Reviews

One of my personal favorite dramas

Now, i’m not gonna lie and say this drama was amazing in all aspects, because it definitely wasn’t. However, it did exceed my expectations in some parts.

The acting was amazing. The side characters, the supporting characters, the main characters, everyone did amazing. It felt like they were real people and did just actors playing a role.

The storyline is where I get kind of ehhh. They were married for 100 days; why haven’t they consummated? I just feel like if Hongshim were to be impregnated, it would add so much to the plot. I also feel like the ending felt a little bit… Mysterious?? I personally don’t like endings that just happen if you get what I mean. But I also understand that there’s a season 2 coming up; so it would make sense to have that sort of ending in the first season.

The plot did drag out in some parts. Especially with the antagonists, and the way that i-seo and yul “left” each other again, and reunited again at the end of the last ep, i just felt that it was so unnecessary???

Overall, this drama was amazing and enjoyable in my personal opinion, and definitely does have a rewatch value. If i’m ever bored, maybe i’ll rewatch it again. :)

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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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stunning visuals, great acting, very poor story

The production value of this series is absolutely amazing, costumes, sets, scenes are truly amazing. There's a host of very likeable side characters and complicated back stories.
however the story itself, while has the potential of amazing spy drama, is extremely weak. The production decided that instead of shooting the story to at least indicate the plots that are happening, they jsut shot a story of a mildly intelligent guy stumbling along, then at the end within one episode showed us a host of scenes that directly contradict everything we watched for 23 episodes to tell us that the main lead is truly smartest of the smartest schemers! it's a cheap way to tell the story, it means that there's no value in analyzing any of the scenes as they are all going to be contradicted at the end.
that was a huge disappointment of the movie. the way characters choices and motivations are often just stupid or made obviously for dramatic effect instead of any gain for them.

Last 5 minutes of the show are rage inducingly stupid I have to say. there's absolutely no reason for that scene, no logical explanation at all.

All in all amazing visuals but no rewatch value other than in gifsets.

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A GENUINE YOUTHFUL FEEL

Done with this and I can say it's a pretty decent highschool school. Typical yet nicely done. Started this with little to no expectations and in ep1 I almost dropped Since I didn't like some tropes in it. But gosh I'm glad I stuck to more EPs ( Because I've already downloaded like 10 so... Lol) and it got better for me!

It's a pretty nostalgic highschool tale said to be set in 2008s or so. The youthful feelings were genuinely and so was it's execution. I enjoyed the characters in this show and their childish interaction and I most certainly enjoyed their growth.

They all had dreams and it was fascinating to watch them work towards it. While facing their obstacles, each characters did shine in their own light and it was done well.

The parent's had their tale which was most certainly intriguing and how it influences the kids. I found the family dynamic heartwarming and natural since the squad were basically childhood friends lol. So the families lived close by.

As a highschool Story it did touch some aspects of teens and all. And I appreciated that. The romance was there, just the type of romance you'd expect from a highschool tale. Not over the top and I like that. There were like 3 couples and my fav were basically the 3rd. Han shuai and guo ting. I loved their bickering dynamic and how they went about their feelings. I'd love to see more of them. And the leads were adorable,no. Everyone was adorable haha. The never ending school saga was Relatable, especially since they were in their final year.

I pretty much liked this show and although it's not wow or the best in it's category, it was pretty decent and I enjoyed it. 21 EPs were ok for it and I'd be intrigued if they had more for their university arc lol.

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First Impression: Inverse Identity

Overall: I'm giving this the benefit of the doubt as the first episode was only one and a half minutes long. 9 short episodes total. First 3 will be on YouTube, the rest will be paid? on their PPeach app and might be released later on YouTube. PPeach YouTube playlist https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8QwMuXkPNuYrJwq3_Gh6rw4HxMkGaIZy&si=OQx5ByyeKA5DG8D9

Content Warnings: kidnapping/held against will, violence

What I Liked
- clear premise
- production value for what I assume is a very indie production

Room For Improvement
- the episodes are extremely short, would have preferred a 15 minute short movie
- their other "BL" short series were very light on romance which I understand as they are dealing with censorship but they could have more hints/longing looks, etc.

