--- title: Breaking Down the Sweet Ending of 'Love Untangled' description: Director Sun Namkoong's '90s-set coming-of-age romance follows a teen who is determined to fix her hair and find true love canonical: https://time.com/7313420/love-untangled-ending-netflix/ author: Kayti Burt article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-08-29T17:42:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:51:31.715Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Breaking Down the Sweet Ending of 'Love Untangled' og:description: Director Sun Namkoong's '90s-set coming-of-age romance follows a teen who is determined to fix her hair and find love og:url: https://time.com/7313420/love-untangled-ending-netflix/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltabef2f18e874f4fc/6998c96c7323af58332bcce0/LoveUntangled025.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: LoveUntangled025 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Breaking Down the Sweet Ending of 'Love Untangled' twitter:description: Director Sun Namkoong's '90s-set coming-of-age romance follows a teen who is determined to fix her hair and find love twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltabef2f18e874f4fc/6998c96c7323af58332bcce0/LoveUntangled025.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Breaking Down the Sweet Ending of _Love Untangled_ > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [Kayti Burt](https://time.com/author/kayti-burt/) ## Kayti Burt Burt is a contributor for TIME. Aug 29, 2025 5:42 PM UTC  Shin Eun-soo as Park Se-ri in Love Untangled Shin Eun-soo as Park Se-ri in Love UntangledCourtesy of Seo Ji-hyung/Netflix by [Kayti Burt](https://time.com/author/kayti-burt/) ## Kayti Burt Burt is a contributor for TIME. Aug 29, 2025 5:42 PM UTC **_Warning: This post contains spoilers for_** **Love Untangled** Park Se-ri ([_Light Shop_](https://time.com/7306693/best-k-dramas-disney-hulu-prime-video/)’s Shin Eun-soo), the teen protagonist in Netflix Korean-language rom-com _Love Untangled_, knows without a doubt that her curly hair is the reason behind all of her romantic troubles. If only she had the same sleek, shiny hair as her fraternal twin sister Hye-ri, she’d have a loving boyfriend—specifically, high school heartthrob Kim Hyun ([_Melo Movie_](https://time.com/7225506/melo-movie-ending-explained-k-drama-netflix/)’s Cha Woo-min)—and everything in her life would fall in place. Se-ri’s plan to straighten her hair (and fix her life) finds new focus with the arrival of Han Yun-seok ([_Mercy For None_](https://time.com/7291121/mercy-for-none-netflix-ending-explained/)’s Gong Myung), a quiet, seemingly unambitious transfer student from Seoul whose mother, Baek Jang-mi (Hong Eun-hee), happens to be a hair stylist. Jang-mi agrees to give Se-ri’s hair the “Seoul magical straightening treatment” for free if Se-ri helps Yun-seok, who has injured his foot, get around. As Se-ri spends time with Yun-seok, the two grow closer. Will she stay committed to confessing her love to Kim Hyun, or does Yun-seok have her heart? While Korea has become known for its [romantic comedy series](https://time.com/7221413/best-romantic-k-dramas-netflix/), _Love Untangled_ (also known as _고백의 역사_, or “History of Confession”), out now on Netflix, is the relatively rare lighthearted Korean-language film that gets global distribution. When it comes to cinema, the East Asian country is better known for violent revenge dramas, such as Park Chan-wook’s _Old Boy,_ or disturbingly insightful class critiques, such as Bong Joon-ho’s _Parasite_. “Korean rom-com TV dramas are known for their shamelessly fussy romanticism and fantasy elements,” _Love Untangled_ director Sun Namkoong tells TIME. “My guess is that since film is a slightly more serious medium, there’s less room for the full-blown feast of awkward overreaction that differentiates Korean rom-com from its western counterparts.” Netflix has started releasing more romance-driven, Korean feature fare, but its biggest hit thus far has arguably been 2022’s [_20th Century Girl_](https://time.com/7201080/best-k-dramas-2024/), which—if you watch until its gutting conclusion—does not end on the happy note that is a defining characteristic of the rom-com genre. Could _Love Untangled_, a new '90s-set coming-of-age romance, heal the wounds left by that film? Let’s discuss the ending. ## **Park Se-ri straightens her hair, and realizes she doesn’t love Kim Hyun** Se-ri’s romantic struggles aren’t really about how curly or not her hair is, but rather her perception of what love should be. When Yun-seok confesses to Se-ri that he likes her big, frizzy