First Love: Hatsukoi (2022)

Honestly.... a mixed bag.

I loved how Hatsukoi's trailer promised a modern touch despite all the old-school (read: classic) tropes. Never thought, the one characteristic of this drama that I looked forward to the most, would turn out to be so polarizing for me. The quiet and mellow narrative quality struck out to me as akin to an indie-movie. Which isn't problematic per se, but I would have still preferred my 'big moments' to be delivered as punchy and gut-wrenching. Dialing down the dramatic tension did disservice to what should have felt cathartic. It's certainly not how dramas would choose to deliver them.

Which brings me to my next point. I find the down-to-earth tones of a good slice-of-life j-dorama particularly endearing. However, for a 'fated' love story such as Hatsukoi, I question whether inundating the viewers with the mundanity, humdrum and the hardships of Yae's daily life was really the correct decision. The background noise from the never-ending series of details keeps us from fully realizing that the biggest tragedy in her life was indeed forgetting Harumichi (aka her first love).
Yes, her life is sh*tty, we get it. The writers didn't have to make it the 'bigger story to tell', is all I'm saying.

As for Harumichi, I was somehow hoping his defense background would have a part to play in how miserable and difficult his life has been too. But aside from a brief mention of a back-injury he received on the line-of-duty, and the Sendai Earthquake which doesn't play out exactly how you'd imagine in an angsty love-story... his character arc feels inconclusive because of details and events which add up to nothing. Again, I wish the writer did not undersell the 'real tragedy' of his first love being forgotten. And that his character background was realized to a fuller potential.

The movie-like treatment isn't entirely all negative though. Hatsukoi's strengths lie mainly in its cinematic narrative structure and I quickly ended up being a fan of its non-chronological storytelling. It lends a modern flair to melodrama-stories of the past with lengthy flashback arcs. The camera-language is beyond beautiful and the snowy Hokkaido landscapes were absolutely dream-like! The hardware department of the production has aced it, and viewers can clearly see where the money went! I enjoyed the performance of the younger actors, who were downright adorable (and sold the story more than the senior actors imo). The writer also cleverly sprinkles red-herrings throughout the early episodes, which kept me guessing from 'are Harumichi & Yae dating in the present or just heading their separate ways?' to 'is Tsuzuru Harumichi's son, and if so, how?' Made for an engaging watch, despite the obvious story flaws.
Bonus: the theme song (First Love by Utada Hikaru) isn't played to death, thankfully! :D


In conclusion, Hatsukoi is a good one-time watch, and even more so, if you aren't exactly a fan of old-school dramas. From a technical point-of-view, the drama appears super polished. My extremely biased POV is only a result of over-expectation, and anticipating the drama for TWO years.
However, it is my advice to ardent fans of the classics... you would miss those emotionally hard-hitting moments and the grandeur of larger-than-life love stories. Stick to Winter Sonata instead, if you wish to ugly-cry!

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Emotional and beautiful

This was a story with so many emotional ups and downs, I kept crying and smiling at the same time. It was so heartening to see the leads as teenagers falling in love and looking super sweet together. While it was equally heartbreaking to see them separate due to circumstances, their encounter as grown ups was so cute at the laundromat when the ML sees her sleeping and keeps staring at her mesmerised and smiling! I loved all four actors, the ones that played the young leads and the ones that played grown up leads, but I’m slightly partial to the grown up ML Satoh Takeru since I like him a lot. This Japanese drama had very little of the surprised expressions that I find quite irritating about most Japanese dramas and the story didn’t look abrupt. On the contrary, it was a well thought out story with a blessed happy ending, my only regret is that we didn’t get to see the happy life of the leads together in the end, other than the one last scene in the aircraft.

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Each memory has a soundtrack of its own. It takes 1 song to bring back 1000 of memories.

First love hatsukoi is a poem that you can read over and over again but still won't get bored. A love story full of heart breaks, mistakes and tragic turns.

