Love Alarm (2019)

Love Alarm (좋아하면 울리는)

"Love Alarm" is a Korean drama and it’s ideal for anyone who likes to watch shows with technology, good looking cast members and a lot of romance. This is one of those shows that you can easily fall into binge-watching, so I've warned you in advance that it can be addictive. It has just the right amount of realism, science fiction and fantasy to be somewhat believable, and highly entertaining.

Based on the webtoon by Chon Kye-young, Love Alarm tells the story of three young people who come of age when the world changing app called Love Alarm is released. The app, if turned on, allows users to know who within a 10 meter radius has romantic feelings for them. Because the app is synced with the user's heart, there's no way to lie, which causes some trouble when two childhood friends - model Hwang Sun-oh (Song Kang) and his housekeeper's son Lee Hye-yeong (Jung Ga-ram) - both fall for the same girl, Kim Jojo (Kim So-hyun).

Actually "Love Alarm" is unique for Netflix. It’s their very first Korean original series and it’s offered in a variety of languages. If you’re an English speaker you can watch it English or it’s cool to watch it in Korean and use the option for English subtitles. Each episode of the show lasts for an hour and there are eight per season. The show focuses upon the app that gives the series its name. Actually there you can appreciate the fact that you can visit the "Love Alarm" attractions if you’re ever in Seoul. That’s how popular the series has become. The characters in "Love Alarm" will move you to the point of feeling intense emotions.

I'm not going to give away any secrets here, but this is one of the things that fans of the series love. It’s riveting and addictive and you can’t wait to get to the next episode so you can find out. "Love Alarm" is a very different kind of series and if you’re into Korean drama, this may be right up your alley. If you’re looking for something new to fill the void left by the hiatus of your favorite television series, and you like what you’ve heard about "Love Alarm" so far, these are the reasons why you might want to give it a shot.

P.s. I'm in Team Hwang Sun-oh!!! ^-^

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As soon as a heard of this show I thought that the plot was really unique, after finishing the show after just one day I realised that I had a love hate relationship with it, I really enjoyed the plot. It's not an ordinary one. Couldn’t stop watching cause the acting and chemistry were perfect. Music was nice. The story was interesting but I don’t understand why she had to breakup with him instead of sharing her fears and working thru them. Also why was her past a problem for her present? The end left me frustrated. Sun oh and Jojo were just going to live a life with someone else even if their hearts weren’t into it? Oh and didn’t the developer commit suicide? I am so confused! Hahaha! I just get too invested! I wish there was a second season with a more conclusive ending.
Now coming to the story. It's filled with a lot. Especially till the end the story gets very pumped up and I can't wait for next season. There's so much mystery to be revealed.

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this is literally the same old "two friends fall in love with the same girl" story, the only difference is the complications that come from the "love alarm"...
it really doesn't need 8 more eps, like in these 8eps we had the girl breaking up with her bf that she only dated for looks? and getting with the hot mysterious guy just so she breaks up with him over a melodramatic reason (twilight much? xD)... like I get wanting to be "safe" and keeping your emotions a secret, but she literally became this fragile girl who didn't want to get hurt? after the accident? or what? I still don't get it ;p

anyway, then add the now finally got some courage actual ml and the 2nd dude now wants a claim? after going after his friend's crush? like sure ml (though incredibly cute with his shyness) took his sweet 4 years to finally say something, but it's still better than 2nd guy who's stringing this new poor girl??? lol melodramatic much??

I think people like the real ml (though incredibly cute with his shyness) could be frustrating and intimidating? like dude has 4+ years of bottled up emotions and he wants to get it all out xD also, he could have 4+ years of fantasy he built around how jojo is like, and he could end up disappointed....

either way though, I just remembered 2nd guy's victim mentality, and I still prefer 1st guy ;)

also, KSH is better than this... they give her THE model poor suffering everyone-hates-her character, and she still made her bearable...

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The reason for low ratings.

Clearly, the most of the viewers have watched this whole show while being biased towards one of the male leads.
Whenever a love triangle is strong, the rating of the series get heavily affected.

