meaningful and universal would have been to erase the Conservative, ending up in a Stalinist far-left conformity, as without balance even the side you're on can become descend into oppression.
Another of the erasures just makes Sunshine evil and malicious and should not have been included, Some of his decisions are bad, but viewed through the lens of his heartbreak is understandable, but this one isn't - it's just awful of him.
The acting in this is fantastic - the series rests firmly on Atom's shoulders, and he carries it. His heartbreak is heartbreaking, his smile is even worse (so beautiful it hurts), and there's a scene with him on stage that's worth it in itself. Jet is good too, but he has a more limited range and I don't think he quite kept up with Atom. The small parts are all very well acted, even "annoying stock characters" that made them all compelling, like Jared the Flower Guy. who could have just been irritating, but it's hard not to fall in love with him.
I loved this series, but I did feel it bogged down in the middle. If you can put up with that, the end is worth it. But again, this is not a BL, so don't watch it expecting one.
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Started with a bang, ended with a fizzle
If there was ever a K-drama that could have used 16 episodes, "No Gain, No Love" might be the one. For all its hilarity and touching moments, there were quite a few plot cracks that a couple of laughs and tears couldn't quite plaster over.This is a long one, but let me start with the positives:
- Son Hae-yeong is definitely making my list of the most memorable female K-drama leads of all time. I loved it every time she was on screen. She was funny, assertive, good at her job, and true to her character from beginning to end. There was so much depth to her, especially when it came to displaying all the hurt from her childhood. Kudos to SMA for bringing this amazing character to life, this is my first time finishing a project of hers and I was really impressed here.
- The rom rommed, and the com commed. I genuinely laughed out loud at so many moments while watching this show, and I enjoyed the chemistry between Hae-yeong and Ji-uk. The second couple was cute too and had great chemistry, but I couldn't fully get into them.
- My girl Han Ji-hyun was soooo good and adorable in this drama. Loved her in Cheer Up despite the disaster that show became, and she shone even brighter here. Can't wait to see more of her in the spin-off.
- Isn't it amazing when adults behave like adults and communicate? It was nice to see the back of the noble idiocy trope in this show and that unnecessary misunderstandings were kept to a minimum or at least quickly addressed. And a lot of interesting themes were addressed too, although not always in a satisfactory way.
- The foster sister trio. There's nothing like an amazing girl squad in a K-drama that stays amazing and uplifting until the end. It reminded me a lot of the trio from King the Land -- they have their differences and squabbles, but they support each other all through. It was heartwarming to see.
Now, onto the negatives:
- The ending was such a letdown, especially coming off the penultimate episode. I figured that it would be a bit rushed, but I was disappointed in just how much was left unresolved, most especially when it comes to emotional closure for our female lead. It was sad to see how much her feelings about her mother were cast aside when it is at the root for her character and personality, and there's simply no resolution for her. For someone who doesn't like to take a loss, she lost quite a lot in this drama. There's so much else to talk about here but that will be too much of a spoiler.
- The second couple's relationship, while cute to see, not only took too much screen time away from the first couple (especially considering that they have their own spin-off), it also seems quite unbelievable at the heart of it and hard to root for. The second male lead, Bok Gyu-hyun, who also happens to be HY's boss, becomes quite the villain, especially towards HY, but also towards the second female lead, who is HY's younger (foster) sister, Nam Ja-yeon. And so it's hard to understand how quickly NJY forgives BGH and falls in love with him despite the gravity of what he's done (and he only apologizes for what he did to her, but not what he does to HY or Ji-uk), especially with how close she is to HY. Poor writing and characterization, imo.
- Too many extraneous characters and plot points to follow, which further made the lack of resolution in the final episode more glaring. I'm not sure why K-dramas are yet to fully figure out how many episodes they need for the plot points they have. 12 episodes was not enough to fully flesh all of these out and still leave room for character development, and it really showed.
- Young-dae's character Ji-uk was seriously shafted for a main lead role, probably worse than HY. So many parts of his story felt underdeveloped, and the other characters overshadowed him.
All in all, "No Gain, No Love" was a fun time but suffered from a weaker second half. There was a lot of material for it to be truly good and iconic, but sadly a lot of it was wasted. Still, the great parts were great, with a lot of laughs and shed tears and cool performances. It will probably not make it into my list of faves, but it was a good watching experience overall. 7/10.
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2-Storyline/Plot : As the title say; this is an idol film about kpop groups and the struggle they have to go through in order to move from scratch to the top.
There were many good hard working moments and a very boring romance.
Overall, it wasn't that interesting or that boring.