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Review 2

Dear Ivy,

....can we go to berry line already...can you get your butt off of bed... ?

Anyways time for my second review! We just finished our ls1b final and I finished this show while waiting for you so we can get dessert...it took me a whole year because the show was just so bad.

Thoughts: I dont rlly care for ahn hyo seop, i dont understand his hype and i dont think i ever will. at the same time though, i DISLIKE the main girl, i cant even bother to learn her name. the best things about this drama are the friendship bw the main girls and ahn hyo seop's black card ? .

omg also right before the final, like 2 min before i forgot what a missense mutation was and i RAN to the first person i knew which was gabrielle and went PLEASELETMEUSEYOURLAPTOPIREALLYNEEDIT and then i figured out what it was ? and then it was ON THE TEST!

umm what else...IVY MY MOM BANNED MY CREDIT CARD. does this mean i have to cancel omakase?? ? my world has ended.

so in conclusion, bad kdrama. watching cdrama next.
See u next time!
AK

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Pre world war era .. 1937-1945 sino Japan war time setting.

It is my first time watching something that expresses pre world war era with chinese POV ... It is always the west countries who propagate their narrative of the world war.... So in my opinion the theme was very refreshing to those who have intellect to feel it... Other than that there was one more thing that I found very impressive is the FL character ... Her potential ..her strong will ..her intelligence ... I love the way she kept her mission over everything .... She is an inspiration for thousands of girls out there who just look for a chance to give up on their already good for nothing career just to get laid ... No offense but we need more of such character to show the world what real feminism means ...
ML was amazing as ever I have seen him in a couple of shows and the characters like marshal ... Governor ..etc actually suit him him ...the authority of a strong character actually appears through him quite effortlessly ...

After reading few review I çame to understand some people found the ending quite confusing .. actually after death of general Yamamoto Japanese had to postpone the war ..which gave qin city enough time me to call for extra troops that led to their victory in the region after just a few months of struggle .. As the FL says winter has started ...we will meet when the spring bloom .." hope this helps ????

The drama in my opinion is worth watching I beleive anyone can put atleast one reason forward to appreciate the beautiful story ...

(Of course not for those who are living in a bubble and treat every love story as soft porn )

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Absolute Banger of a series. And I know bangers!

WATCH IT, WATCH IT, WATCH IT

Roller coaster of emotions dude. Like this show will have you so invested you wont even know what time it is. You will not care if you have work or school the next day you just want to keep watching but then at the same time ITS SO GOOD that you dont want to keep watching because you dont want it to end.

Like bro after every episode I go to the kitchen and get water and I'll be doing sign language on my way to the kitchen. I don't even know If that even makes sense but I'll be so hype I just be moving my hands.

Do yourself a favor and watch the show. First 2 episodes might have you confused for a bit like me but after that its really nice.

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Whats went wrong with time the series

When I started watching this series I didn't have high hopes as from the very 1st ep it was clear the actors ain't that good but I still watched it . I felt that the story had potential but was not executed properly . The worst thing about the series is the acting tbh . Most of the kissing scenes are irrelevant and looks forced . There was no chemistry btw the characters. I feel if the a big production had made this series with good actors , it would literally be a solid 7 series or maybe more .


If u wanna watch it u can def can but for me the acting spoiled the mood ..

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Potencial desperdiçado mas amei mesmo assim

Concordo com muitos comentários que vi sobre como a história poderia ter sido bem melhor, porém como me envolvi com o drama e com o casal principal estarei defendendo que é sim um drama que vale a pena ser assistido, principalmente pelos dois atores principais que são incríveis e tiveram uma química maravilhosa.
O que mais senti falta é que o foco fosse os problemas internos do casal, pois achei o vilão cansativo e desnecessário, senti que faltou ter uma conversa sobre a questão que os afastou (a perda do bebê) e mais cenas de casal íntimas (não necessariamente cenas de beijo) mas cenas de afeto que demonstrasse que um dia eles já foram casal.
Gostei tanto das personalidades trocada dos protagonistas, o clichê invertido, a CEO fria e o "pobre" sentimental, o casal do irmão bobão esforçado e a mulher trambiqueira.
A sinergia e a química deles é o ponto alto da história e o que cativa o telespectador.