I watched it in the past and now I came here again after rewatching this, made me realise that how many times I watch this, I'll cry the same. This story makes you feel nostalgic, happy and sad all at once.

Actors did their job very well. Music is good. Overall quite overwhelming. Cinematography was beautiful. Found a extremely delicious looking dish Napolitan, I have to make that for sure!

P.S.- Don't forget to bring tissues. You'll need that.

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To be honest, I really like this drama but I have mixed feelings about it as a whole. But let me just say it's really a simple cliché love story with a few twists in this.

Things I've enjoyed from this drama:
- The cinematography of this whole drama, the color grading of each scene was just *chefs kiss*; it was so good I honestly loved it.
- The casts! Especially both the younger and older version of Yae and Harumichi. These four did a good job in portraying the main leads of the story. The cast of the younger version really did a good job portraying such a cute and innocent love. While the actress and actor of the older version, they are veterans in the J-ent industry and I really enjoyed how they brought the characters to life. Takeru with his micro-expression was so spot on and his yearning for Yae. While Hikari did a very good performance as Yae, I loved her acting especially during the last few episodes where it fleshed out her character's early married life.
- As a huge Utada Hikaru fan, I seriously love hearing her music throughout the series.
- There is a sense of nostalgia going through the series, and just reminds you of the good old days too. It hit me when I saw some old items I've used in the past and hearing the song Automatic.
- The way they presented the younger main lead's relationship. It really gives you the feeling of how sweet, innocent and pure first love felt. Honestly have enjoyed this part much more than the main lead's present storyline.

Cons:
- It is one of the few things I wished they got rid from the series. But it is an explicit 18+ scene on the earlier part of episode 5. There are a few nudity in this, so if you're uncomfortable with this... this might turn you off. Honestly the drama is really about the yearning and innocent feeling of first love, and I felt like this kind of scene was just out of place and not needed in this series.
- The ML's action during the present time. I was not happy with him cheating on his fiancée when he reunited with FL. For me I just wished he cut off his relationship first before making a move towards the FL. Also I felt so bad for his fiancée through this series, she tried so hard to salvage the relationship and she didn't deserved how things have ended between them both.
- The amnesia and 'villain parent' troupe being used in this series. These troupe just felt over-used for me. Honestly after the amnesia part started, I felt like I didn't much enjoy the following episodes so much. But that's just me.
- The FL's mother, honestly I seriously dislike her so much. If it weren't for her, the main lead's relationship might not have gotten worst.
- I felt the flashbacks and change to present timeline wasn't executed well in the drama. The change is just so abrupt, suddenly you would be confuse on what is happening. I wished that they mentioned what year the scene was supposed to be in.

Overall:
I think it's still a good drama despite it being cliché, the flaws and several frustrations. It did made me cry especially near the end. As mentioned I do like this drama and I can see a lot of people as well have enjoyed it. I don't think it's a series for me to re-watch, experiencing this one time is good enough. If you're hesitating to watch, just give this series a try and maybe you'll enjoy it as well.

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A story of first love and of one true love, suppose we could find plenty of such kinds of stories being written throughout the years. As much as everyone would've at least experienced love at least once in their lives, what are the odds that your first love would be the true fated love for you? Chances are that the odds of that coming true could be one in a million or may be more. But what it such a miracle could happen to you?

First Love: Hatsukoi was such a love story yet it wasn't quite a full fairy tale love story. Unlike love stories in faity tales our main pair didn't quite get their happy ends so easily. Through a fated encounter, their lives started to change. And as they strive to reach out achieve their dreams, they encountered many obstacles along the way as their lives took a detour into different directions before crossing paths again in order to reach the end.

As much as this drama was a love story, it can also be considered a coming of age series. At first Namiki Harumichi's life didn't seem to have any specific direction, but after meeting Noguchi Yae he started to have a dream to which he aimed to achieve with everything he's got. You can't help noticing how Harumichi and Yae start to shine as they strove to achieve their dream. Yet due to an unexpected accident, both of their lives took a different turn. The two parted way afterwards and that seemed to be the end of that relationship, but what if fates decides to give them a second chance? This drama basically try to explore that possibility.