hair, she begins to reflect on how she doesn’t feel the need to change around him. With Yun-seok, Se-ri feels admired for exactly who she is: a manhwa-loving, frizzy-haired, mediocre student who goes all out for the people she cares about. Still, Se-ri gets the magic straightening treatment, and it looks great! Her classmates notice, and seem to generally approve. Hair newly straightened, Se-ri gets everything in place to confess her feelings to Kim Hyun during their overnight class trip. “School trips are a big part of the high school experience,” Sun says, of the Korean teen rites of passage depicted in _Love Untangled_. “There’s always a campfire and a sing a long of sorts. The infamous song ‘Sarang-eu-ro (With Love / 사랑으로)’ by the folk group ‘Hae-ba-ra-gi’, which is in our film, is one of the favorites because it can be sung in an almost infinite loop.” While the rest of the class is singing around the campfire, Se-ri’s friend group helps her set up a romantically lit forest rendezvous spot where she can confess her love to Kim Hyun. A heartsick Yun-seok begrudgingly assists with the love confession setup, but can’t bear to hide in the woods with the others to watch the confession take place. But when the moment comes, Se-ri can’t do it. She admits to herself and to Hyun that she has feelings for someone else, and the two part amicably. “It’s really all about the rites of passage,” Sun tells TIME of the film’s central themes, noting that she has a soft spot for American teen movies like _The Breakfast Club_, _Clueless_, and _Mean Girls_. She also cites the films of America’s Gus Van Sant, Japan’s Sōmai Shinji, and Taiwan’s Edward Yang as arthouse inspirations for her work.  Love Untangled Courtesy of Seo Ji-hyung/Netflix In _Love Untangled_, Sun uses the teen romantic comedy format to tell a simultaneously universal yet specifically Korean story. “Teenage years are about being extremely self-conscious, and it can be about looks, especially for girls,” she says. “Korean school culture in particular gives you a lot of pressure for looking different. It says a lot that nobody really cares about Se-ri’s hair except Se-ri in our film. Her curls are perfectly fine and everyone else probably knows it, too. But we can relate to her not liking her hair. The parts of us that we can’t change are the parts that we struggle to learn to accept.” Se-ri stays mostly quiet about her newly recognized feelings for Yun-seok. She is studying hard for her CSATs, the college entrance exams that can determine the future of every student in Korea, and she wants to focus on that. But she does tell Yun-seok, while they sit in her father’s manhwa hideout, that she isn’t dating Kim Hyun. It gives him hope, and an opening. Taking a page from Se-ri’s “big love confession” playbook, he plans a sweet gesture for the CSAT day. ## **Yun-seok expresses his feelings for Se-ri** CSAT day is a big deal in Korea. “It is probably the biggest event of high school-hood in Korea because of the educational pressure in our culture,” explains Sun. “The whole last year of high school used to be devoted to this test, especially back in 1998\. There would be intense cheerleading for school seniors at test sites, and everyone would be stressed out about the results.” Because [the all-day test](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiezvOTRvF8&t=88s&ab%5Fchannel=ArirangNews) is so important for the future of young Koreans, surrounding neighborhoods will halt construction or close business to minimize noisy distractions. For a 25-minute window during the test’s English-listening portion, commercial and military planes are grounded, as the noise of the engines could distract test-takers. Families and loved ones will drop test-takers off at the site and greet them at the end of the day, often with flowers and other presents. In _Love Untangled_, Se-ri requests that Yun-seok find her the biggest _yeot_ for the test. The Korean taffy candy is [considered good luck](https://www.koreaherald.com/article/3371864), specifically for the CSAT. Yun-seok gifts Se-ri a human-sized yeot the night before the test. On the day of the test, Yun-seok dresses in a giant teddy bear costume and surprises Se-ri at the entrance to the exam with gifts, including one of the snow globes that she so admires. He wishes her luck, and makes her feel loved. The following day, Yun-seok and Se-ri go for a walk on the beach where they first met. Yun-seok confesses that the day Se-ri pulled him from the water, he was depressed and contemplating what it would be like to drown. Se-ri’s vivacity struck him, and has been warming his