A short yet wild ride of a spinoff
When the spinoff was announced, I was quite eager to watch it. I am glad they didn't make it into a long 16 ep drag of a drama with boring storylines added to it but kept it short , funny and chaotic.Both leads had good chemistry in the parent story and even though their romance part properly started near the end of the drama it still managed to leave an impression. LSY , PJW and HJH are the perfect trio casting for this one and each did well with their roles.
You don't even need to watch the parent story to watch and enjoy this one.
Was this review helpful to you?
perfect symbiosis of hot and hilarious
this little spin-off was made for me, and despite wanting to see a full-length one, i'll take it. i said it before, and i'll say it again: the story of ja-yeon and gyu-hyun deserves the best treatment in the world.spice up our love is a light enhancement to the parent drama, and to be completely honest, even if i didn't watch no gain, no love (thank god i did; such a wholesome romcom), i would've devoured this purely for han ji-hyun and lee sang-yi whose agents should get to work and get them main lead parts in a full-length drama because their joint slay needs to be studied further for obvious scientific purposes.
Was this review helpful to you?
Wild and passionate
As a fan of Han Ji Hyun's character in this drama, I must say I was thrilled to see her return—even if it was within the world of her own smut novel.
These two short episodes offer a wild, fast-paced ride that cleverly connects the story of this spin-off to the main drama without altering its core plot. Instead, it simply enhances your enjoyment, providing additional layers to the narrative.
Plot: The female lead, a novelist, falls unconscious and, in her dream, finds herself trapped inside the world of her novel, living out the very scenarios she had written for her protagonist.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
the novel world of nam jae yeon unexpectedly so good!!!
this spin off of no gain, no love is so unexpectedly a great show where the journey of fun never ending and still continuous with the same beauty ambiance of entertaining and enjoyable watch like I never felt that no gain, no love has ended yesterday having the same high performance of second leads with their firing and attractive chemistry!!!!I liked this spin off cause it was so hard to say goodbye for an amazing drama like no gain, no love but still having this completion for the drama came at a convenient time when I can't get over watching these second leads actors with a beautiful romantic story proving that this strong and powerful love being nam jae yeon and bok gyu hyun or the reincarnation characters of the novel as seo yeon seo and kang ha jun will have the same awesome romance I am used to see in no gain, no love!!!
this spinoff started strongly seeing nam jae yeon in her novel with bloody coat gave some mysterious hint that she wanted to avenge for the betrayal of her boyfriend just to came with the idea of being a beet juice!!!! so I felt that the pleasant element of comedy is still accompanying the spinoff in the same perfect way...
I liked how they made the idea of this spinoff making the writer living the character of the female protagonist of her novel unable to leave the fantasy world of novel after being fainted in the real world just to see that her true love will stay the one and only kang ha jun or bok gyu hyun wherever she will be traveling and trying to escape from her fantasy novel world!!!
the charming personality of lee sang yi as kang ha jun is still the same giving the role of a heroic male protagonist of a novel genuinely loving that awesome girl not leaving her alone and always saving her proving that their love story will be one of the best ever seen in any world they will be existing!!! han ji hyun did a great job and keep the same nice acting in portraying the cute girl between the original show no gain, no love and the spinoff!!!
it was so impressive how they made the novel world is a healing one for all the hard moments nam jae yeon lived in the real world, making a funny and beautiful other story of this adorable main characters couple!!!! the last scene of lee sang yi was singing the OST was so great and his voice was surprisingly so good!!!
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Should have made NGNL 2 episodes longer instead
All I can say about this is that you'll enjoy it if you were really rooting for the second couple in No Gain, No Love. I wasn't that much into them by the end of the original, but I was curious about this supposedly "spicy" short spin-off of a drama that I found to be an overall good time. At the very least, I thought it would give me more insight into why Ja-yeon fell for Gyu-hyun despite all he did in the main drama.What I got was nearly 2 hours of nothing really. Somehow, Ja-yeon had more chemistry with the guy who originally played Ha-jun than she did with Gyu-hyun. I'm not sure if it was a directorial decision or from the writing, but once Gyu-hyun became the male lead, all the sexiness and charm went out the window, and that is quite a feat because I find the actor very sexy and charming. Most of the time he looked like he was pleading for her attention.