The drama had a very beautiful and cinematic visuals and it also had a unique storytelling where past and present intertwined to tell us the story of what shaped the lives of both Harumichi and Yae. And because of that, it made this story pretty refreshing despite the recurring theme of first love as well as amnesia as a plot twist.

One would argue that the story could've been better if Harumichi and Yae's circumstances were switched but I'm glad that it wasn't. Since the plot would've been a bit too similar to Winter Sonata and I wouldn't have liked that.

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From the first episode, I knew this drama would be special. I love how the narrative is done with the future and the past as well as the scenery in all the scenes. It truly makes you feel as though you are there with these characters in Japan. It is relatively short, but even with the short series length, you get completely attached to the story. straight from the first episode

The soundtrack in this drama is easily one of the best I have seen before in dramas, the different sounds and how they fit so perfectly in specific narrative moments is done perfectly and makes the show that much more enjoyable. It gave me a bit of an anime type of feel, specifically Naruto with how recognizable the sounds felt while watching the series. Even later on in the series, while I have already heard the OST, it was still as gut wrenching as the first time hearing it.

In the second episode, there was a line Yae said when she was watching Titanic “ Why am I crying so much when I know it’s going to sink “, and this line holds such a true meaning in regards to life. We often know what is bound to happen, but we still can not help but feel emotions in the moment. We think for some reason things will change, but when they don't, we feel abandoned and destroyed. The thing that differs humans from any other animal is our ability to think rationally as well as emotionally and this is our biggest blessing and curse as a species as it leaves so much up to rationale.

I loved the little plot regarding sign language with Yae and the sister especially later on in the series when they first met after all those years in the hospital and Yae was surprised as to how she could fully understand and do sign language herself. The muscle memory for some things such as language truly never leaves you. This made the scene that much more memorable and combined with the ambience and music in the background, it was done perfectly. The simple love story between Yu and Bonji as well was very well done and made the characters flow better. In narratives sometimes when side characters get more of a story attached to them, it makes the main story and main characters narratives even more interesting and more in depth which was a great touch.

This series had a lot of promise from the first couple episodes but could not hold my attention in the slightest. The tropes kept on getting more and more predictable as well as the characters were not acting like humans. In dramas, it is expected that we will receive stereotypical moments, but the characters were not acting like themselves, and there was too many situations that just happened for a narrative purpose and was not in the slightest ever actually realistic.

For example when Yae magically remembered sign language and never pressed on why or how she would have known this randomly. Also the conversation she had with Yu, I find it incredibly hard to believe a grown adult woman can be so stupid as to not want some sort of answers. The show became way too unbearable with all the corny moments coupled with unrealism. We are also not given a good explanation on Tsunemi and and the reasons that the Harumichi chose to do what he did.

This drama is a massive let down and I would only recommend it if you would like to waste 9 hours of your day.

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The Best Love story Ever told

I watched this base on a review on this site and I have to say it was a beautiful story. It was well written and kept you engaged the whole time. I watched all 9 episodes in 1 day on Netflix. The story gives you the past and the future of both main leads. It starts off in their high school years and goes thru their adult hood all the way to the present. All the characters in this story are intertwined with each other. The story is about a bad ass kid that falls in love at first sight with the girl on the train. In order to get into the same high school as the girl the boy changes his life style from being a delinquent to a young man that is studious. This is the first love for both characters. You get to see on the realistic side of things on how they fall in love with each other, how they bring out the best in each other, and how they deal with separation and find each other again in their adulthood.

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The fact that I love Hikaru Utada’s music is no secret. So when I heard of this show that was inspired by two of her songs, released 20 years apart, I knew I had to watch it. Sadly, I wasn’t really in the mood for a story like this when it came out, so I decided to save it for when I felt better, and I’m glad I did.