Watching from a neutral point of view, without liking one ML over the other, the story was quite well executed. I loved the OST, the production was obviously very high as Netflix was involved, the animations were superb.

The female lead because of the her horrible past, was quite selfish in some of her choices as clearly portrayed at the end of Season 2 as she herself comes to realize how selfish her choices were.

Unfortunately the ones to suffer due to female lead's choices were the two male leads. Considering that Sun-Oh fell for JJ knowing how much of a crush his best friend had on her and Hye-yeong also was ultimately unable to keep the childhood promise he made to Sun-Oh. The whole thing is a a bit Karmic and balances everything out.

With everyone having their share of trouble and ultimately finding some kind of happiness in the end.

This is only worth watching if you are able to watch it without tilting towards one of the male leads, If you do then you will be very angry the way the story goes and how it ends.

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J'ai des sentiments très mitigés concernant Love Alarm. Ce n'est pas un mauvais drama mais je ne vois pas ce que les personnes lui trouve de si formidable.

Concernant histoire, l'idée de parler d'une application permettant de connaître les sentiments des autres est effectivement originale. On se questionne sur ce qui est le plus important : aimer l'autre, faire sonner sa love alarm ou les deux ? On voit bien tous les effets secondaires et négatifs que peuvent provoquer cette application. Mais je n'ai pas compris son fonctionnement et la façon dont elle peut réussir à analyser les sentiments des individus, ça reste un mystère. Mais si l'on fait abstraction de l'application, l'histoire reste extrêmement banale. On a un triangle amoureux, une héroïne pauvre et maltraitée qui repousse bêtement son petit ami pour soit disant le protéger alors qu'elle le blesse encore plus. Si le jeu des acteurs n'était pas mauvais, j'ai trouvé l'ambiance du drama très fade et nostalgique. C'était sûrement volontaire mais cela accompagné de flashbacks incessants et de gros moments de creux (voir de vide intersidéral) ont rendu ce drama de seulement 8 épisodes très lent. Ce n'était pas du tout équilibré, des fois tout s'accélérait avant de s'éterniser pour au final tourner en boucle.

La romance ne m'a pas touchée, je n'ai pas vraiment senti d'alchimie entre les deux protagonistes. J'ai cependant aimé la manière dont leur histoire commence : par un baiser. Cela renverse l'idée qu'on n'embrasse la personne qu'après être en couple etc. Ici on prend les choses à contre courant, on cherche l'autre. Pour le reste, à part les trois personnages principaux et la cousine, les autres personnages disparaissent assez vite d'une moitié du drama à l'autre et il n'y a pas de personnages secondaires particulièrement attachants. La réalisation est jolie et épurée.

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Where are the answers? :o :o

I am so unsatisfied. This is the kind of plot that keeps me waiting for answers but never gives them. I don't get what the message of this drama was. It's just continuous pain, which I don't mind being the theme of a movie/series as life unfortunately can be quite painful, but this drama seemed to try to send a more positive message. I clearly didn't get it.
On the characters, I felt sorry for all of them and I don't think there were many people in this drama that didn't had me worried about there mental health.
Also (spoiler coming),
lost friendships are my weak spot and they really break my heart. As someone who cannot leave things unspoken, it left me so unsatisfied how, !multiple times!, these characters couldn't express their worries and pain better.

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Just a major disappointment

Premise was interesting. I picked this up one day at like 1 am to pass the time, I realized after 4 episodes in I wasn't really into it but as the masochist I am I finished it. I hate love triangles so that part wasn't appealing to me. Though I was rooting for the first lead even though he was a walking red flag, I'm shallow so I liked him because he was cuter and not because he was better for her. It's a show so sue me for not trying to be realistic.

I hated the heroine's family, she been needed to cut her ties.

I think the most unappealing part of the love triangle was that the second lead had been working with the heroine for a while, sometimes followed her to the bus stop but could barely hold a conversation with her and then sweeps in his best friend who likes the heroine and is bold asl. He asks the second lead if he's into the heroine and the second lead say no, granted the hero could obviously see he likes the heroine because he asks multiple times, so that was iffy to me because why date your best friend's crush.

