Sweet & Sour — Ending Explained

The defining feature of Sweet & Sour is its elaborate structural deception. Throughout the movie, the narrative leads viewers to believe they are watching a single, linear chronological timeline: an overweight patient named Lee Jang-hyuk (Lee Woo-je) falls in love with nurse Da-eun, resolves to slim down for her, and transforms physically into the handsome engineer Jang-hyuk (Jang Ki-yong). In reality, these are two entirely different men existing in overlapping timelines.

The slim Jang-hyuk was Da-eun's long-term boyfriend who grew distant, pushed her toward an abortion after an unplanned pregnancy, and engaged in workplace infidelity with Bo-yeong. While slim Jang-hyuk neglected Da-eun, she encountered chubby Lee Jang-hyuk as a patient in the hospital and subsequently fell in love with him. When slim Jang-hyuk finally decides to retrieve the Jeju flight tickets and rush to the airport with an engagement ring, he arrives only to see Da-eun happily leaving with chubby Lee Jang-hyuk, wearing the same couple sneakers. The ending subverts the classic airport chase trope: Jang-hyuk is comically leveled by an athletic team, stranded in his self-absorption, having lost both women due to his arrogance and neglect.

Viewers and critics have debated whether the film represents an indictment of Jang-hyuk's individual moral failings or a systemic tragedy where no single individual is truly culpable. One perspective views Jang-hyuk as the ultimate symbol of toxic male complacency, prioritizing his convenience while abandoning Da-eun during critical life crises such as her pregnancy. An alternative interpretation reads Da-eun's actions not as passive victimization, but as calculated emotional self-preservation, demonstrating that she had already emotionally moved on and secured a parallel romance when she recognized Jang-hyuk's duplicity.