Hatsukoi (2022)

This show gutted me..

I find myself still thinking about this show weeks after binging it in one day..

Although this 20+ years long storyline could sound like a trope, it was beautifully executed in so many ways, that it avoided becoming a cliche..

The entire cast’s performances and chemistry of the leads were spot on, the cinematography of various parts of Japan and Iceland was breathtaking, the story was beautifully interwoven with realistic, and sometimes painful highs and lows, and the OST was a dream.

I wouldn’t change a thing.. this show will stay with you long after you watch it..
2 thumbs way, way up!

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Um Romance Maduro Bem Construído

Honestamente não gosto de histórias de primeiro amor, geralmente elas são maçantes e extremamente irritantes. Sim, eu confesso que só decidi assistir esse drama por causa do Satoh. Logo no primeiro episódio já percebi que esse J-drama não é um drama qualquer de um ator que eu gosto, não mesmo.

First Love: Hatsukoi é um drama maduro, com enredo interessante e atuações muito boas. Quanto mais você assistir mais quer saber sobre a história dos dois protagonistas, o que aconteceu com eles no passado e porque vivem dessa forma no presente. O desenvolvimento é lento, elaborado e denso, sem futilidades e muito realista.

Um ponto que me desagrada em dramas com transição de tempo entre passado e presente é que muitas vezes elas ficam confusas e a história acaba ficando chata de acompanhar. Se você é como eu, pode ficar tranquilo que aqui você não terá este problema, as passagens do tempo são muito bem apresentadas e agradáveis de assistir.

Com um romance sério, personagens bem construídos, história bem envolvente e uma produção primorosa esse drama merece muito reconhecimento.

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Memory loss and a splendid love song

This show is lovely. Two people separated due to memory loss and guilt are brought back together because of fate and a love song. We are first introduced to how they fell in love and separated then follow them falling in love all over again as adults. It makes you wonder about the what ifs with your first love. It's nostalgic as heck.

What I really liked about the show was how well it is molded around the song it is based off of, "First Love." Harumichi is a also a smoker. Yae also talks about the taste when they first kiss. Though they go their own separate paths, they learned love from each other and they'll always be the one for each other. Then the build up to her regaining her memories. You know it's gonna come and when it does, you'll tear up due to happiness. Yes, happiness, not sadness. You just know they'll find each other. That's because the show made you cheer them on from the beginning.

Honestly, I do think this show would've been better with just Yagi and Kido, the actor and actress for the young version of Harumichi and Yae. The chemistry between the 2 are so much better than Satoh and Mitsushima. Almost felt like that had more screen time as well.The personality between the younger and older are vastly different that they seem like different people to me. But I guess that's what life does people. People change but love will never do.

COWABUNGA stamp certified!

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I did not expect anything from this drama to be honest. But loved it in the end

First of all, this drama made me cry so much because the main characters had to go through something they should have never have to go through. I hated Yae's mom so much because she made the decision for her daughter. I understand she wanted what's best for her but her decision was so selfish she did not even consider what it would make her feel what she denied of her daughter once she's able to regain her memory. But the future her mom wanted for her caused her the most pain and suffering than the suffering she could have experienced if she were to gain her memories. But then again, from what I understand, Yae also did not make an effort to regain her memory. For me, she just shoved it in the closet and never to be reminded of whatever memory she has lost. It's one of the best melodramas I've watched to date. I did not go through what they went through but the pain I felt while watching this was heart wrenching. Especially the end of EP 6. I gasped and then I cried. lmao. The past and present story was just very confusing because they interchanged it very often like its the next scene lol.