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If your best friend looks like Han So-Hee you too would fall in love.

"Best Friends to Lovers" trope portrayed in a way that doesn't make you cringe. It's everything you expect and as predictable as they come.

Its a web series that knows what it is, knows what it wants to achieve and doesn't re-invent the genre. It ticks all the right boxes and does it well. Will it leave you speechless? No. Will it leave you wanting more? No. By the first few minutes you know exactly how it will playout and what character archetypes it will have.

It's as predictable as they come yet it managed to be enjoyable and charming series. What really helps this show is that its only 4 episodes long at 45min each episode. Nothing is overly played out, its straight to the point and has almost no sub plots. It truly focuses on its two protagonists and their relationship.

I recommend it to anyone looking for a quick binge or anyone waiting for a series to come out and need something to watch in the meantime.

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Horrible show unless you love to be angry all the time.

Before i give my two cents i want to say that i watched up to episode six and then skipped big chunks up to the last episode since it was just horrible to watch all those evil people.

This is one of those shows where i loose hope in Humanity.

i find the characters very unlikable even the male lead. While i think the acting wasn't to bad but ultimately it wasn't believable for me. I am very aware that there many people who love these kind of shows and i can tolerate it to a degree but not in this Drama.

I think the drama has a high production value and capable cast but the story and characters are just so bad that i would never recommend it to somebody unless you're into shows with horrible people and want your blood to be boiled.

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Slightly off-tempo romance, beautiful cinematography

There's a lot of promising material in this film, but the heart of the story is a little off-target. The director has a real flair for depicting a city and its atmosphere, in a few aesthetically pleasing but not superficial shots, as well as the emotional weight these cities hold for the characters. It's with the latter that the problem arises: they're well acted (with subtle facial expressions in their interactions) and potentially plausible, but some of the dialogues should never have gone beyond the rough draft stage. As a result, the discussions between characters are sometimes very clumsy, without really having a naturalistic aspect, where key words are repeated over and over again without really moving forward. This aspect clashes all the more with the rather fast pace of this fairly short film, awkwardly slowing down what was hitherto moving at high speed.

When we get away from this heavy-handedness, the characters take on much more meaning, as in the shorter exchanges via webcam, or when the two male leads meet for the first time and exchange introductions in each other's language. The final scene is equally beautiful, full of restrained tension.

The soundtrack is also well done. I can't wait to see her next film; despite the clumsiness of this first attempt, there's a lot to like here.

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Il y a beaucoup de matériau prometteur dans ce film, mais le cœur de l'ouvrage vise un peu à côté de la cible. La réalisatrice a une vraie belle patte pour ce qui est de dépeindre une ville et son atmosphère, en quelques plans esthétisants sans être superficiels, ainsi que le poids émotionnel que ces villes entretiennent avec les personnages. C'est avec ces derniers que le bât blesse un chouïa, ceux-ci sont bien interprétés (avec une mimique subtile dans leurs interactions) et potentiellement plausibles, mais certains des dialogues n'auraient jamais dû dépasser le stade de brouillon. Cela donne des discussions entre personnages parfois très pataudes sans vraiment avoir un aspect naturaliste où l'on répète à l'envie des mots clefs sans vraiment avancer. Cet aspect s'entrechoque d'autant plus avec le rythme plutôt rapide de ce film assez court en ralentissant assez maladroitement ce qui défilait jusque là à grande vitesse.

Quand on s'échappe de ces lourdeurs, les personnages prennent bien plus de sens, comme lors des échanges plus courts via webcam, ou bien quand les deux rôles masculins se rencontrent pour la première fois et échangent des présentations dans la langue de l'autre. La scène finale est également belle, toute en tension retenue.
La bande-son est de bonne facture également. J'ai hâte de voir son prochain film, malgré les maladresses de cette première tentative, il y a beaucoup de choses à aimer ici.

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