I also was a bit confused by the writing. Not the "writing" of the story within a story itself — as the synopsis states, the drama is an isekai, where Ja-yeon gets transported into her own novel and becomes the female lead, and I found her writing to be pretty realistic in its tropey-ness and ridiculousness (you'll understand if you're a frequent reader of web novels) — but the mechanics of the drama.
Why did the male lead of the drama have to change? It's not like Gyu-hyun was transported into the novel with her. And why did the male lead's secretary become the former Ha-jun? Why did she keep seeing the convenience store owner everywhere? And most importantly, how does this all inform her sudden crush on Gyu-hyun back in NGNL? I suppose this spin-off is just meant to be a cutesy diversion from the main drama.
And despite how it's been advertised, there's really not much spice to be found, especially when Gyu-hyun becomes the male lead. It definitely didn't help with their (lack of) chemistry here.
Again, I think this will be appealing to anyone who enjoyed NGNL's second couple and wants to see more of them. Unfortunately I wasn't in that camp, so it really wasn't for me. Some highlights were seeing Hui-seong again; I really wish she'd been given a more fleshed-out storyline in NGNL, she was cool.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Flawed premise makes this a watered down and forgettable addition to the lovely OG romance
What I thought it did well:- The first ep was SO funny, legit this writer knows how to do comedy.
- The writing of the scenes on a micro scale was good--fun and funny and romantic dialogue, moments that were moving, etc
- The FL is GREAT in this, she goes all in on the ridiculous and it works so well
What didn't work:
- It's just too flawed of a premise to have a couple from another show who already got together, fall in love again in a short show like this. Here is why it didn't work:
----We already got a very moving and 12 episode long romance between these two characters, and it didn't really change anything from the OG. So it just cannot compare for those who saw NGNL and it will seem weird and rushed for those who didn't.
----In NGNL I adored Lee Sang Yi as Bok Gyu Hyun the 2ML in that story, but as a lead in this story he plays essentially the same character, but without the weird quirks and human flaws that made him interesting in NGNL. So he is very bland here. And he HAS to be, because it would be weird for JaYeon to fall in love with someone who wasn't essentially Bok Gyu. This is all only made worse by...
---- Having en extended opening (like 20 mins!) with HJH and LSY (who played another 2ML who was a friend of HJH in NGNL) as the MCs of the OG webnovel was such a mistake, cause man they had great chemistry AND it was so fun to see them both as completely new characters. Much more fun than seeing the same characters that already fell in love in another story.
This would have been much better as:
- 2 episodes showing us the web novel story with HJH and LSY as the MCs
- A 12 ep drama with brand new characters
It was short so I don't really regret watching it but I would have been fine having never seen it.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Isekai meets extraordinary you
It is like, a short sweet unexpected not properly explained mess of two of our favourite characters, I think even the writers were not ready to let go of these characters so they wanted to give us (and themselves more content) that's why they made this.Overall I just felt like Lee Sang Yi, though a wonderful and talented actor, was not meant for an 18+ character's role. I'm sorry during those flash scenes where he is Kang Hajun I could not take him seriously because he's so cute and always just makes me laugh.
Lee Yoo jin on the other hand was a perfect catch for that type of a role (god help me) his scenes as Kang Hajun were a little too perfect, more than i would like to admit, but damn the whole things was hot, it was very nice though a little underdone but we forgive because the cast was wonderful and the end OST of Lee Sang Yi was so beautiful ❤️❤️
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
it was…
I don’t know how to explain how I feel after seeing this spinoff. I was excited about it but at the same time I felt like it left me waiting more of it.It was interesting she was conscious that she was in her story and love how she took the liberty of taking advantage of that. But I felt like he turned into a creeper when she wanted space so that made it a little uncomfortable for me to enjoy it 100%. This part gives mix signals to men that harassing women is OK and that by those actions they’ll fall in love with them. That was a red flag and a super no for me.
Was this review helpful to you?
