Cover From its unusual premise to its crime-story detour, here’s why ‘Our Sticky Love’ isn’t quite the Jung Hae-in romance you might expect (Photo: IMDB)
From its unusual premise to its crime-story detour, here’s why ‘Our Sticky Love’ isn’t quite the Jung Hae-in romance you might expect (Photo: IMDB)
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Jung Hae-in has played plenty of swoon-worthy romantic leads, but ‘Our Sticky Love’ puts him in a rather different situation: a boxing coach claiming to be the boyfriend of an amnesiac prosecutor. Here’s why the new Netflix K-drama is such an unexpected addition to his résumé
Jung Hae-in has built a filmography out of making quiet men devastatingly romantic. He can communicate an entire relationship with the faintest shift in expression, which is part of why dramas like Something in the Rain, One Spring Night and Love Next Door have made him one of Korean television’s most beloved romantic leads.
Then Our Sticky Love comes along and gives him a rather different problem: an amnesiac prosecutor wakes up in a rural village, and a handsome boxing coach she has never seen before tells her that he's her boyfriend.
Naturally, she doesn’t believe him.
That set-up makes Our Sticky Love an intriguing departure for Jung Hae-in. The Netflix K-drama is still primarily a romance, but it also throws in a missing past, criminal connections, boxing, a suspicious fake-boyfriend arrangement and enough unanswered questions to make even the show’s sweeter moments feel slightly dangerous.
Instead of asking Jung Hae-in to play another variation on the reassuring romantic hero, Our Sticky Love takes everything audiences already find appealing about him—his restraint, physicality and quietly protective presence—and puts it inside a story where we aren’t entirely sure whether his character can be trusted.
In case you missed it: From medical dramas to suspense series: 7 must-watch TV shows with Ha Young before ‘Our Sticky Love’
Here are five reasons Our Sticky Love may be Jung Hae-in’s most unexpected K-drama yet.
Jung Hae-in isn’t playing the perfect romantic lead
Above Jung Hae-in’s latest romantic hero comes with a criminal past, boxing skills and enough secrets to make the relationship complicated
Jang Tae-ha (Jung Hae-in) is introduced as a boxing coach living in the countryside, but that’s only part of his story. He’s a former boxer with ties to a criminal organisation, and when Go Eun-sae (Ha Young) wakes up with amnesia, he tells her that he’s her boyfriend.
That’s already a significant departure from the emotionally straightforward romantic leads Jung Hae-in has become known for. In Something in the Rain, One Spring Night and Love Next Door, his characters may have complicated circumstances, but audiences generally understand where they stand emotionally. Tae-ha is harder to read.
He is protective and seemingly sincere, but he’s also withholding information from a woman who can’t remember her own life. The attraction isn’t simply watching Jung Hae-in be charming. It’s watching him play a man whose charm comes with a question mark, almost unnerving.
The romance begins with a lie
Above Go Eun-sae wakes up without her memories. The first thing she learns is that she’s apparently dating Jung Hae-in
Go Eun-sae has a terrible introduction to her new life. An ambitious prosecutor investigating a criminal organisation, she becomes caught up in a dangerous situation and eventually wakes up in the countryside with amnesia.
Then Tae-ha arrives and tells her he’s her boyfriend.
Eun-sae doesn’t believe him—and neither should we.
That gives Our Sticky Love an unusually useful romantic engine. Every apparently sweet interaction carries a second question: why is Tae-ha doing this? Is he protecting her? Is he hiding something? Was their relationship real before she lost her memory?
The fake-boyfriend set-up isn’t simply there to manufacture romantic tension. It becomes part of the show’s central mystery.
Ha Young’s amnesiac prosecutor is still a prosecutor
Above She may have forgotten her past, but Eun-sae apparently forgot to stop investigating things
One of the more interesting things about Our Sticky Love is that Eun-sae’s memory loss doesn’t erase her personality.
Before the accident, she is a prosecutor working on an anti-corruption case. After waking up with no idea who she is, she has to reconstruct her life while relying on people she barely knows. Yet her habits remain muscle memory: she observes, questions and investigates.
That makes Ha Young’s role more than the standard amnesiac heroine waiting for the male lead to explain everything.
Eun-sae doesn’t simply want to know who she was. She wants to understand what happened to her—and whether the people around her are telling the truth.
See more: Amnesia hall of fame: 11 K-dramas that prove we’ll never get tired of memory loss
It’s a countryside romance with a crime story hiding inside
Above The taffy village looks like the perfect place to heal. Unfortunately, somebody has brought a criminal conspiracy along for the ride
The rural setting initially suggests a gentler kind of K-drama. Eun-sae finds herself far from Seoul in a village known for its taffy-making, while Tae-ha has settled into life as a boxing coach.
But Our Sticky Love doesn’t let the countryside remain purely idyllic.
Eun-sae’s missing memories are connected to the danger she was running from, while Tae-ha’s past keeps threatening the quieter life he’s built. The result is a drama that can shift from romantic comedy to mystery and crime without completely abandoning either side.
That tonal switch is part of what makes the show—and Jung Hae-in’s character—feel different from his more familiar romances.
Jung Hae-in still gets to be Jung Hae-in
Above He may have gang ties and a suspicious backstory, but yes, the quiet staring and romantic tension are still very much present
For all the ways Our Sticky Love changes the formula, it knows exactly why Jung Hae-in was cast.
Tae-ha is physically capable but emotionally restrained. He is protective, quietly attentive and clearly carrying more than he wants to say. Those are qualities that Jung Hae-in has spent years making extraordinarily effective onscreen.
The difference is where Our Sticky Love puts them.
Instead of a conventional workplace or second-chance romance, those familiar Jung Hae-in qualities are attached to a former boxer with a criminal past who tells an amnesiac prosecutor that they’re dating.
No, Our Sticky Love doesn’t ask Jung Hae-in to stop being a romantic lead. It’s asking what happens when you put his signature romantic-lead energy inside a story where the audience has every reason to be suspicious of him.
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Sasha Lim Uy Mariposa is a lifestyle journalist who is known for her food writing. Based in Manila and currently a marketing content specialist, she still dabbles in entertainment, beauty and dining coverage. She was the former managing editor of Esquire Philippines and was the food editor at SPOT.ph. She also edited several best-selling books about food.
She now writes for the different Tatler Asia markets as a contributing writer for T-Labs.
