Love Alarm

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Analysis

SEASON 1

Synopsis

​A new app called Love Alarm has been recently released. It enables its users to know if someone is in love with them in a 10-meter radius. Kim Jo Jo is a high school student and didn’t download the alarm. A boy at her school Lee Hye Young has a crush on her but never confessed his feelings. Meanwhile, his best friend Hwang Sun Oh learns about it and kisses Jo Jo. 

My Opinion (No Spoilers)

Interesting drama, even though there were some mishaps. The overall idea is fresh and innovative. Just like for any kind of AI or application, the concept at first glance seems great. However, it can easily twist relationships and that is exactly what happens with Kim Jo Jo, Lee Hye Young and Hwang Sun Oh. 

The trio made some poor decisions at some point, but since there are still adolescents I can understand their immaturity. I also think that the drama became a bit far-fetched passed the 4 first episodes. Yet, the ending left me with huge expectations and I am really eager to see the season 2 to finally put an end to that madness. 

Analysis (Spoilers Alert)

Can an application dictate love? The most original part of the drama is also the most troubling one. The entire action relies on a mysterious application that can tell you when you are in love, even when you yourself are not sure of it. In a 10-meter radius, if someone has a crush on you, your alarm will ring. The goal of course of the application is to be able to confess your love more easily or at least to make the other person aware of it. It was by the way the primary goal of such an app for its creator, who wanted to confess his love but was too shy to do so. 

Even if the idea looks interesting in the first place, I couldn’t stop thinking how wrong and weird this concept actually was. Indeed, I am not the greatest fan of relationships that are based on technology (robots, AI or holograms) or on supposedly external factors that convince you of your own feelings or mislead you. 

Of course the drama denounces this wrong use of technologies to form social links. Even the creator of the application has a change of heart and fights against his own application. 

In my opinion, it is very clear that social relationships should be done on a human-to-human basis, trying to involve as little technologies as possible, in order to put forward personalities, connection and first impressions. Societies already use too much technological devices to meet. Even if it can appear useful, the concept of the Love Alarm goes way too far and sheds light on all the downsides associated with this kind of misuse (cc the wedding scene). 

The application dictates your feelings, when you yourself are not aware of them. It can lead you towards people you are not sure you’re attracted to. In the end, the line between choice and obligation to love someone is very thin and easily crossed in the drama. 

I liked how the drama emphasized this potential danger of the Love Alarm, especially through Kim Jo Jo’s (Kim So Hyun) romances. At first, she is in love with Hwang Sun Oh (Song Kang) and it is really sweet to see how their love blooms. They obviously have sincere feelings for each other and become more convinced every day. The app in that case is only a support (even though for Sun Oh it is a real trigger that makes him realize his feelings for Jo Jo at first). 

The real problem with the alarm deals with Kim Jo Jo’s feelings, when she finally downloads the app. At first, she reciprocates Sun Oh’s feelings. By the end of the drama though, there is a sort of confusion for the viewer regarding the guy she actually loves. Indeed, after an incident that makes her break up with Sun Oh, she gets closer to his best friend Lee Hye Young (Jung Ga Ram), who has always had a crush on her. 

Since she has been hurt by the very existence of the app, Jo Jo doesn’t want to get involved and pushes him away. Still, there is an undeniable connection between both. Especially because Hye Young is the kindest person ever. I personally rooted for that character. I really felt as if he was more sincere in his feelings. When Sun Oh started his relationship with Jo Jo, he encouraged them and respected them, keeping his distance. Afterwards, when he saw that the two had broken up, he decided to take his chance, while respectfully considering Jo Jo’s feelings. Compared to Sun Oh, I really found Hye Young more patient and less pushy towards Sun Oh. Considering the fact that Jo Jo remained unsure of her feelings until the very end, I still believe Hye Young is a better match. 

Moreover, Sun Oh is a rich guy, handsome who has always everything he wants. Therefore, he can be quite immature and capricious. On the contrary Hye Young knows how to be content with little and never forces his way in. Even though some characters seem stereotypical, the lead Sun Oh still has a vulnerable side to him; which differs from the usual pattern of the rich guy. 

