Love Alarm (2019)

Quick Take: Love Alarm (2019), starring  Song Kang, Kim So-hyun, and Jung Ga-ram.  8.2/10.  16  80-minute episodes.

Synopsis:   A new phone app called Love Alarm transforms romantic relationships.  If someone who “loves” you comes within 10 meters, your Love Alarm rings and shows a little heart.  There is no hiding who you like, or don’t like.  It’s a teenager’s nightmare.

JoJo and Hwang Sun-oh fall in love in high school, but then she rejects him for no discernible reason.  A classmate  — presumably the anonymous developer of the app — gives her a “shield” that keeps her Love Alarm from ringing anyone else’s.  This allows her to prove her indifference to Sun-oh by showing him that her Love Alarm no longer rings his. The story resumes four years later.  His Love Alarm still rings hers, and hers still rings no one’s.

Review:  The obvious moral issues with this app could have been explored more.  Also the level or type of “love” that triggers a ring is unclear.  A bunch of people commit mass suicide because no one has ever rung their alarms.   Fans can “ring” the celebrities they admire but have never met, so apparently a fan crush is enough to ring the alarm?   This seems like a stretch of the definition of love.  Other times, though, someone can be sincerely fond of a person,  but in love with someone else, and can’t ring their partner's alarm.  Awkward!

SPOILER:   Fans, myself included, were disappointed by the ending.   It would have made more sense if JoJo’s steadfast admirer, played by Jung Ga-ram,  had been more attractive.  In Love Alarm, steadfast equals boring — but that doesn’t have to be the case.  (The second lead in Nevertheless, for example.) JoJo’s rejection of Sun-ho was especially annoying because she never explained why, to him or to the viewers.  He was true to her to the end.  He deserved better.

Rewatchable - 2, Compelling - 3, Plot/ Story/Writing - 7,  Acting/Casting - 8, Production - 10, Bonus - 2.    Bonus points for originality of the premise, minus fail points for the ending.

Notes:

Song Kang

is called “The son of Netflix” because most of his dramas have aired on that platform. See him also in The Liar and His Lover (2017), Sweet Home (2020), Navillera (2021), Nevertheless (2021), and Forecasting Love and Weather (2022).

Kim So-hyun

began her career playing the young version of lead characters in flashbacks. She successfully transitioned into adult roles. See her also in The Emperor: Owner of the Mask (2017), While You Were Sleeping (2017), The Tale of Nokdu (2019) and River Where the Moon Rises (2021).