3-Acting/Cast : Okay let me say this: I really dislike Park Ye Jin no matter what type of character she leads; here she was good as an actress but the character was annoyingly stiff.
On the other hand, I liked Ji Hyun Woo as an actor but he wasn't that special as a character.
Other actors and characters were really good especially the boys from the group.
4-Music : The strength point of this film was the music; "Summer Dream" was a great song that I still remember till now.
5-Rewatch value : It could've be rewatchable for some people who deeply fell for it.
6-The ending : It wasn't a bad ending but it was really predictable and cliche.
7-Overall : This film had too much potential to make it perfect as an idol story but the writers took the wrong turn while delivering it; it wasn't bad but I still feel like there's something missing.
P.S : If you're idol dramas/films lover than you may actually love this.
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Simple yet Sweet with some Sadness and laughs.
I would call this fluff, on a Fluffy cloud cuteness! ❤️ If that even makes sense. 🤣 This is going to be short...It's nice to watch something that is not complicated, that is just a light-hearted, refreshing, lovely and fun series. So if you are looking for something like that than get going to watch this series you won't regret it!
I just love the MLs they have such great chemistry, I can't get enough of them. 😍😍❤️
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1This review may contain spoilers
machinery and the mob
9 / 10Most dramas are made to help us escape for a bit. This one doesn’t let you do that. It doesn’t try to be clever or self-important. It just confronts you. It pulls a system we’re not supposed to see into the open and holds it there. What makes it uncomfortable is that it doesn’t stop at the industry. It makes room for the audience too, for the way attention, demand, and silence keep the whole thing running. This isn’t really entertainment. It’s a reckoning with an industry that only works because people stay quiet and pretend not to know.
The scandal at its core is not rumor or professional misconduct. It is the systematic suppression of rape and sexual assault. We see multiple victims erased through coordinated falsehoods. Of cousre, who knows how many victim stories never make it to the light. We see media manipulation and suppression deployed as a weapon. A culture so practiced in self-preservation that it pushes victims toward isolation, despair, and suicide. The series does not treat this as some sort provocation... it treats it as evidence that the whole thing needs a reboot or to be torn down.
Haruna's (oh how I love Haruna in everything she is in)character is personally implicated and ideologically committed. Her sister is also a victim, and that wound never closes. But she is not driven by solely by revenge. She is driven by belief. She believes truth matters. She believes journalism has an obligation beyond access, profit, and survival. That conviction is what makes her dangerous in a system designed to bury facts rather than surface them.
At first I was a little conflicted by the sister connection, but I think the writers did a good job of introducing it (I am just very wary of any previous connection trope.... but at least this one isn't that someone in the show crossed paths with someone 47 years ago and now everything is magically connected.)
The scenes with her and Ko hit me harder than anything else in the show. This isn’t some moral showdown. It’s two women who understand exactly how much power a narrative can hold and who gets to tell it. They know what silence protects and what truth can destroy, and neither of them looks away. Watching it, I kept holding my breath. Every word and every move matters. It’s tense, it’s exhausting, and it feels completely real.
What makes the drama so damning is that it doesn’t stop with the easy villains. It doesn’t let us blame just the agencies or point fingers at the media and feel clean about it. Yes, they’re guilty. But the show names the last accomplice too, and it’s the audiencee. Abuse keeps happening because attention keeps paying for it. Lies survive because they sell. People want the spectacle, then punish anyone who threatens to ruin it. So everyone quietly agrees to look away as long as the product stays untouched. Watching isn’t neutral. Consumption is participation. Every view, every click, every excuse keeps the machine alive. We are not standing outside of this.
The series really only slips once for me. The Editor-in-Chief, Kenjiro Goda, changes sides a little too smoothly. In a story where telling the truth always comes at a cost, that turn felt a bit rushed. There are a couple of other moments like that too. I get that with only six episodes there was never going to be time to sit with every character, and I don’t think the show is being lazy. I just kept feeling like a few of those shifts needed another scene, another beat, something to make the change feel heavier. When everything else in the show makes growth feel painful, the easier turns stand out.
For me, the ending doesn’t retreat into cynicism. It refuses the easy lie that nothing ever changes. The truth is dragged into the open, publicly and in a way that can’t be taken back. What happens in the final press conference isn’t abstract or symbolic. It closes the loop that was opened in the first episode, and what’s said there felt exactly right to me. Nothing padded. Nothing softened. I didn’t need to see every villain punished on screen to feel the weight of it. Their downfalls are clearly set in motion, and that’s enough.