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Un amor que atravesó los años, las distancias, las catástrofes

Me fue tan fácil ver este drama, se sintió como un abrazo al final del largo camino, era necesario cerrar el año con algo cálido y sin dudas supo ofrecerlo. Los saltos en el tiempo, el ida y vuelta de ese pasado fragmentado y el presente que no termina de mostrarse en su entereza, saben llevar adelante una historia compleja y conmovedora en todos los sentidos. Un romance joven y lleno de diversión fue lo que le dio el toque de frescura para nivelar la carga dramática que la historia de base tenía. Al ver que la historia se desarrollaba en varias temporalidades tuve miedo de que los personajes presentaran cambios extremos, realmente esperaba que algo así sucediera, pero me sorprendió gratamente encontrarme con dos adultos con vidas establecidas y aun así conservando la esencia que un día los hizo enamorarse. Especialmente el personaje de Harumichi, que desde pequeño tuvo que soportar ver a gente que ama padecer cosas horribles, nunca perdió la sonrisa gigante y el carisma que lo hacía ser él. Y la persistencia de Yae es el motor del drama, un personaje femenino que supo ganarse su lugar y acomodar las piezas que estaban sueltas, incluso si ella no era consciente de que así era.

Un guion precioso y justo en los detalles revelados. Es difícil contar una historia con tantos recovecos sin marear al espectador, pero acá la vuelve una aventura amena que te deja con ganas de más. El soundtrack es muy preciso y no hubo momento en el que se vuelva molesto o se sienta que está "demás" porque suenan las canciones que se necesitan para atravesar la historia. Y la fotografía es la parte más bonita. Planos delicados, íntimos y con un cuidado que destaco. A pesar de tener paisajes bellísimos, nunca abusaron de esos como suele suceder en otros dramas y, al contrario, fueron un recurso que contaron una historia paralela, un amor que atravesó los años, las distancias, las catástrofes.

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A very intriguing romance that involve mysteries about their past

Following the hot wave when it gets released, I also watched the big hit J drama series Hatsukoi. And the reasons why it is so popular are self-explanatory.

Hatsukoi is not the usual romance drama we see, but rather it takes quite an interesting twist to the genre. Every drama lovers love mysteries. Something that makes us curious about what will happen next, as we want to know the answers. So, why not combine the two together, a mix of romance and mystery? That's what makes Hatukoi so special.

Hatsukoi first starts off with a brief introduction to the two main characters, showing their recent life that is quite contradicting pictures to the occasional flashbacks of their past. While they were young, they were full of aspiration and is positive about their life. But now they are facing the brutality of life, living as the low-earning groups of society and not having a life that they can be proud of.

Most importantly, they were one of the most loving couples on earth, and now they are separate from each other as if one has not existed in their life at all. What happened in between that caused a dramatic change in their life, and relationship is what makes Hatsukoi such an intriguing series to be watched.

I love the presentation of the story, that at one scene it is showing the present time, and then the next scene will be about the past. The interchanging play of past and present events is adding a lot of perspectives and dimension to this story, explaining a little bit about the questions we keep asking about the two, while also revealing some more mystery that makes us wonder: what really happened?

The first episode is rather straightforward. Just a briefing of the background story of the main characters, showing the past of how they met and developed their relationship, while also giving us a glimpse of their present self, one being apartment security staff while the other one, being a taxi driver. The vast difference in their attitude towards life as well as their situations, is already ringing an alarm bell inside us that something definitely has happened.

But the real deal comes in the second episode of the series, when Yae's ( main female lead) son, Tsuzuru, introduced her to a friend he had met on a past occasion, and that friend was Yae's first love, Harumichi ( main male lead). It's not the two meetings each other the biggest issue here, but it's Yae's reaction when she saw Harumichi.

She did not know him. As if she never met him before. And it is obvious that she was not acting, she literally did not know him.

This scene is iconic, at least for me, because of the level of mystery that it takes the series up. How come Yae was not recognizing someone, who perhaps was one of the most important figures for her? I was completely immersed into the story at this point because I just wanted to know: what happened between the two.

That is just one occasion, but there are more scenes that are epic plot twists later on.

I think those who have watched the show like me, will agree with me that: Hatsukoi's romance is great, it is good, but the mystery surrounding it is what makes it even more beautiful. The excellent use of past and present interchanging scenes, one answering the questions raised by one and then raising another one. It really is one of the shows that you can not stop watching, and you just have to continue on it.

