8/10 is my rating. This is a 2017 South Korean Reality Dating/Game show. There are 14, 54-102 minute episodes.
This is a dating reality show where the participants live together for one month. They cannot reveal their age or occupation but can reveal interests and other aspects of their personality. Participants work during the day and go back to the house they are occupying together in the evenings/weekends and other times off work. There are originally six occupants but two more occupants are added through the course of the show. Each night the participants anonymously send a text to the person they found most interesting and the panel has to guess who texted whom. Panelists who guess right are given a token. They act as a 4th wall, commenting on what is going on, analyzing participants behavior and interests in each other, and competing to get the most correct guesses on who is contacting whom. Participants go on dates but are not allowed to directly confess their feelings.
Panelists
Yoon Jong-shin is a South Korean singer and song writer. He is also a record produceer and is the CEO of Mystic Story. He was born in 1969 so would have been 48 when the show aired in 2017.
Lee Sang-min is a South Korean singer, song writer, record producer and television personality. He is a former member of hip hop and dance group Roo'ra. He was born in 1973 so would have been 44 when the show aired in 2017.
Kim Eana is a South Korean song writer who wrote hit songs for some of the top singers in South Korea. She was born in 1979 so would have been 38 when the show aired in 2017.
Yang Jae-woong is a South Korean psychiatrist, motivational speaker, You Tuber and entertainer. He was born in 1982 so would have been 35 at the time this aired.
Shim So-young is a South Korean stage, drama and film actor. He was born in 1970 so would have been 47 when the show aired.
Shin Dong-hee (Shindong; Super Junior) is a South Korean rapper, singer, dancer, host, radio personality and video director. He is most widely known as a member of Super Junior and its subgroups. He was born in 1985 so would have been 32 when Heart Signal aired.
Guest panelists
Jung Jin woon (Jinwoon) was a guest panelist in episode 7. He is a South Korean Singer and Actor. He is a member of the k-pop group 2 AM but has also been in television dramas. Born in 1991 he would have been 26 during his guest appearance.
Jang Do Yeon was a guest panelist in episode 9. She is a South Korean Comedian that has appeared on some variety shows. She was born in 1985 so would have been 32 at the time of her guest appearance.
Lee Yong jin was a guest panelist in episode 8. He is a South Korean comedian and singer. He is the owner of a famous sashimi restaurant "960." Yong jin was born in 1985 so would have been 32 when this aired in 2017.
Heo Kyung Hwan was a guest panelist in episodes 9 and 12. He is a South Korean comedian born in 1981 so he would have been 36 when he appeared on the show.
Participants
Jang Cheon (age 32) lawyer
Kang Sung-wook (age 32) Musical Actor
Seo Joon-won (age 23) Race car driver
Yoon Hyeon-chan (age 32) Chef and Restaurant Owner
Bae Yoon-kyung (age 24 ) Actress
Kim Se-rin (age 24) Marketer at Cirque du Soleil
Seo Ji-hye (age 21) Student at Ewha Woman's University
Shin A-ra (age 22) First runner-up at Miss Korea
Age is at the time the film was released in 2017. Depending on when filming occurred they could have been younger. Age is calculated from year of birth and is based on US aging standard (zero when born).
Review
It is a wild emotional ride and is fun to play along with the hosts as they try to determine the signals and who will express interest in whom. I have come to realize this is really a game and the participants view it mostly as such. I have looked on some other reality dating shows and even contestants that seemed to bond during the show did not stay together for any significant time or depth after leaving the show. If your realize that this is not something most are pursuing as an actual attempt to find that one person, a lot of their actions and behavior make more sense.
*Spoilers
A fan favorite couple and mine as well were Bae Yoon-kyung and Seo Joo-won. It was clear from the way he looked at her when she first entered Signal house and how impressed he was with her abilities to design shoes. They were very compatible on their dates and seemed to enjoy many of the same things despite the fact that Yoon-kyung was a little older than Joo-won. The cracks in the match started to appear in that Joo-won was not able to read Yoon-kyung's reactions to his teasing nature. He thought she was bored when she was actually enjoying herself and totally misread when she was showing jealousy. I thought he was "push pulling" her when, in reality, he was just teasing her and thus was not capitalizing when he brought out her emotional reaction to his interest in other women in the house. He made a huge error when he was talking to the other men and he expressed that he was not sure about Yoon-kyung's interest and that he thought she might even find their times together boring. Cheon, who found Yoon-kyung beautiful and charming originally thought Joo-won and Yoon-kyung were a solid match but Joo-won's comments illustrated that there were cracks in their relationship that could be exploited.