The fact that everything isn’t wrapped up neatly didn’t feel like a flaw. It felt honest. This story was never about comfort or clean closure. It was about what happens after the truth is finally spoken, and how impossible it is to pretend nothing happened.
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This is not a formula drama. What I mean by that is that unlike traditional dramas where the story and characters rely on a set formula or trajectory to show them where to go, this drama does it a little differently. There are premises, possibilities, seeming drama conventions set up in the beginning, some of which end the way you expect and some of which do not end up where you think they will. The drama itself has been described as slice of life, and while I don’t know if I totally agree with that label as the drama contains a concise journey for each of the characters all of whom change in some way over the course of the story, the style of storytelling has a very slice-of-life feel to it, so I understand why people would think of it that way. The story has an easy, relaxed way about it, which is definitely one of it’s selling points.Personally, I came to like this drama a lot more than I initially expected, especially after seeing the first couple weeks of episodes. The female leads, with the exception of the single mother, start out…rather unlikable. They’re selfish and difficult and frustrating, and while I definitely empathized with them both and their struggles, I didn’t relate to them at all. But over the course of the drama, I started to appreciate both of these women better. Neither of them changed drastically by the end, although they did both go through a level of growth as people, but I came to understand them better. They’re both still unlikable in their own ways. They both still have personality flaws, but I came to like them because of that, not despite it. On the other hand, the single mother has somewhat of an opposite trajectory. She starts out seemingly sweet and thoughtful and somewhat meek before revealing a more layered view of herself that I can appreciate from a storytelling point of view, but that left me unsatisfied from a viewership standpoint. I don’t know that this ever made me dislike her as it was intriguing and enjoyable watching her reveal a strong, subtle confidence that lay underneath that surface level demureness, but at the same time, there was this feeling of selfishness in her character that I didn’t like very much.
I was particularly disappointed by how the writers chose to end the potential budding romance between the single mother and her co-worker. In a drama like this, I guess I should have expected as much to happen, but the sting certainly could have been lessened if they hadn’t left me feeling like he had been left with the short end of the stick. Her words to him at the end felt…harsh and unfair and left a bad taste in my mouth.
Overall though, I really enjoyed this drama. I’m nothing like these women, and I don’t know that I would ever be friends with women like them in real life, but I came to love all of them, despite and even Because of their flaws. They felt like real people with real personalities and real struggles and real hopes and goals and dreams. They felt human, and I appreciated being the chance to glimpse into their world for just a moment.
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Typical misunderstandings......
I started off this series because i like the FL, but after awhile the ML kinda grew on me.This story had so many misunderstandings and backwardness and forwards between the charterers it was like watching a tennis match, they just couldn't seem to figure each other out.
I enjoyed the second couple, and the friendship between the 3 main guys, they loyalty and misunderstandings were never taken to heart and were always there for each other,
The story line was your typical Palace story greedy empress and her subjects a blind emperor who refused to see the wrong right till the end.
The only sad and disappointing part was the end when the ML lost his true friend.
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Best Drama ever!!
I’ve been watching C-dramas for almost 8 years now, and even after watching dramas for this long, I still don’t nitpick and point out every little flaw like some drama critics do. 😂I genuinely loved this drama, and Miles Wei is one of my favorites, so naturally, his dramas are favorites of mine too. ❤️
The FL was sooo good! I know everyone is talking about the breakup part, but honestly, I think if anyone were in her place, they might have done the same thing. The ML was under so much pressure , and people were even calling him biased. So, in order to protect him, she chose to take that step herself.
Yes, maybe the breakup could have been avoided if there had been better communication between them, but overall, I still think the drama was really good.
Nothing is perfect. Every drama will have some flaws or things that could have been done better, and I think we have to accept that and enjoy the story for what it is instead of overanalyzing every little thing.
And honestly, it’s been a long time since I watched such a refreshing modern C-drama. You guys should definitely give it a try too! 🫶🏻
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Kim Nam Gil and the bandits were like the minions, they were loud funny and a whole mess xD
even though I loved the plot, it was kinda draggy and the cgi was horrible xD I wish they focused more on the 2 mains together.. they had sizzling chemistry~
overall the double villain thing was well done, it gave both mains their own identity; the bandits and the pirates fighting their own fights while coming together under one main objective~
the ost was nothing special and I'd just watch the sequel when it's out so there's no need for a rewatch ;p
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Best Cdrama in a long time, best acting by Seven todate
I was initially skeptical about this sort of costume dramas but as I watched the story line got better. I specially liked the acting capabilities of both the lead actor and actors. I feel that this is probably the best effort by Seven todate. She seem to have matured a lot in her acting abilities.This is a serious and typical drama with not much comedy. I liked the twist and turns of the story line. Many a times the lead actress seemed caught in the many conspiracies but we get surprises at how smart both the leads were able to jointly overcome their enemies.