Totally irrelevant but enjoyable romp
As a 2 eps bonus extra I'm not sure the rationale behind its production. It is set in the No Gain, No Love universe but it is a branching subplot that has no impact on the original storyline. Maybe they just have all the people standing around and the B-listers are on the clock so they just throw something together. Seeing the original series was only 12 eps long, the production team needs to get their money's worth. Of course, it would be nice if these 2 extra eps are focused on our OTP but it is a first world problem. ;)The production is definitely more cheeky and fanciful. It is modelled on a saucy web novel so anything goes. I think what I enjoyed the most is the self awareness and 4th wall breaking bits. I loved the bed scene where the FL shouts "Again! Again!" because she can't remember the actual sex act! Then we hear the voiceover saying they have to bump the show down from R to PG. That's why we ended up with the ubiquitous blanket over the head and the fade to the next morning scene. So meta. ROFL That is worth the price of admission. There are several other references to tropey plots and other silly devices. It is almost a satire on itself and the genre as a whole. I appreciate the candour.
In the end, It is a bit of irrelevant, fluffy romp which brought a smile to my face. There is no point in judging it too harshly. It is what it is. BTW, I'm sure they had a blast making it. I wish I was a fly on the wall. ;)
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
This is not a drama R19+.
As written in the synopsis; Nam Ja Yeon a famous Web novel author gets into the stories of her own Web novel (19+). There are many erotic scenes between the main female character who's a nutritionist and the main male character, the CEO of the company where the main female character works.LSY and HJY's chemistry is really good. So was the parent story, even when LYJ appeared to complete the story. The three of them seemed to bond together, like seeing the relationship between LSY the CEO and LYJ the secretary in NGNL. It makes those who watch this, can't stop laughing at their antics.
Those who saw the parent story will expect that this spinoff will have 19+ scenes like the web novel. The reality is that the expected scenes are not like that; NJY falls into a novel whose scenes have been censored aka specifically for readers 15 years old or 19 years old and below. Surprisingly enough, it doesn't lose its comedic element.
For me, these 2 episodes of drama are quite heartwarming and I wish there were more episodes dedicated to them. Although there is a desire to see LSY and HJY become the main characters again, maybe in another drama.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Very funny
If you have seen NGNL you know then that these couple were the pole of the comedy in it, their interactions were super fun and here they just raised the bar a notch and successfully delivered.The mini series was super fun, it has a duration of a movie and they used every single minute well, acting was good, even the cringe parts were watchable and that's a good point.
We got to see the web novel everyone was talking about in NGNL and the perfect life Jayeon dreamt about, and the scene with her father sent a direct arrow to my kokoro!
What I didn't understand was the switch from YooJin to SangYi, I mean I know that Jayeon and Hajun (SangYi ver.) were end game IRL but the point in the story IRL where she had the accident and dreamt of the whole thing they were still enemies, The Real life Hajun was still the hater and she told him to go die just a few minutes ago, so it came off weird and odd that she fantasised about him.
Also due to that, now the scenes in NGNL was slightly changed or adjusted to fit her dreams, she was never "relieved" that he didn't actually die because of the truck, yes she didn't want him to die but she didn't say that she is relieved nor did she smile at him in the original series which would change the whole thing, because the first time Hajun saw Jayeon smile IRL and started to have feelings for her wasn't in the hospital so this kinda shift a lot of minor moments from NGNL that they could have skipped easily.
Overall abd despite the one point I mentioned this is very good mini drama that is very enjoyable and re-watchable.
Was this review helpful to you?
Cute with a wild element
I didn't enjoy the ML's character in No Gain No Love but I did like him better in this since he was written as a perfect character. I had an idea of what the plot was about and it turned out to be right so there was no surprise element but I liked some of the comedy. It isn't as good as NGNL but it isn't bad. The story is fun and cute and I enjoyed the bold elements. I am glad they took us into the world the FL created. I would recommend watching No Gain No Love first so you can appreciate this drama more. I think the 2 episodes were perfect for Spice Up Our Love.I also liked the secretary's character and how different it was to the parent story. He is a pretty good actor and did great in all the different roles.
I was really blown away by Lee Sang Yi singing 'A World For Us'. Didn't expect him to be such a good singer. I enjoyed the song.
Was this review helpful to you?
