The wait is over, K-drama junkies – The second season of “Love Alarm” (좋아하면 울리는) is set to premier on Netflix this week!
The first season of Netflix’s “Love Alarm” ended on a cliffhanger, with Kim Jo-jo (played by Kim So-hyun) having to choose between Hwang Sun-oh (Song Kang) or Lee Hye-yeong (Jung Ga-ram). Apart from that, viewers were also introduced to an updated version of the Love Alarm app, duly dubbed as the Love Alarm 2.0.
Team Hype recently had the opportunity to join the online press conference for the six-episode drama, with So-hyun, Song Kang and also director Kim Jin-u in attendance. However, another lead actor Ga Ram wasn’t present during the session, as he’s currently serving in the military.
To get you all fans dosed up, here are 7 fun facts about the romance series that we took from the event and our interview with the main stars.
1. The sequel takes place 4 years following the introduction of the newly updated Love Alarm app
“Love Alarm” season 2 starts off 4 years after the app gained an updated feature that provides the user on the people attracted to them and vice versa. Not only that, the upcoming drama also features the main characters as young adults after graduating from high school.
In talking about what differentiates her character from both seasons, So-hyun said, “Jo-jo becomes more matured (during the 2nd season). The time spent with Hye-yeong has given her comfort, and she gradually becomes a stronger person. However, the restraint of not being able to ring Love Alarm has caused her great suffering and pain. Seeing things from her psychological perspective really helps in understanding her relationships with Hye Young and Sun-oh.”
Song Kang chimed in by saying, “It would not be an exaggeration to say that Sun-oh from season 1 is different from the one in season 2. Director Kim Jin-u wanted to show a more mature character, so I toned down his playful ways. Being a playful person myself, that was hard in the beginning, but after a while, I was so into the character that I didn’t feel like being silly.”
He further added, “I spent a lot of time and effort studying Sun-oh from Season 1 so that he transitions convincingly into a more mature character. Viewers can definitely look forward to seeing a more sophisticated Sun-oh, shedding off his previous childlike manners.”
2. Grab your tissues! Song Kang will be crying a lot this season
“The conflicts in the first season evolved, so I have to overcome those challenges. That’s why I found myself in tears. I love my character Sun-oh very much, so I re-watched Season 1. And as I was trying to act the scenes where I had to cry, I naturally became Sun-oh. So, that’s why I shed a lot of tears.” the “Sweet Home” star was quoted as saying.
Since Sun-oh had to deal with heartbreaking experiences throughout the seasons, what kind of advice does Song Kang has to offer to his character? The rising star said, “(To Sun-oh), I think I shed more tears than I usually did in my entire life while I was portraying your role. Please know that I’m always by your side.”
3. People often get confused by the title “Love Alarm”
According to Song Kang, “I remember us having a good laugh over people possibly being confused over the title. The title in Korean is “좋알람” (“Love Alarm”), but people mistook it for “좋알림”, which means “Love Alert”.
4. The cast members would carry out pranks to make the other break character
“We’re very close. Back in season 1, both the characters Sun-oh and Hye-young have a lot of memorable lines. For instance, ‘Give me your hands so that I can hold it’ and so forth. They would joke around trying to speak each other’s lines so that they would poke fun at the other person,” shared the “The Tale Of Nokdu” starlet.
She continued, “This came especially when we were filming very serious scenes; another person would go in front of them and hide behind the cameras and make a funny face to make them laugh. As we often joked around, we had a lot of fun filming on the set.”
5. The new director took awhile to fit in
Interestingly enough, the drama is helmed by a brand new director, Kim Jin-u, replacing Lee Na-jeong who directed the first season. He is known for directing several hit K-dramas including “Good Doctor”, “Healer”, “Queen of Mystery” and also “Suits”.
In sharing his experience working with the talented cast members, Jin-u dished that he felt very nervous and anxious on set. He also revealed that he considered himself as a newcomer among the cast and crew, who have known each other back during the first season. “It was very nerve-wrecking, because I didn’t want to ruin the extraordinary energy between the actors who had already portrayed strong chemistry on-screen,” he shared.
6. Expect to see more mature romance
When asked about what fans can expect for the sequel, Jin-u responded, “The goal of season 2 was to tell the stories we couldn’t in season 1. You can expect a more mature romance. That would be the highlight of this season.”
With the updated version of the app now being able to track down potential love lives, the story will also showcase on how the characters come up with their choices in life. According to him, “I wanted to portray how and what kind of decisions these characters will make. I wanted to portray the process while being as loyal as possible to each character’s personality.”
Song Kang also added, “Season 1 was all about teenage love, whereas season 2 is about more mature romantic relationships. Since the romance occurs through an app, keeping that perspective centred can help the viewers enjoy the show more. There is much fun and healing in the new season, so I hope the viewers will be able to come back and watch it.”
7. Song Kang on being referred to as the “Son of Netflix”
For those who don’t know, “Love Alarm” is the first Netflix original project – out of of a total of three series – with Song Kang as the lead actor. Many of you have seen him playing the introverted Hyun-soo in “Sweet Home“. Not only that, his upcoming drama “Navillera” is also set to premiere on the streaming site this month!
Back in his home country of South Korea, it turns out that Song Kang has gained the nickname “Son of Netflix”. This is because he has always been involved in back-to-back projects with the popular streaming platform. The actor himself gave a humble response to the reference. He said, “I’m very, very grateful for that. Hearing that makes me even more motivated to work harder.”
8. If the cast could change one feature on the app
“Based on season 1, and speaking from the perspective of my favourite character which is Sun-oh, it was sad to see him end things with Jo-jo. I’m sure that he felt very frustrated. So I think it would’ve been very helpful for Sun-Oh if the alarm had a feature that tells him how he could win her heart back,” said Song Kang.
Whereas for So-hyun, she would like for the app to widen the radius from 10m to 30m. She explained, “In my opinion, 10m is too close! If the alarm rings in a 10m vicinity, you suddenly find yourself in an awkward situation and this could be very distracting. I would like to extend it to 30m so I could just have a sense that somebody’s here and have feelings for me.”
9. Will the cast consider using the app in real life?
According to So-hyun, it would be great if there is an application that could assist in finding out about our feelings. To our surprise, she doesn’t feel the need to use the app in real life. She clarified, “As we can see in the trailer, the choices that we made (thanks to the app) could in turn hurt other people. So that’s why I don’t think I will download it.”
Likewise, Song Kang said, “I also don’t think I will download the app, though I think it’s easier to use it freely because we don’t need to express our feelings directly to the person. But to me, it would be more sincere if we tell the person how we feel face to face.”
10. Will season 2 have a proper ending? Or will it end on another cliffhanger?
During the session, we also managed to ask the actors on what fans can expect for the series’ finale. “I don’t know,” Song Kang simply told us, and wouldn’t elaborate.
P/s: There probably won’t be a season 3.
Bonus:
11. Ki Do Hoon (기도훈) appearing on this season as Brian Chun.
Actor #KiDoHun is confirmed to be part of #LoveAlarm2 cast as Brian Chun, who developed the Love Alarm app and is currently the CTO of its developer company.
Season 2 will be available on Netflix this March 12 https://t.co/ZN8V3t3oFm #KoreanUpdates RZ pic.twitter.com/zj2CT5Ua9f
— KoreanUpdates! (@KoreanUpdates) March 3, 2021
For those interested, watch the full trailer here:
Mark your calendars, “Love Alarm” season 2 will be available on Netflix starting this Friday (12th March)!
Images by Netflix.