Fast forward with all the love triangle drama the first lead doesn't even end up with the girl and there's a second season and she ends up with the second lead... Too much drama within these boy's friendship just for one of them to actually get the girl, granted the second lead deserved her way more but I just didn't ship her with either of them

Overall plot was flat and disappointing, romance was dull and had a love triangle so double dull, the ending sucked.

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film study aspects of love alarm 2019

i really love anything with a fantasy or scifi element and also films made from webtoons. what made this a ten for me though was the cinematography and editing. >the creators are very fond of really beautiful almost still shots of the subjects. you notice this in the first episode when they show a slightly aerial view of the brick alley that plays such a prominent role in this entire drama. they didn't cut out the distractions in the foreground or resort to slow motion in these moments. as the drama goes on, you realize that these shots are so short that the scene cuts long before other films employing the beauty of these kinds of frames. >the other thing i wanted to mention is the extensive use of colour editing and light overlays. >the colour editing is nothing unique in itself except that i have not seen it applied to a drama like this. the memory montages of the main characters are always beautifully lit up, inverted, mirrored, vignetted, completely drained or saturated, etc. i colour edit myself so i did not see anything that made me say omf how the hell did they do that? but for what they did i truly appreciated the fact that it was such a unique feature of this show. >for the light overlays, you see this constantly in the form of incandescent digital circles and spheres forming around love alarm users. from the shell of my own experience, at first it felt like too much. but as my mind worked around it, it felt fresh because this particular style has everything to do with young video editors the last few years. the light circles play a pivotal role in the entire work, they remind you again and again that this is a very strange world compared to ours.>i can't not say anything about the actors. one scene in particular made me gasp i think. it's the scene where (ep 1 spoiler ahead) Sunoh is returning home from having kissed Jojo and he pauses in his yard. the lighting is perfect twilight. he stares across the expanse at Hye Yeong's bike looking pained and then Hye Yeong shows up next to it. Sunoh's eyes in that moment are just A+ 100, clap, crying & ok fingers emojis. >Sunoh's character is super interesting to me as well. the way he emotionally clings to both of the other characters especially. there's an innocence and curiosity there that the actor made come to life so well. >this is one hell of a Rare Ten for me.

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disappointing

This is one of the worst. Season 1 shows some potential, but season 2 goes downhill quickly. Jo-jo, the lead female, and Sun-oh developed love at high school. Since Sun-oh is rich and handsome, other girls became jealous and turned against Jo-jo. Sun-oh defended Jo-jo and loved her deeply, and told her that she should never abandon him. After a motorcycle accident, Sun-oh suffered a more serious injury and lost contact with Jo-jo. Hye-yeong, best friend of Sun-oh, initially helped Jo-jo to go to Sun-oh’s house to visit him; Jo-jo overheard that his parents would send him to the US if he continued to see Jo-jo. As a self-protection and “for the sake of Sun-oh”, Jo-jo ended her relationship with Sun-oh despite deep hurt to him and her love for him. In the meanwhile, Hye-yeong helped Jo-jo when she was bullied by her aunt and her cousin. In the moment of despair and loneliness, Jo-jo agreed to date Hye-yeong even though there is no love alarm for him. Sun-oh continued to pursue Jo-jo because he was in deep pain and he still had strong love for her. Jo-jo rejected him repeatedly and even activated a shield in the Love Alarm app to hide her love for Sun-oh. After seeing Sun-oh again, Jo-jo went to the developer of Love Alarm to disable the shield so her true love can be shown; but she was told the shield can’t disabled. This is a huge lie since you can always get a new phone or start a new installation of the App. It is clear that Jo-jo still has feelings towards Sun-oh. Sun-oh finally confronted her on her deception (hiding her love); she said she regretted the decision everyday, but said she made the right decision to protect herself. She was shaken and was going to tell Hye-yeong that she was to end the relationship with him; but she did not have the courage to tell him the truth since she was afraid that she would hurt his feelings. After several back-n-forth, she chose to stay with Sun-oh by convincing herself that she was truly in love with Sun-oh despite the love alarm rating. This time, she used a spear in Love Alarm to force a love alarm on Sun-oh. Her action was praised by the developer of the love alarm because will can determine true love. In the end, Jo-jo and Sun-oh became a happy couple; Hye-yeong was still recovering from the deep hurt; there was no reconciliation between Jo-jo and her aunt and cousin, between Hye-yeong and Sun-oh.