Yet, I always had that bad vibe with him that anytime he was going to leave Jo Jo and hurt her. Even at the beginning, I had the impression that he was playing with her (even if that was not the case) and that made me quite insecure. 

Anyway, the drama exposes relationships evolving on the basis of an application, that simply illustrates the dangers of this kind of technology. Our main trio is really indecisive (particularly Jo Jo), creating even more confusion regarding the credibility of this app. The application created this huge mess in their relationship. 

Another problem that struck me was the validity with which the app was evaluating your feelings. What are the criteria? How can a non-feeling machine know for sure what falls in the domain of feelings and impressions? Something to be considered and worked on in the second part of the drama!

In a nutshell, Love Alarm was an interesting school drama. However, my impressions are really mitigated considering the fact that the ending was messy and confusing. 

P.S.: I am still waiting for Season 2 out of curiosity!

SEASON 2

My Opinion (No Spoilers)

To be honest, I was quite worried when I finished the first season of that drama. Jo Jo’s love life was a mess, Sun Oh and Hye Young’s friendship appeared to be destroyed forever and the last scene left seemed to announce a lot of misfortunes for our characters.

Yet, as I watched the drama, I became more and more surprised. Indeed, I really liked that season 2 and found it even better than season 1. The screenwriter did a very good job at saving the story! All in all, I was extremely satisfied with the ending (I will tell you why later on), though many might disagree with me!

Analysis (Spoilers Alert)

The dangers of Love Alarm 2.0: In season 1, the application was conceived in a such a way that it would ring, if someone within in a 10-meter radius liked you. The idea was that it was based on anonymity and it would only help people confessing their feelings.
The new functions added in the 2.0 version of the app basically get rid of this anonymity. It can tell you who likes and will like you. Even though, it seems like a good idea for people to know, it generally creates even more loneliness, as feelings may not always be reciprocated. It also leads to several other problems such as murder. Indeed, a young girl in the story is killed because the man’s love alarm didn’t ring when hers did.

Apart from that, Jo Jo’s also benefits or, should I say, suffers from other types of functions created by Dok Gu: the shield, preventing her from ringing someone else’s alarm, and later on the spear, enabling her to ring the alarm of the person of her choice. Naturally, both cause problems.

The shield: In season 1, the shield enabled Jo Jo to break up with Sun Oh, by making him believe she didn’t like him anymore. Four years later, she now regrets having this protection, as her feelings for Hye Young are growing. Neither Sun Oh nor Hye Young know about the shield, which complicate matters for Jo Jo, who then has to confront a very mad Sun Oh, refusing to let her go. Jo Jo eventually manages to go around the shield thanks, once again, to Dok Gu, who gifts her a new function: the spear.

The spear: If Jo Jo’s shield was terrible news for Sun Oh, I could see that the spear had, at first, a devastating incidence on Hye Young. I didn’t understand very well at first, why Hye Young was so hurt after having discovered that Jo Jo had used the spear on him. Indeed, after waiting for four years for her, Jo Jo finally realizes her feelings for him. What would then be more sincere than using the spear on him to confess her own feelings? I mean, sure she didn’t ring his alarm naturally, but it was because she couldn’t. Yet, she chose him over anyone else. If that is not a proof of love, what is it? Fortunately of course, and after a serious conversation with Dok Gu, Hye Young realizes that Jo Jo was clearly sincere. Thanks God!

Despite the happy ending for Jo Jo and Hye Young, and to a certain extent for Sun Oh and Yuk Jo (Kim Si Eun), the new version of the Love Alarm remains a huge risk. That’s why Dok Gu (yes, he’s a real puppet master in both seasons) asks his brother, CEO Chon, to renounce it.

The bug in the matrix: That bug is none other than Jo Jo herself! Because of the shield, she was forced to find other ways to realize her love and confess it. She didn’t rely on the alarm, she didn’t listen to a machine. Instead, she had to listen to herself, her heart and her own feelings. When she chooses Hye Young at the end (which made me so happy by the way!), she decides on her own volition.