For once, we get a good and smart leading actress and it is portraited well here. The story just got better with the episodes and it is worth a rewatch.
I must also comment that the English subs were well done, generally good english used. Thanks to this, I was able to follow the story and enjoyed the show.
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a quirky and fun ride
Life does not go planned always. But when it takes the biggest twist you start valuing your life a little more....Haejo has been living carelessly and carefreely till an accident revealed a chapter of his life he was unaware of. Jae Mi's free spirit nature faces roadblocks as a very precedented incident appears early.
Three twists make the journey eventful and rewatchable.
1. The past
Korean drama makers use a heart-wrenching past which builds the character graph with the progression of the story. The past of Hae Jo and Jae Mi keeps them from living through their present. As Hae Jo gets to know he has only a few months to live, his craving for having a real family starts overwhelming him all of a sudden.
Jae Mi's craving for having her own family and children seems to move far away as she tries to cling to it. Hae Jo tries to confront his past but the pain of betrayal comes in every time. The pain of being abandoned by his own family keeps on taking peace of his mind.
2. The Love
As Jae Mi finds herself falling apart, she finds love by her side. We have witnessed different love across Korean drama universe but this love track is going to take the peak spot. Falling in love when you are at your best is easy. But have you met someone who is there for you when you are at your lowest. Jae Mi has that one, who saves her from falling apart.
3. The Pain
It is the most irrevocable and unconditional emotion that stays with us thoughout. Everytime people fall apart they even count the not happened birthday coral from years ago.
Jae Mi did not fall out of love. But the pain of being abandoned again kept on haunting her, pushing her away from herself.
This mini right series is a must watch because of its unique plot and twists.
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Confusing and Disappointing
I was initially attracted to this drama because of its director who had also directed The Untamed. It has quite similar cinematography for some scenes, and the styling of some actors is also similar. I was very excited and thought it’s going to be another great drama just like The Untamed. I was pretty disappointed with how it turns out to be.This is a rather confusing drama with lots of plot holes and flaws. There are many tropes. The editing is choppy and disjointed. I cannot even tell if the acting of the female lead is fine or bad because I’m not even sure if her acting is intended or simply just bad acting. Frequently the situations and the emotions of the actors are totally out of synchronization. The logic is inconsistent and befuddling at times, so are the inconsistency of the characters. The dialogues are simple and shallow. There’s hardly a plot, or rather the plot is so simplistic that the writing has made it confusing to try to give it some layers. It fails miserably. It begins to drag a lot half-way through the drama. I’ve almost given it up had I not wanted to know who Feng Wu (Yang Chao Yue) actually is.
I have to admit there are some really good scenes here with beautiful actors, in particular, Wang Hao Xuan. I love his styling and portrayal of the mischievous Yu Ming Ye, and his relationship with Jun Lin Yuan (Xu Kai Cheng). In fact, I find him to have more chemistry with Feng Wu than Jun Lin Yuan has with her. I also enjoy watching the second couple. And I really love the visual of Mu Jiu Chuan (Li Chuan) who is Feng Wu’s shifu, but unfortunately he doesn’t have many scenes. I also love the dynamics of the 3 childhood friends, and the funs they have together overthinking trivial matters, giving simplistic reasoning that leads to jumping into wrong conclusions. These are rather fun watch. The ending is not sad nor happy. It’s just it, and I've never found out who Feng Wu is and where she has come from.
Overall, I’m not at all impressed by this drama.
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Story- Really funny in the beginning but does get a bit dramatic towards the second half. The twist involving the female character kind of weirded me out but I guess it made the drama more interesting? I don’t know. While it was something I hadn’t seen before in a drama, I felt uncomfortable at times because it brought the quality of the romance down for me. After episode 12 it did get to be a bit draggy and when the end finally came it was welcomed=)
Acting/Cast- Love the leads. They had a really great chemistry. The acting by the female lead was outstanding. I'm a new fan of hers. Kim Rae Won was Kim Rae Won, not bad but not outstanding either. I didn’t like the supporting characters at all. They were too meddlesome. Park Shi Hoo was quite forgettable in this one.
Music- Very good but not something I will listen to outside the show.
Rewatch- I would watch this again b/c i loved the leads but not for a while cause the story was so average.
Overall this is your average romcom with a twist.
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