Joo-won also made a mistake with Yoon-kyung when they were out and others asked about their relationship and he relayed back to her that he responded she was just a female participant in the house. Later, when he misunderstood her saying she did not enjoy the day she went to see him race, he actually made some cruel comments about not being sure who he was interested in and showering attention on Ji-hye. What I concluded with the Yoon-kyung and Joo-won was there was a lot of chemistry between them, and they had some things in common but their absolute failure in communicating with each other would never have lasted in the long run. You have to be a fool for love sometimes and be willing to put yourself out there and chance being rejected and neither one of them would do that. Which told me that, while they were interested in each other it wasn't enough to take any risks. So, in the end, although I was a bit disappointed, they were better off not being together.
To me the race car driver who is young, very handsome, and obviously has some money and means to afford racing, would be the obvious romantic interest but another male in the house, Jang Cheon captures the women's interest because of the stability of his job and his calm and steady behavior. He catches Yoon-kyung for a spontaneous date when he picks her up from the bus stop. Problems arise when Yoon-kyung stays after the meal and comes back to signal house with Cheon making it very obvious they spent time alone together. She misleads Joo-won into thinking it wasn't like a date and missing timing when she could have told him so that he did not hear from Cheon in the men's private discussions. So Joo-won goes on an impromptu date with Seo Ji-hye presumably to make Yoon-kung jealous. When a relationship sinks to a one up type scenario that is never an indication of a healthy situation.
Seo Ji-hye is the house member all of the men were originally interested in. She is very good at being clumsy and feigning being cute and helpless which is apparently very attractive to Korean males. However, Cheon's interest in her fades after they have a date and he sees through her act. She loved drawing all of the attention and playing innocent and cute when she is not really, and will play all the men against each other intentionally. When her and Cheon went on their date, their age gap was significant however, when she found out he had a steady and prestigious job, as a lawyer her interest renewed in him. Ji-hye mentioned that her family was facing difficulty and she would have to look for a job immediately when she graduated, making Cheon's stability a Siren call for her. Having a fairly wealthy husband would be a balm to her chaotic life, and when she mentioned she wanted to rush marriage with a past boyfriend that was a huge turn off for Cheon. During their date, he mentioned later, she was on the phone a lot and then dozed off when they were watching a movie. Which clearly showed she was not all that interested or excited by him as a person. It was a pleasant surprise that the men in the house slowly discovered that her appeal was very superficial and most of them moved on.
What made me feel Ji-hye's behavior was not innocent and that it was manipulative and fake was how she acted toward Kang Sung-wook. She several times called him exhausting to the other women and would actually grimace if he came near her. A lot of her behavior was downright mean to him and she said and did things that seemed to hurt his feelings several times. But she would do just enough to keep him on the hook which made it very infuriating. She would pull him back in any time he seemed to be paying attention to one of the other women. When he would turn his attention from her she would pull out the cute helpless act or pay him compliment to get him back in the line for her.
Both Cheon and Ji-hye redeem themselves later when he acknowledges being a bit cold and cruel to her and not taking how young she was, as a source of her behavior, into consideration. I, as a viewer, was guilty of the same thing. She actually dropped the act and started showing more genuine reactions and thus having more genuine interactions with all the house members. She quit sabotaging the other female's efforts to get the attention of the men they were interested in and acted like a good friend to a lot of them. I think her earlier behavior was a result of her being really young and thinking that was a good way to attract the men. It worked originally but backfired and she quickly dropped it to her credit.
I could see why the women found Cheon appealing. I gained a lot of respect for him when he saw through Ji-hye's act because, on other reality shows, I have seen other men completely fall for that type of behavior and pursue women that were just stringing them along. I was disappointed that Cheon's interest seemed to be very appearance driven. His initial interest was in Ji-hye because of her cute and innocent look and he only turned his interest to Yoon-kyung when she showed up to a group outting looking drop dead gorgeous in a red dress and high heels. I also thought it was not fair for him to be a kind ear for his house mates at night and used Joon-won's comment to him about his doubt of Yoon-kyung's true feelings for him as an impetus to pursue her. But, if you look at it as the game/competition it really is and not genuine love matches, then his behavior makes sense. And, a relationship, even one that is just budding, that is built on a solid foundation would not have cracked so easily.
