Amazon Prime K-Drama “No Gain No Love”: Shin Min-a proves her worth in a romantic comedy about a marriage of convenience

Hae-young's attitude towards life is obvious to everyone around her from a young age.

The series begins in her childhood. While playing dodgeball in the schoolyard, she begins to harass her PE teacher. She wonders why the girls are only allowed to play dodgeball in a small corner of the schoolyard, while the boys can use the entire field to play soccer.

In the present, her frustration has only grown. We meet Hae-young again when she arrives at a colleague's wedding and is wondering how much money to put in the customary wedding envelope.

She jokingly tells another colleague that she has now filled such envelopes with so much money that one could buy a small car with it, and that she has not yet received anything in return.

Hae-young, whose name is a play on words in Korean and means “zero damage” (Son-Hae young) is furious when she learns that married employees at her company receive significant benefits, including bonuses and extra vacation days.

Fed up, she decides to get a piece of the pie. To do this, she chooses her boldest plan yet: she enters into a quick, fake marriage to secure a promotion.

Another factor influencing her decision is the fact that the groom of the wedding she just attended is Ahn Woo-jae (Go Wook, Business proposal), an ex she had broken up with just six months earlier.

She learns that the new couple dated for a year before the wedding and realizes that he cheated on her. This, in addition to Ahn's marital benefits at work, sends her into a rage.

Not the kind of woman to dally, she gives herself a month to walk down the aisle. The role of groom eventually falls to Ji-wook, the longtime cashier at Hae-young's local supermarket.

Hae-young's attitude to life was no accident. She was raised by a single mother who tirelessly cared for others by constantly taking in foster children, but neglected her daughter.

Interestingly, Lee and Han have agreed to appear in a planned spin-off series. Spice up our love. The title of this series comes from the web novel that Han's character reads during No profit, no loveand you'll see how the actors in the lead roles – a CEO and his nutritionist – bring the novel to life.

There are 12 years between Shin and Kim. The age difference between their characters is vaguely hinted at, but does not seem to be the focus of the story.

Whether there is enough to gain by investing in No profit, no love is up to individual viewers, but there is no denying that it is an attractive vehicle for Shin, who treads a well-trodden path with bravura.

“No Gain No Love” is streaming on Amazon Prime.