I enjoy K-dramas so much that I rarely ever find fault in them. I enjoy them with a relish, and look forward to even more series because even in the simplest of plot lines, you are guaranteed twists and a depth in acting and storyline you do not easily find in other kinds of dramas. Then, I saw the series called Love Alarm, and so this post is about how someone who loves K-dramas so much almost stopped seeing it altogether and why I wouldn’t recommend this for any reason.
Love Alarm (2019)
Based on the webtoon of the same name, this series released between April 2019 and March 2021, follows the story of a technology developed by an anonymous person which enables all who use the application to get notified when someone who has romantic feelings for them is within ten metres of them.
Then there’s Kim Jo-Jo, a beautiful and cheerful high schooler who maintains happiness despite her painful family history. Lee Hye-Yeong is a high school student from humble parenthood and has feelings for Kim Jo-Jo. And then there’s Hwang Sun-Oh, who is a model and a childhood friend of Lee Hye-Yeong. As expected, he also has feelings for Kim Jo-Jo. However, things get messy because love in the city revolves around this love technology and therefore things that should seemingly be easy gets way too complicated for comfort.
My Thoughts and Rating
As you may have guessed, I was nearly exasperated as I wrote this. I’m not one too completely trash a movie, especially K-drama, but I’m not quite sure where to start. I wouldn’t be subjective enough to say that the entire series was trash. It had a very promising beginning. And I loved that Song Kang, who is one of my favourite actors because of the role he played Nevertheless, was there. But after my initial excitement of seeing him and his stellar acting wore off, nothing did it for me.
I wasn’t a fan of the acting of the female lead in the series. Again, I’m not sure if it’s because the role she acted in was quite annoying, but she seemed not to have the best facial expressions to depict the role she acted and I found that quite unsavoury. I'm not the biggest fan of love triangle concepts, but series like True Beauty make you enjoy that trope to an extent, whereas seemed to make a mess of the whole idea.
The idea of having an app that notifies you when someone who likes you or who has romantic feelings for you is in the premises should have been exciting. I especially liked how unique the concept was. It was very promising and if developed well, like I’m pretty sure the webtoon was, it would have been such a hit. But extra twists and turns were added that defeated the whole purpose or concept behind the film.
Letting the app completely define everyone’s attitudes and personalities was a definite turn off for me. They could have done better. Even with all the family history and backstory, making an app the only determinant of when you like someone in totality just felt off and wrong.
This film has two seasons and I eagerly hoped to see some lovely poetic justice or at least a befitting end to series that didn’t really make me smile, but it had to have the most insanely unsatisfying ending in K-drama history, or at least in all the series I’ve watched.
It wasn’t just that it was unsatisfying, it defeated the whole purpose of the film in my opinion. The only highlight to this series for me was Song Kang’s pretty face and nothing else. If you’re someone that is looking to get into K-drama, this is the last series you would want to watch. 4.5/10 would not recommend for my K-drama lovers or anyone in particular.
Jhymi🖤
Thumbnail from IMDB.
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