I don’t think I could’ve appreciated First Love for what it is if I wasn’t in the right mindset. On the surface, it appears to be a pretty typical boy-meets-girl tale about two high school sweethearts whose romance comes to a screeching halt before they rekindle it 20 years later. But what really sets it apart from similar shows and films is the way it’s told. First Love’s nine episodes are straight killer, no filler, which helps a lot with its pacing. Even though this is a slow burn, it never gets boring or uninteresting, and the non-chronological order of the story that’s being told here is a big help.

I won’t go into detail about the plot since you’re better off discovering things on your own, but I’m so glad this is a series rather than a movie. It’s crucial for these characters to have a lot of depth because the plot spans 20 years and the female lead has amnesia. This is made possible by the runtime, and while a love story like that certainly works in film (see The Notebook for example), I think it works better here. I’m also really glad they used the Hikaru Utada songs this show is based on really sparingly and didn’t force them into every touching scene. This makes the moments when the songs do show up feel even more special.

There’s just so much to love here. For starters, all the actors are excellent, but the young ones are particularly fantastic. And not just the young actors who portray the leads throughout their early days, but also the B-plot actors, which involve an extrovert dancer and an introvert producer who makes Nujabes-type beats. It also looks fantastic, with some of the best cinematography of any 2022 show I’ve seen, and the gorgeous score by Taisei Iwasaki really puts the finishing touches on the cozy vibe this show exudes. I would almost call it flawless.

Sadly, there are a couple of things that keep me from giving this a perfect score. The first thing is my age old complaint about characters not talking about their feelings. I get that they’re struggling with them, but talking about their feelings would be way more helpful than walking away from them. While I understand that this is a story about fate, I found some of the revelations in the last episode a bit far-fetched and some of the fateful encounters throughout the show a little difficult to believe.

Luckily, those things are no reason to skip the show. This is an impeccable watch and definitely one of the top 10 shows of last year. I can already see this becoming one of my comfort watches that I watch every few years.

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You won't like this if you are not into cliche plots

To be honest, I was quite disappointed with this as my friend strongly recommended me to watch this. But what I got was a very cliche plot. FL got into an accident, conveniently got amnesia and forgot all the memories with her first love seriously??? It does not help that the FL mother was being such an ass and prevented the ML from contacting her? Like there's really no reason for her to do that. Also, I feel really bad for the ML fiancee, like she's just there in the show to be a substitute and nothing else. And also, the FL son giving me stalker fan vibe with the celebrity crush tbh, idk maybe its the acting.

But I still gave the story a solid 6.5 as the chemistry behind the main couple is on fire and the nostalgia was done pretty well and not overdone. Satoh Takeru is fine af, The really good acting between the the main leads were probably the reason why I continued watching. Music fits the nostalgia vibes but I wasn't very into it. Personal preference.

But as I was typing this review, I thought that maybe the big cliche was intentional as it wants to fit the nostalgic genre. Probably but who knows. Overall, it was a nice watch but I wouldn't watch it again. But the ending was great though.

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Fateful Love

It is in every shape and form, stunning. The drama made me feel like I was flying through space, destined to unite with someone written in my fate.

The nine episode short package is impactful. You don’t need more. It’s effective and heartwarming. The plot, like the title, revolves around the premise of a fateful first love. Though, drama has its own natural way of narrating the perfect love story. The poetic dialogues and scenic beauty of each frame captured me.

The direction is fantastic, melancholic like a warm sip of coffee on a freezing day. To be honest, I’d say the plot is very common but the execution is so raw and full of expression that it seems like an untold story of two fateful lovers.

The drama doesn’t fail to touch upon some real issues in our society: poverty, sexism, broken marriage, struggles of a parent and struggles of a single mother. The list can go on and on.

The actors were exceptional. Takeru Satoh is my fave but both leads were flawless. I binge watched this and cried a couple of times. I really recommend watching this drama to everyone. Even if you’re not into romance, please give it a go. It will leave you overwhelmed with joy, heartbreak and warmth.

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