heart ever since. He confesses that he likes Se-ri, and that he has had her school uniform name plate all this time. Though Se-ri doesn’t explicitly confess back, the two hold hands as they walk back to Se-ri’s house. They kiss goodnight, and make plans for their first date. ## **Yun-seok’s family situation causes estrangement** When Yun-seok first moves to Busan, the only details the other students know about him is that he is from Seoul, and he isn’t planning on taking the CSAT. They wonder if he is a troublemaker, and assume that he doesn’t care about his future. However, as the movie progresses, Se-ri overhears her mother discussing Yun-seok’s home life. His father is a big shot doctor in Seoul, but he bullies his wife and son. Jang-mi and Yun-seok moved to Busan to get away from him, and Yun-seok is sitting out the CSAT due to stress. “Gong Myung is known for his bright and innocent image, but I also saw that he had a weariness he could use for the role of the moody transfer student,” says Sun, of casting the Yun-seok role. Se-ri plans an elaborate, beach-set confession of her feelings to Yun-seok for their first proper date together. Her friends help set up sparklers and balloons, and plan a choreographed performance for the announcement. However, before Se-ri and Yun-seok can reach the spectacle, Yun-seok gets a call that his mother has been hospitalized in Seoul. He travels to Seoul to check on her, only to find his father lording over the hospital room. It is implied that Yun-seok’s father caused his wife’s injuries. He wants them both back under his control. When Se-ri hasn’t heard from Yun-seok, she travels to Seoul to find him. She reaches the hospital room where Jang-mi is recovering, and overhears Yun-seok crying to his mother. Jang-mi’s aunt wants them to come live with her in America as a way to get away from Yun-seok’s dad, but Yun-seok tells his mom that he wants to go back to the life they have built in Busan. In an effort to make the choice easier for Yun-seok, Se-ri tries to remove herself from the equation. She knows it will be safer for Yun-seok and Jang-mi in the U.S., so she flees the hospital and buys a train ticket back to Busan, without talking to them. When Se-ri calls to leave a last voicemail for Yun-soek, it takes her a few tries to get it right. On the first call, she tells him how much she misses him instead of breaking up with him. She hangs up without confirming the message, believing that the message was not saved. Then, she calls again, and leaves a message telling Yun-seok that she thinks they were better off as friends. Unbeknownst to Se-ri, the first message _did_ go through, and Yun-seok hears Se-ri’s true confession. Still, they won’t meet again for some time. After Yun-seok leaves Busan, Se-ri finds his love confession amongst her father’s manhwa. Yun-seok has created a scrapbook filled with things that Se-ri likes. It includes photos of their time together, taken on the disposable camera Se-ri’s dad gave him. Yun-seok titles the book “Chronicles of Love,” and confesses how much Se-ri means to him in it: “Se-ri, you pulled me out of the water and my dreams. For that, I’m truly grateful. Your name, which I held tightly in my hand, is now engraved in my heart and can’t be erased. I am so glad I met you on that windy day. I love you, Park Se-ri.” She cries as she reads it.  Gong Myoung as Han Yun-seok and Shin Eun-soo as Park Se-ri Courtesy of Seo Ji-hyung/Netflix ## **The** **_Love Untangled_** **time jump** When we see Se-ri again, she is taking classes in the Marine Sports Department at a local college. It seems to be about a year later (Sun says it’s the “close future”). Se-ri is doing well. She swims in the college pool, and meets her high school friends at a cafe after classes. Still, she misses Yun-seok. When her friends pressure her to show up for a blind date the following day, she reluctantly agrees. ## **The Gong Yoo and Jung Yu-mi Busan cafe cameo** Longtime watchers of Korean dramas will recognize veteran Korean actors Gong Yoo (_Squid Game_) and Jung Yu-mi (_Wonderland_) as the couple running the seaside cafe in the final act of _Love Untangled_. “It was terribly kind for them to come for the roles to support us,” says Sun. “Our young actors were so massively excited to see their role models on set.” The actors have previously appeared together in the screen adaptation of _Kim Ji-young, Born 1982_, which was the first film from _Love Untangled_’s production company Bombaram Film (aka Spring Wind Film), as well as in 2011’s _Silenced_ and 2016 Hallyu hit _Train to Busan_. “Both Gong Yoo and Jung Yu-mi are originally