Shin Min A plays Son Hae-young in ‘No Gain No Love.’
Shin Min A is quite funny. She has demonstrated her acting skills and flair for comedy in a variety of hit Korean TV series such as Hometown Cha Cha Cha and Our Blues, but she was especially funny in the romcom drama No Gain No Love. In her latest drama Shin played Son Hae-young, an outspoken marketing executive, who decides to marry a convenience store worker so she can get ahead at work. The character could have seemed cold and calculating, but Shin’s comic timing made her endearing. The 12-episode drama was so successful it even generated a spin-off featuring the secondary characters. Shin originally signed on to the drama because it looked like fun, but was still surprised by the enthusiastic response from viewers.
“Fortunately, I felt that many people sympathized with and supported the character Son Hae-yeong that I had in mind and that the script aimed to show,” said Shin. “I thought that if the individuality of the script was expressed well, it would be an interesting drama, but more people loved it than I had expected. The director expressed the reasons well for Hae-yeong’s crucial scenes and Hae-yeong’s reasons for her actions. In addition, I was cast relatively first for this work and I was given enough time to prepare for the character, so I think I prepared for it by focusing on bringing the script and my character’s lines alive. I thought the most about what it would have been like to be Hae-yeong.”
The character’s bold approach to life appealed to Shin as soon as she read the script.
“ It was fun because I thought that I could represent the heart of a contemporary woman who expresses her thoughts without hesitation, while still being considerate of others, who appears tough on the outside but is warm-hearted on the inside, and who doesn’t want to lose out, but is reasonable. In addition, I enjoyed the process of the viewers understanding and empathizing with my new character Son Hae-yeong and her outspoken style and strong words.”
Female viewers did identify with Hae-young when she boldly stated what she wanted, even when that was a marriage contract with a man she barely knew, Ji-uk, the convenience store worker played by Kim Young-dae.
“It seems like they feel vicarious satisfaction through the character Son Hae-yeong,” says Shin. “I felt that many contemporary people are thinking like Hae-yeong. However, compared to those who face restrictions in expressing their feelings for various reasons, Hae-yeong expresses her mind in a direct and reckless way and immediately takes action, so I think many people enjoy it vicariously.”
While Hae-young seems to barely know her prospective spouse before she proposes, Shin thinks they actually spent quite a bit of time together if you add up all her convenience store visits. And there was chemistry between the characters even if neither would admit as much.
“Isn’t the biggest reason the relationship started was because of the time accumulated in the convenience store,” said Shin. “Which is the closest place to their daily lives for a long time? There was interest in each other even between the antagonistic chemistry and it seems that viewers followed the emotional line of the two well.”
Her favorite scene in the whole drama was the self-proposal.
“This is the scene where I expressed the character of Hae-yeong the most delightfully while filming,” said Shin. “As Shin Min A, it would be an impossible situation, so it was embarrassing, but I wanted to express it bravely and cheerfully as Hae-yeong. I was happy that viewers who watched the show seemed to enjoy it. Also, the scenes of swearing or taking revenge on her ex-boyfriend U-jae were fun because I felt like my stress was relieved personally. The imaginary scene of wearing the tablecloth like a dress at U-jae’s wedding was also memorable because of the hard work that went into it.”
In the self-proposal scenes Hae-young had to pretend to be proposed to by her boyfriend in front of many people.
“I was happy because viewers fortunately seemed to enjoy it,” said Shin. “The director worked really hard on the comic scenes in the beginning. It was just an imaginary scene, but the scene where I fell from the rooftop wearing a wedding dress was memorable because I wore equipment in front of the blue screen.”
There was another memorable scene, she added with a laugh.
“ The part where I flipped off Ji-uk while falling from the rooftop was not in the script, but it was my idea.”
No Gain No Love airs on Prime Video.
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