The immediate attraction between Kang Sung-wook and the relatively new house member A-ra was a surprise as he had been, to that point, not one of the men the female house members showed a lot of interest in. They made sense as she was a Miss Korea runner up and he was a musical actor so both were used to having that type of attention and running in those circles. She would shop with him and walk his dog with him which drew them closer than either were with other house members. Sung-wook though allowed Ji-hye to pull his strings in front of A-ra often derailing their burgeoning romance. When Sung-wook is competing with one of the other males he says he is not worried because if she is that easily swayed he doesn't want her anyway. I don't think that is something to say out loud Sung-wook was always right out there with his thoughts which is something I think A-ra liked about him. He was an open book. I agree with that, as long as you have laid all your cards on the table with the person and genuinely confessed your feelings. If you have a relationship going or started with someone then if they are drawn away it means they were not that committed in the first place. I think that was going on Joon-won but he wasn't as open of a book about it. I think he thought if Yoon-kyung was that easily swayed by Cheon, then they did not have as much between them as he thought they did. And I would normally agree but the two sent such mixed signals to each other I don't think you could say they fairly knew what their relationship was. So the two were the same but showed the two different aspects of a "he/she is just not that into you" assessment.
One of the other females, Kim Se-rin, wondered aloud why men often friend zoned her and you saw it play out with the men in the house. She is a lovely person and does a lot of special activities for her house mates. Her main romantic interest is Cheon and she doesn't waver from that interest at all even getting the other men to help her woo him. She is very capable and career driven and unintentionally sends the signal to the men that she does not need them which endears her as a friend but does not set her up well as a romantic partner. It is a very western way of being. I wondered if it was her time spent abroad that made her so different that way. The date she arranged for her and Cheon was so adorable I could not believe she did not change his interest at all.
Yoon Hyeon-chan is a very late addition to the house. He is a chef who captures everyone's attention with his amazing cooking skill. The women find his profession very sexy but most already have started on a path with the men who most caught their interest and whom they have already developed a relationship with. Like the rest of the men his first interest is in Ji-hye because she was sure to help him a lot settle in to the house and acting all cute and innocent which, as mentioned before, has immediate appeal. However, it may be a trait of men over 30 but he also quickly discovers her behavior is an act and quickly loses interest. A-ra's grace and beauty immediately catches his attention and he tries to capitalize on the cracks that exist in the relationship with Sung-wook.
It was interesting to me when they did that reunion that the panel realized some of the things they said in analyzing the participants were harsh and apologized for some of their comments. Unfortunately I think, the panel in the next season may temper their comments realizing that the participants will see it all. I liked their very honest, unfiltered, comments because it was often what I as thinking.
During the reunion show it was apparent, to me that Joon-won and Yoon-kyung still had feelings for each other based on their body language and comments. They were being careful because Koon-kyung was dating Cheon but the chemistry between them was still very apparent and their comments about different events made it clear they still cared about what the other thought. I think they had a very genuine connection that was torn apart by a lot of misunderstanding and others inserting themselves at inopportune times.
Deep Spoilers******
I was really interested in what they all did after and if any of them were still in contact with each other. Several are following each other on instagram but the main "couples" are really not. I was super surprised to find out that Sung-wook went to prison on a rape charge and that Cheon initially was his lawyer but dropped out for unknown reasons. His acting career was taking off as a result of participating in the show most likely but his conviction derailed anything he had going on (rightfully so). It seemed out of character for the person we got to know in Heart Signal so I was very disappointed. I actually learned that before finishing watching the show so it made me root for A'ra with Hyeon-chan more. Ji-hye is now gaining fame as an actress which was not surprising considering how much the men liked her overall. She had that star quality. Yoon-kyung's career in acting also seemed to take off after the show. Joon-won appears to still be racing and actually married a famous actress not long after the show. One of the Super Junior members asked his ideal type and he said it was this one influencer, Aori, who he had a crush on since high school. They knew her and actually introduced them. Joon-won married her and now there are rumors of divorce. Hard to say where that all has gone. Cheon I read is a major and he is still one of the people Yoon-kyung is following on her instagram but she knows and follows a lot of people so not much can be read into that. Se-rin also follows a lot of people and it just looks like she is leading a very busy and happy life. Cheon has Sung-wook's dog while he is incarcerated it seems. If you are missing the dog you can see a lot of pictures on Cheon's instagram. It was a complete surprise that the participants saw the contents of all texts sent along with who sent them at the end of the show. It was a surprise to them as well as the panel and the viewers. It was funny and surprising but unless they mix it up I am sure it will impact how participants text on future seasons.