'Sweet & Sour'? – more like Warheads

TRENDING top 10 on Netflix, the new South Korean romantic comedy, 'Sweet & Sour', should be renamed Warheads, the American extreme sour hard candy that leaves you puckered throughout. 

Although this 100-minute-long film is being promoted as a romantic comedy, with the summary describing a lovely couple that gradually falls out of love when life gets in the way, it was just loaded with red flags. 

From this point forward, the only thing we can guarantee is a bunch of spoilers. So, read at your own risk. 

From the beginning, we already hear the red alert ringing as we watch Jung Da-Eun, an overworked nurse played by the innocent looking Chae Soo-Bin, start to cross professional boundaries as she gets a little too close to one of her patients, Jang Hyeok who is portrayed by Lee Woo-Je.

If you are familiar with the disturbingly unprofessional nature often seen in the American series, 'Grey’s Anatomy', this is no different. 

Jang Hyeok by Woo-Je, is not your typical pretty Korean boy as he portrays a socially awkward nerd, but still, he gets the girl and they soon start a relationship together. 

But before we proceed with that, Jang Hyeok also broke into the nurses’ private records to obtain Da-Eun’s personal phone number, but gets caught in the act and is left with a partial number. 

Of course, he proceeds to call every possible combination of that number to get to Da-Eun, and eventually succeeds. Creepy? Stalking? Romantic? You be the judge of that. 

With her number, they start their relationship and soon they are making their way to Jeju, but not before Da-Eun gifts Jang Hyeok a pair of sneakers.

This already foreshadows something bad as the superstition that comes with gifting shoes to your significant other is that they would run away. 

Jang Hyeok then sets his mind to losing weight and being the best for Da-Eun.

With that, the camera pans to show us only the shoes, which soon get worn out from what we assume is Jang Hyeok overusing them. 

Here on out, viewers are under the impression that we are in a linear narrative because why would we assume otherwise.

Jang Hyeok goes from being a chubby socially awkward person to a fit and confident man played by the charming Jang Ki-Yong. 

Jang Hyeok and Da-Eun’s relationship looks swell and happy at first, but another red flag soon pops up when Da-Eun starts getting uninterested and is not the most supportive when it comes to Jang Hyeok’s promotion to a large engineering firm.

And this is where the long distance relationship part of the movie that is mentioned in the Netflix summary comes into play. 

The relationship remains sweet as long as both Da-Eun and Jang Hyeok are on the same page. 

However, commuting 50km back and forth proves to be a challenge as Jang Hyeok experiences traffic between Incheon and Seoul, on top of all the overtime that he has to put in to keep his position in this new and large firm, especially when his biggest competitor is the ruthless new transfer Han Bo-Yeong, acted by former f(x) girl group singer, Krystal. 

Once again, communication between Da-Eun and Jang Hyeok breaks down, and at this point, viewers know that this is all about to go downhill. 

The couple, Da-Eun and Jang Hyeok, start drifting apart until Da-Eun realizes that she’s pregnant, and although they both agree to abort the unborn child, their relationship does not get any better. 

The couple finally break up when Jang Hyeok accidentally calls Da-Eun by the name of his associate, Bo-Yeong, whom he has been spending time with and has unknowingly developed an attraction towards. 

Towards the end, we see Jang Hyeok realizing his mistake and making a run towards Da-Eun, who is on her way to Jeju.

This is where the viewers are in for a surprise.

What we thought was a linear plot, is suddenly revealed to us to in fact be two different narratives that were taking place simultaneously.

Jang Hyeok played by Woo-Je is in fact different from the one who is played by Ki-Yong. 

We find out that while Ki-Yong’s character was jumping ships between Da-Eun and Bo-Yeong, Da-Eun was doing the same between the two Jang Hyeoks. 

Now, here is why ‘Sweet & Sour’ is of no parts sweet but all parts sour.

First of all, after realizing how Ki-Yong’s Jang Hyeok met Da-Eun, it is not the first time this nurse crossed professional boundaries and started dating one of her patients. 

Even if that was supposed to be the sweet part of the movie, with love being everywhere and anything is possible, the fact that they both have the same name, and she even went a step further to request that she call Woo-Je’s character the same pet name as the one for her boyfriend, “Hyeok-ie Oppa”, just portrays Da-Eun unhealthily projecting her loneliness and insecurities onto others. 

The lack of communication is also another red flag that we see throughout the movie. Conversations between Da-Eun and Ki-Yong are all one-sided, with the speaker being the main center of attention. 

I am no relationship expert, but communication breakdowns don’t usually happen when two people are too preoccupied. Instead, it happens when each of them believes that their problems are bigger than the other person’s. And such is so between Da-Eun and Jang Hyeok. 

What made things worse is when they both use the abortion as a leverage to win an argument. 

“I did it for you,” and “I felt sorry for you,” were phrases used against each other when their arguments got heated. 

There was a lot of guilt-tripping and gaslighting that happened between the couple, and unfortunately the next red flag that pops up was when we realize that they were both using the people they were working with to fill the void that they felt. 

Da-Eun, feigning innocence, led Woo-Je’s character to believe that she was not only single, but also available. 

Whether or not she was truly attracted to him or just using him to fill the unavailable Jang Hyeok (Ki-Yong’s character) role, we cannot be sure; which leaves us with a sour aftertaste. 

Such as when Ki-Yong’s character fell into the arms of Bo-Yeong whenever Da-Eun was unavailable. Once when they broke up, and again when he realized Da-Eun was seeing someone else. 

Was it actually love? Or just physical attraction triggered by the rejection of another woman?

Ki-Yong’s character showed no qualms jumping between both women, and even used the same ring that he gave Da-Eun to propose to Bo-Yeong. 

While the title of the movie is meant to highlight the sweet and sour times in a relationship, it more so resembles a Warhead not only because it leaves an extremely sour aftertaste with all its red flags in place, but it also messes with one’s psyche. 

Unfortunately, by romanticizing the wrong thing, we continue to form unhealthy relationships with others, thinking that it is acceptable because it was portrayed in a romantic comedy. – The Vibes, June 10, 2021