Love Alarm (2019)

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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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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This is like Mac and Cheese as it wasn't good for me but I couldn't stop eating it

Love Alarm has something going on interesting at it's core that kept me going. Frankly, the show is at it most compelling when it is exploring the premise and the idea behind it. Of an app that has that much of an impact on relationships and the consequences. Which I wish there was more of in the drama even though that's the whole idea. We are supposedly exploring the concept of the app through the love triangle but it falls flat. I almost wish the love triangle didn't exist because you could easily dive into the appeal of Love Alarm without it. From here on spoilers...

So the three main characters are standard enough which is fine by me. They each have something going on so at least nothing feels like imbalanced characterization even though they are tropey. But whatever- the problem is that the love between Sun-Oh and Jojo ,which jumpstarts the plot, just comes out of nowhere.
He literally saw his best friend admire a girl and then he clung on to that- and decided like her too. Which is just...so not cool and it is hard to root for a guy like that- no matter how cute.

But damn it I kept going because of course I had to know more.
So at the end of it- I was pleasantly surprised because the end couple actually makes sense. I like how it delves into the aspects about the app but the love triangle shenanigans made no sense due to the insta-love between Sun-Oh and Jojo.
I think if you want to give this drama a quick watch for a fluff fix go ahead. Not anything too special

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not good...

This was my first k-drama LOL.... I'm writing this review after like almost a year of being addicted to k-dramas so my rating isn't that good but to be honest it would be much better if I wrote it right after finishing it. But since I know that there are some really good masterpieces among k-dramas, i cannot give this series better ratings, sorry not sorry.
I remember being so freaking excited for season 2...it's actually cute but also pretty cringe lmao
Anyways, i don't remember details and I'm definitely not rewatching it just for this review so please excuse me if I don't include something or if I write something wrong, feel free to correct me :)
The story was so so....it wasn't the worst but sometimes it felt like it's not moving anywhere. It was still the same. I don't really remember the characters that well and idk how well the actors played their roles but I remember liking it, so i guess it wasn't anything tragic. Yes, it was my first k-drama, but not my first series so I think I could say if someone is acting good or not so good :)) I don't remember the music at all, like seriously I don't, so excuse me, i can't really tell you how was it. Would I rewatch it? No. I'm 100% sure that there are so many better k-dramas, i haven't seen yet, so i don't want to waste the time i could spend on them, spend on rewatching this one. Maybe, if i would be really bored, didn't know what to watch at all....no, not even then, i'd just rewatch Semantic Error ( very good BL if you don't know, definitely check it out <3 ) lol
Overall...6.5/10. Can't say more because i for real don't know what to say :DDD
Anygays, have a good life besties and don't forget to stream your fav artists :>>>

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Disappointing. One of the few where I feel like my time was wasted. Sad.

3/10 is my rating. This is a 2019 South Korean coming of age romance drama. Based on a webtoon of the same name. There are 8, 42-55 minute episodes in Season 1 and 6, 43-71 minute episodes in the 2nd season.

First I will provide a Unique Synopsis then Review
Synopsis

A brilliant student app developer, Cheon Duk-gu (Lee Jae eung) releases an app called Love Alarm that is a huge sensation in South Korea. A heart signal is displayed omn the user’s phone app if the app is active and someone feeling the love is within 10 meters. Kim Jojo (Kim So hyun) is more focused on earning money and attending school than she is in worrying about some app. Besides she already has a boyfriend, Jang Il sik (Shin Seung-ho) and does not want to reveql to him that she does not see him romantically. But things get complicated when she stumbles upon a phone with the app and finds herself caught in a love triangle with the unapproachable god of campus, Hwang Sun oh (Song kang) and his best friend Lee Hee Young (Jung Ga Ram). All the girls hope Hwang sun will set off their love alarm but Jojo and he develop interest in each other at first sight and he only sets off Jojo’s love alarm.

How do things change when technology reveals things that might be best hidden? And what if only one side is hidden?
Review

To say this series was disappointing just barely skims the surface of how awful it turns out to be. It does not end happily in my opinion and what could have been a good story takes a surprising and horrible turn. It made me sad. I would not rewatch it nor would I recommend it. I am baffled how anyone thinks this was a good romance. It portrayed such a twisted sense of what love should be I am still annoyed at the mere thought of this terrible series.
Spoilers


I seriously dislke sad movies and series. Some sad content is okay as long as it is brief and it turns around and winds up happy. With this series, it started with a heartwarming romance between Jojo and Sun Oh and, just when things are going well, they get into an accident and she decides to brutally end it with him. Lie and say she doesn’t care about him at all. It was a pointless break up for very selfish reasons. I thought they made a great couple he was lonely and sad from always being treated like an object by his parents and she was lonely and sad because she was an orphan, whose parents tried to murder her, and her aunt and cousin treated her like a lesser human being. They were able to comfort and provide solace to each other and they were all laughter and smiles when they were together. Their love made sense and was happy. If the show had kept that trajectory and even if they did that stupid break up but they got back together and made up later I would still have liked it. But the writers decided that would be the end of it for them as a couple even though they teased us with the possibility they would get back together. The scene where the Sun Oh’s mom, Jeong Mi-mi (Song Seon mi) talks about Jojo and pretty much points out she is still the one in his heart is pointless because they never get back together.