from Busan,” continues Sun. “They have played several couples on screen before, so we thought it would be sweet to have them in a Busan romance story.” Sun worked to integrate the Busan setting throughout the film. “We put together a cast of mostly Busan born actors, so the film is flooded with straightforward and rhythmic Busan dialect,” she tells TIME. “In particular, we filmed a lot of locations where you could get a glimpse of old school Busan, before all the new skyscrapers came in. The famous Gwangandegyo Bridge was still in construction back then, and Gwangalli beach was a truly local beach, so we took care to recreate that sense of place.” ## **Does** **_Love Untangled_** **have a happy ending?** For those viewers still scarred by the end of _20th Century Girl_, rest assured. _Love Untangled_ ends happily ever after. “It’s really a fairy tale ending in a sense,” explains Sun. “Youth has its own chapter, and when Se-ri finds the notebook she feels as if it’s the end of an era. As a college student, we see her both comfortable with her curls and acknowledging what she likes and does well, but something is missing in her heart.” Though Se-ri initially shows up to the blind date her friends set her up on, she can’t bring herself to stay. She doesn’t want to meet someone new in view of the very same beach where she had planned her epic love confession for Yun-seok. She heads to the beach instead, where she gets a call. It’s her blind date, who also happens to be Yun-seok. He is back and wants to be with Se-ri. He tells her that he got her first voicemail, and he has known all this time that she loves him. “I didn’t want to delete your voice, so I’ve been paying my pager bill all this time,” he tells Se-ri, implying he has been in the U.S., where his pager might not work. They have both been holding onto one another, even when not together. Yun-seok gifts Se-ri a giant jar of origami crane eggs, just like the ones he helped fold for Se-ri’s aborted confession to Kim Hyun. “I made one every time I thought of you,” Yun-seok tells Se-ri, then asking if she will be his girlfriend. Through messy tears, she agrees. “Finally,” she sobs, in Yun-seok’s arms. Her friends, who have been watching nearby, come to celebrate with them. Originally, Sun tells TIME, the time jump was longer. “The original script had them meeting way into the future as adults, as these types of Asian dramas usually do,” she says. “For some reason, I didn’t want to make them wait that long. If they were going to see each other again, I wanted to give them a real chance to be a couple. I just wanted to give the audience a break and give them a proper old school ending for once. The real world is brutal enough.” In the movie’s final scene, Se-ri and Yun-seok cuddle together on the manhwa hideout’s couch as they reach comics and fight over tangerine slices. “I was looking for a bit of joy when I first got the script for this film,” says Sun, when asked what she hopes viewers will take away from _Love Untangled_. “It felt silly at first,” she continues, “but soon I found myself laughing at my own old memories. It genuinely made me feel better in this bleak world. The film is really about happiness, about the shared moments with people who see each other as who they are. I hope viewers can feel and remember that happiness in their lives for a moment. Preferably with friends and lovers around. It’s a Netflix film, after all.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7313420/love-untangled-ending-netflix/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7313420/love-untangled-ending-netflix/"},"headline":"Breaking Down the Sweet Ending of Love Untangled","datePublished":"2025-08-29T17:42:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:51:31.715Z","description":"Director Sun Namkoong's '90s-set coming-of-age romance follows a teen who is determined to fix her hair and find true love","url":"https://time.com/7313420/love-untangled-ending-netflix/","keywords":["movies","Explainer","freelance","culturepod"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltabef2f18e874f4fc/6998c96c7323af58332bcce0/LoveUntangled025.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kayti Burt","jobTitle":"Burt is a contributor for TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/kayti-burt/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltabef2f18e874f4fc/6998c96c7323af58332bcce0/LoveUntangled025.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"LoveUntangled025","caption":"Love Untangled Shin Eun-soo as Park Se-ri in Love Untangled Cr. 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