The ending was a surprise and terrible. The overall message is (1) it’s okay to be selfish in order to survive, (2) it is okay to be not faithful to vows (please do not abandon me, we will stick together), (3) it is okay to steal your best friend’s girl friend when the couple are vulnerable, (4) there is no remedy for the past mistake, (5) perpetuating past mistake is okay, (6) it is okay to escape from difficult situation while hurting loved ones deeply (and not standing up to bullies), like Jo-jo’s parents did (committing suicide with Jo-jo).

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NOT BIG SPOILER this contains just a few things you should know before watching this drama

This drama was different from the others i usually watch. That's why many watchers are dissappointed in this drama. Well firstly the FL mett her first love in school, then broke up with him and few years later falling in love with his best friend. That would not be that bad but they made whole season 1 and 2 look like she and her first love are supposed to be together. I was very dissappointed in storyline becouse i wanted somebody other to be the ML actually in the end i ended up crying. But i would not put this drama between those bad ones, i would just say it was waaaaay too realistic i mean the romance and for somebody it could be a big dissapointment. So you can try watch it but be aware of the twisted ending.

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Don't bother

This whole show was mediocre.

What kind of guy goes and kisses his best friend’s crush? Sun-oh went and kissed Jojo when he knew his best friend liked her, and Sun-oh’s best friend just lets him do whatever he pleases!? What has Sun-oh done to earn so much of this man’s respect? This didn’t gain my respect for him as a viewer.

Now, I understand that Jojo and her boyfriend were having problems and not really feeling it anymore, but she shouldn’t have done anything with Sun-oh without breaking up with her boyfriend first. Nevertheless, the chemistry between the leads was definitely there, but aside from face value, it didn’t get any deeper than that which was a letdown. If this show was fun, light-hearted and fluffy, I wouldn’t have been disappointed, but seeing as it’s more serious and has zero comedy, I can’t help but find it lacking in that regard. Each episode was just ‘they rang my alarm,’ ‘they didn’t ring my alarm!’ It just seems very shallow.

I wasn’t okay with how the leads got together in five minutes with Sun-oh basically forcing himself on Jojo WHILST she had a boyfriend!

Jojo is just a heartbreaker - she broke up with Sun-oh, for whatever reason, and then blew off Sun-oh’s best friend.

I’m glad they addressed the issue of ‘those who have never been liked.’ It’s no surprise Duk-gu killed himself but I am still confused how he could be attracted to Jojo’s cousin when she is such a bitch! Side note: what windows don’t have safety latches on them nowadays? That must have been an ancient building to allow the windows to open up all the way.

The biggest issue with this story is how does a phone detect someone’s romantic feelings? I’m guessing this show is pinned as urban fantasy? The vibe I was getting from this show is that it is realistic, but for this made-up app to work, it must be fantasy. I feel like if there was a better explanation as to how the app worked I wouldn’t have been so bothered by it. The characters kept saying ‘someone rang their alarm’ so does this mean they were going into the app and pressing a button, or does "the phone" know when its user has romantic feelings and makes it ring? The latter is what I think the writer’s were trying to portray, but it is just too incomprehensible.

There was plenty of good acting and okay music, but this didn’t make up for the average story. I found myself being moved the most when Jojo’s aunt told her to leave the house after having their fight. I was confused as to why the aunt and cousin hated Jojo so much, like how is it an iddy biddy child’s fault that their parents took their own lives and left debt? AND the parents tried to kill Jojo so she wouldn’t suffer anyway. I can understand the situation her aunt was put in, but couldn’t she have been a little more understanding? Heck, if the child was that much of a burden, could she not have adopted it out?

Needless to say, I have zero intention of watching season 2.

-E

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