Another pointless story line was the whole conflict with Jojo’s best friend, Kim Jang go as they never reconciled and she just disappeared from the story line with no resolution on her crush nor the rift in their friendship. No big point to having either the best friend or ex boyfriend characters. Unless the point of thise two characters was other oeople thought Jojo could be a jerk, because later I wound up thinking so too. The way she ended her relationship badly with her boyfriend, Jang Il-sik (Shin Seung Ho) was a good indicator of the way she did things, If she decided it was over she did not care who got hurt.

Many commented that Sun Oh betrayed his friend when he went after the girl he had been crushing on for a long time. Hee young had been around Jojo because he liked her and would deliberately do things to bring himself into her presence. But that was it. He never acted on any of that and it made his admiration for her seem very shallow. Sun Oh asked him multiple times if he liked Jojo so he gave him ample opportunity to say he did and act on his feelings. So I wasn’t bothered by that because I felt Hee young had his chance and never took it. Just liking someone does not put your mark of ownership on them in my opinion. Those feeings have to be expressed and reciprocated.. So, I did not fault Sun Oh for liking Jojo and following through with his feelings. I found it incredibly sad that such an unlikable female lead became the one to create a large rift in the brotherly like friendship the two men had. Once again how lonely for Sun oh to lose his friend who eased his loneliness.

That whole “shield” so the other person cannot see how you feel about them thing just ticked me off. It was an incredibly selfish thing to know how the other person felt but have that shield deceive the other person into thinking you had no feelings for them. The fact that Jojo used that showed how selfish in love she was. She was perfectly fine with them exhibiting their feelings for her. Even reveled in it. But she was okay with never showing her feelings and being dishonest with them about why. Okay you cannot get the shield off your phone but how about you tell the other people you have the shield? It was selfish, narcissistic and made me not like her character at all. Oh I am so damaged I cannot show love even if I feel it? Find a shrink lady and quit using people to make yourself feel better.

One reviewer said all the relationships were very superficial. I have to agree. The software developer, Cheon Duk gu (Lee Jae-eung) liked Jojo’s cousin, Park Gul-mi, (Go Min Si) because she was pretty. And really that could be the only reason because she was an awful person. Hee young liked Jojo from afar, until they got deep in their relationship he only ever liked what he saw of her and it didn’t seem like he really knew her. The influencer that loved Sun oh, his new girlfriend, Lee Yuk-jo (Kim Si eun) did not need him to reciprocate which means she was with him for other reasons. Maybe the optics?

The one sided love thing portrayed as romantic was annoying. It was not romantic that Hee young loved Jojo from afar and was willing to be with her even though she said she may never ring his love alarm. That’s okay babe I will just continually stroke your ego by ringing your love alarm all the time. I found that disgusting and selfish of her. Sun oh found the love of his life in Jojo and you had the sense he would never love anyone else that deeply. He seemed sad and unhappy in the “fake” life he was living with hus new girlfriend. All of that being in the spotlight and objectified was exactly what he hated and found lonely in his childhood. But now we are supposed to believe that he will grow to love someone where he did not have those feelings in the beginning, when you are most likely to feel romantic love? So I did not find it romantic that eveyone woud up in these one sided love relationships and we were expected to believe the love would grow and everyone would wind up happy. That so rarely happens you can say it doesn’t happen. The person who loves more winds up hurt and emotionally starved all the time. The person that does not have that romantic love feeling feels guilty for being unable to feel that way about the other person. Love is not something that can be manufactured or forced. So I seriously disliked that this series tried to romanticize such a deeply painful and harmul relationship dynamic.

I could go on and on about how horrible this series was. But, to sum up my discontent, they Netflixed it, the female lead character was unlikable, everyone winds up in superficial substandard relationship and they lied about love. It made me sad for Sun oh that he ended up with someone he was not deeply in love with (they would have made awesome friends, Jojo is taking advantage of Hee young in a relationship where the love balance is so horribly off just to gratify herself and feel safe in the relationship. The horrible cousin winds up with a chance to be with the software developer who she treated like dirt early on and she never changed to become a better person. I strongly disliked every outcome. I never thought there would be a situation where I would be unhappy the second guy got the girl but they made it happen. Those two being together just made it so everyone would wind up miserable.

#KimSohyun #JungGaram #HwangSunoh #GoMinsi #LeeJaeeung #SongKang #KimSohyun #JungGaram #LoveAlarm #GoMinSi #LoveAlarm2 #SongSeonmi #JeongMimi

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