This behavior goes exactly against the idea of the love alarm. Though at beginning the app was supposed to facilitate confession, it became over time the only trustworthy device to find a lover. As its purpose had been totally subverted, it was only a matter of time before its developer, Dok Gu, or someone else, Jo Jo, goes against it.

This is actually the best lesson coming from this drama: you don’t need technology or anything other than yourself to know who and what is good for you. Instinct always prevails over algorithms. To a certain extent, this theme reminded me of the episode of SF8 called Manxin, in which people exclusively rely on an app that predicts their future (check the review here).

Another interesting trait of the app that I didn’t understand at first is the ranking of people who “would love you”. At some point of the drama, Jo Jo disappears from Hye Young’s list. Naively, I thought that it was because she was still in love with Sun Oh. But I was wrong, and there comes the twist: she disappeared from the list not because she would not love Hye Young anymore, but because she already loves him. Therefore, there was no reason for her to remain as a possibility on the list. Great twist right!

Two distinct relationships: What the drama really put forward too was the distinction between two different kinds of relationships. The first one, Jo Jo and Sun Oh, seemed to me quite toxic. Even in season 1, I had the impression that they were constantly hurting each other. Jo Jo never communicates or tells things (to the point that this becomes a problem), she is also quite the loner and doesn’t know how to rely on others. Sun Oh is, in my opinion, quite egoistic and capricious. I totally agree on the fact that you need a reason for the break up, especially if you want to move on, but he always regards his own feelings before others’. So one alway shuts down and the other shouts out his emotions. This could only lead to a disaster. Also, can we please talk about the kind of friend Sun Oh is. Ever since season 1, I really think he has no respect whatsoever for Hye Young!

On the other side, Jo Jo and Hye Young’s relationship, though slower and more discrete, is solid. Hye Yeong is warm, comforting and above all, patient. He gives Jo Jo her space and at the same time a certain comfort zone. He never forces anything on her, he remains constant in his feelings for her and is willing to accept quite anything. Considering Jo Jo’s distrustful personality and ignorance, when it comes to depending on others, Hye Young really appears to be the best choice possible. What she realizes in the end!

In the drama, I would say that two scenes regarding their love story really moved me: the moment she realizes she loves him while looking at her picture (she smiles back at him on camera) and the ending, when we get to know the moments she actually rang his alarm. That is to say, almost every time they were together!

Accept your past: Another interesting theme is actually tackled in the drama: trauma. Though few people actually go through what Jo Jo has been through, the drama depicted really well the possible consequences of a traumatic experience on someone’s life and the difficulties to overcome it. If you remember, when Jo Jo was younger, she became the only survivor of a mass suicide in Jeju Island. She then developed remorse and a sort of culpability for being the only one alive, as well as abandonment issue (she was only a child when it happens). This impacted her behavior and personality greatly, to the point that she felt constantly isolated, unable to talk about it and very bad at communicating. All of this explaining why she decides to express herself on her Instagram account, a sort of cathartic exercise.

After more than 10 years of struggling, Jo Jo is finally able to overcome her difficult past, reconcile with herself and move on. How? Because she finally understands that, first she has the right to be happy, second she needs to communicate, talk and be honest about what she wants and doesn’t want and third, she comes back to where it all started: JeJu Island.
The scene in which she hugs her own self as a child was very moving and reminded me so much of It’s Okay, that’s Love, when Jang Jae Yeol (Jo In Sung) understands that the Han Kang Woo (D.O.) is the product of his imagination. If you haven’t seen that drama, please do, it is amazing!

All in all, I think that this entire mess was actually greatly useful to Jo Jo and forced her to become less passive in her life and move on from her past.

Maturity: The season 2 of the drama also emphasized the gained maturity of all characters. I really had the impression that all of them really had grown up, especially Gul Mi. Even though the drama is supposed to take place four years after the first events, I really appreciated that characters had matured in-between.

OSTs: Finally, I can’t finish that review without talking at least once about the amazing OSTs of the drama. My favorite is Hodge “In My Little Head” and I highly recommend you listen to it!