Jung Hae-in Returns to Romance on Netflix: With a Villain the Cast Says Beats Squid Game

Jung Hae-in, an actor who has built a reputation as one of Korean television's go-to romantic leads, steps back into the genre on Netflix with This Candy-Sweet Love, a 12-episode series premiering August 7. The show arrives with a broader tonal range than its rom-com premise suggests, folding noir, action, and thriller elements into what the cast and director are describing as a deliberately layered watch.

At a press conference held in Seoul's Mapo district on August 5, Jung described his character, boxing coach Jang Tae-ha, as the most earnest romantic lead he has ever played. Tae-ha is, by the show's own framing, a lifelong singleton who tells a life-or-death lie to protect the woman he loves, an amnesiac elite prosecutor named Ko Eun-sae, played by Ha Young. The two end up in an awkward cohabitation in a small rural village called Yeot Village, named after yeot, the traditional Korean sticky candy that runs as a central motif through the series.

"It was not easy to play someone clumsy and awkward who has never been in a relationship," Jung said, "but he is a romantic figure who risks everything for the person he loves."

Director Kim Jang-han explained the choice of yeot as the show's connective thread. The Korean word yeot-gata carries a double meaning: it can describe something sticky and sweet, but it is also a common expletive, roughly equivalent to a frustrated "what a mess." From Eun-sae's perspective, he said, waking up with no memory in a strange village is exactly that kind of situation. As a symbol, yeot's sticky, sweet quality also mirrors the way the two leads' relationship develops.

Ha Young's casting is one of the more notable elements of the production. The actor, who built her profile through Netflix's Trauma Center and the series True Education, takes on her first romantic comedy lead role here. She was candid about the nerves that came with that: "I was scared because I wanted to do well, but I trusted the script, the director, and my fellow actors." She specifically credited Jung Hae-in for creating enough ease on set that she could perform freely in difficult scenes. Jung, in turn, said her energy kept the atmosphere warm throughout production.

The cast's most talked-about presence at the press conference may have been Heo Sung-tae, who plays Baek Sang-gil, the organization boss hunting Eun-sae. Heo has been cast in a string of more sympathetic roles recently, and returning to a full villain register was, by his account, a genuine recalibration. He described Baek Sang-gil as the most vicious character he has ever played, adding that it eclipses even Jang Deok-su, his Squid Game role, in sheer ruthlessness. The moment things clicked back into place for him, he said with a laugh, was when blood splattered across his face during a shoot. "I thought: yes, this is it."

Kim Jang-han also signaled that the show moves quickly on the romance side, noting that the first episode ends with a kiss. His stated aim is to prove that a familiar, well-executed formula can still surprise, what he called the power of "knowing a flavor and being afraid of it anyway." It is a reasonable bet for a Netflix title targeting a global rom-com audience that already has strong expectations for the genre's rhythms.

This Candy-Sweet Love begins streaming on Netflix on August 7.