Hatsukoi is good at grabbing you onto the seat, for sure.

If one thing that is stopping it from reaching a 10, it will probably be how rushed and cliche the ending is. The ending, to be fair, feels a bit forced and illogical. It's a happy ending of course, but I feel like it kinda ruins the vibe and pacing being set in earlier episodes.

Overall a very solid series. Never a 10 or 9, but deserve an 8.5 in my book. If the ending is written better it could have been a 9. Genuinely a very well written, and refreshing romance drama. Good job Hatsukoi.

And yeah, First Love by Utada Hikaru is just legendary.

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A classic first love story

A story that inspired from the infamous Utada Hikaru's song "First Love", where the two main lead are each other first love who met during their high school day but seperarted because of unexpected event. They met again 20 years later where the female lead already a single mother and the male lead engaged to someone. Actually what's so painful from their seperation is the "amnesia trope" where the female lead couldn't remember the male lead at all. It's breaking my heart. Their journey to find each other again is so long, but worth waiting. For someone who love Hikaru and Takeru, I think their screentime are too short compared to their younger counterpart. But, I really enjoyed this drama. And Hikki's song really hit differents after watching this drama!!

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You can end up with mixed feelings like me!

I have mixed feelings about this drama. Honestly I cried from beginning to end, not because it's all sad but because it's a beautifully told love story, we get emotional while they were findind and missing each other over the course of their life. The comedy was subtle and the romance was breathtaking. My mixed feelings started in episode 7 and 8 where I could know and understand more of the grief over (the plot wich I won't write here). First Love reminded me that life, that sometimes can be so painful, can be much more than we can see now, that we can be happy even after living years side by side with grief. There's a song from the OST, it's called Bridges Burn by Paul Otten, I can´t remember the exact moment this song is played in the drama but now, a week since I finished the drama I can still feel everything I felt when watching the drama and I love it, I really loved this drama!

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The cliché of amnesia as plot device

The good thing for me in this drama was the music, as someone that has listened to Hikaru Utada for decades. That's where it ends.

The cinematography (landscapes, mood, light, colours) was good and I enjoyed some of the scenes purely because of it but it's not enough to recommend this drama to anyone.
The story is based on the very cliché amnesia trope, I was hoping I wouldn't have to see that plot device used again ever but here I am. Everything else is pretty much destroyed for me because of that, everything becomes absurd and ridiculous and very easily solvable but they keep hammering their heads against a wall in veeeery slow motion, because the show is quite slow (and I say this as someone that enjoys slow shows/movies when they're done with grace and purpose). This show could have been a film, would have been better.
I get they're trying to appeal to the nostalgia of that type of shows, amnesia trope was so overused in late 90s and early 00s in everything so I had my fair dose of it and got very tired.
Something that also irked me was the zero resemblance of the main character with her younger self, I could kind of see it or imagine it with him, but her younger self was just complete opposites and made no sense.
I liked more the little story they showed of the son with the dancer.

Overall I regret wasting the time watching it, but it also brought me down memory lane with the music. That being said, I still would have preferred to spend my time listening to the music alone than watching it (because it's not like they used all her music for the show either so it did get a bit repetitive in that aspect as well). So, unless you like amnesia as a plot device I can't recommend.

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Hīkari hits another homer

This was my first Asian Drama after a break of a year or so, and what a winner! I watched it for the beautiful and talented Mitsushima Hikari, and she did not disappoint. Her performance was superb, especially the complex, nuances of the relationship between her character and her character's son. The growth and healing of THAT relationship was almost the "second couple" of the story, a love story in its own right.

Of course, it was the reconnection with the eponymous First Love that made the Drama the sweet and beautiful experience that it was, and rather than try to dissect or analyse it, I will just say, "watch it - right to the VERY end', as other reviewers have noted.

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