Why 'Our Sticky Love' Is No. 1 on Netflix's Non-English Chart

What happened

Our Sticky Love (이런 엿 같은 사랑), a 12-episode Netflix romantic comedy starring Jung Hae-in and Ha Young, was released in full on 7 August 2026. On 19 August, The Korea Times and The Korea Herald reported Netflix’s weekly Top 10 for 10–16 August: the series was number one among non-English TV titles with 7.5 million views and 88 million hours viewed, had entered the top 10 in 68 countries and was number one in 26 of them, including South Korea, Brazil, Indonesia and Singapore.

It was not an opening-week number one. In its first tracking week, 3–9 August — three days on the service — Netflix’s Top 10 page listed it fifth with 3.2 million views and 37.9 million hours viewed; a week later it had more than doubled to the top. In the following week, 17–23 August, it held second with 3.7 million views and 43.3 million hours, behind Blood Sacrifice, its third week in the top 10.

Two other Korean series shared the chart in the number one week: tvN’s Spooky in Love, starring Park Eun-bin, was third with 2.7 million views, and SBS’s Agent Kim Reactivated was ninth with 1.4 million.

Why is it trending?

The premise is a memory-loss romance with a crime plot underneath. Go Eun-sae (Ha Young) is a prosecutor in the anti-corruption division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office. Pursuing a violent crime organisation, she is caught in an accident and wakes with no memory of her name, age or job in a rural hospital in Yeot Village, Gujin-gun, a countryside town lined with traditional taffy workshops. Jang Tae-ha (Jung Hae-in) was a promising youth boxer who joined a gang and now coaches at a small-town boxing gym. On the last job he takes in order to leave the organisation he meets her — his first love — and tells her he is her boyfriend. Heo Sung-tae plays the crime boss Baek Sang-gil.

The title is the part that does not travel. The Korean title, Ireon Yeot-gateun Sarang, literally means ‘This Love Is Like Yeot’ — 엿 (yeot) is a traditional sticky confection, and the phrase is also a slang expression, which is why the English release is Our Sticky Love. At the Seoul press conference on 5 August 2026, at the Hotel Naru Seoul MGallery, Jung said he first thought the title ‘quite bold’ but read it as ‘a love that is like this candy’ with ‘a sweet and sticky charm’; director Kim Jang-han called yeot the metaphor for the couple’s bond. Jung also described the script’s shape: it starts as a rom-com, turns into a melodrama, ‘dips into thriller and noir territory’, adds action and returns to romance. The cast joked on set that it felt like filming two projects at once.

The crew and cast were announced early. Netflix confirmed production in spring 2025, almost fifteen months before the premiere, under the working title Lovestuck in English. It reunited director Kim Jang-han (Do You Like Brahms?, My Demon) and writer Mo Ji-hye (You Raise Me Up) four years after their last series, with Jung, known for Something in the Rain, One Spring Night and Love Next Door, and Ha Young, who played Cheon Jang-mi in The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call. The premiere date and teaser followed on 10 July 2026 and the main trailer on 24 July; for Jung it is a return to Netflix after the D.P. series.

The chart run also came with a controversy reported by the Korean press. The Korea Times and The Korea Herald reported that shortly after release Ha Young faced criticism over allegations about a great-grandfather’s activities during Japan’s 1910–45 colonial rule of Korea. The Korea Times reported that she later acknowledged he had belonged to an organisation historians suspect of pro-Japanese activities and said she was ‘sincerely sorry’ as his descendant; Korea JoongAng Daily reported that scheduled cast interviews were cancelled as a result.

What you need to know

• Our Sticky Love (이런 엿 같은 사랑) is a 12-episode Netflix limited series, rated 15+ on Netflix, with every episode released on 7 August 2026.
• For the global week 10–16 August 2026 it was number one among non-English TV titles with 7.5 million views and 88 million hours viewed; Netflix counts a view as total hours viewed divided by the title’s running time, 11 hours 44 minutes here.
• It entered the chart fifth with 3.2 million views (3–9 August) and held second with 3.7 million views the week after its peak (17–23 August).
• It reached the top 10 in 68 countries and number one in 26, including South Korea, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Indonesia and Singapore.
• Cast: Jung Hae-in as Jang Tae-ha, Ha Young as Go Eun-sae, Heo Sung-tae as Baek Sang-gil, with Jeon Bae-soo, Seo Jung-yeon, Lee Jae-won, Kim Young-ok, Cha Cheong-hwa and Kim Mi-hwa.
• Directed by Kim Jang-han (Do You Like Brahms?, My Demon) and written by Mo Ji-hye (You Raise Me Up); Netflix confirmed production in spring 2025 under the working title Lovestuck.
• The official trailer with English subtitles was published on the Netflix K-Content YouTube channel on 24 July 2026, two weeks after the 10 July teaser.