Hatsukoi (2022)

The first j-drama that gets a 10

What a beautiful romantic drama. Great music, lovely story, very visually appealing cinematography.
The star was of course the young protagonist ??. He brought the story alive with his youthful grin, mischief, and love at first sight. This drama totally blew me away only because of his happy chirpy face!,
Every other performer was also wonderful.
Also great to see a happy family after a long time. Most Asian dramas have their stars from orphanages or have nagging mothers who want them to get married or rich parents who are mean to their kids. This was soooooo refreshing to see kind loving parents.

Great job here, the full team!! Nicely done ????

Citeste mai mult

The Perfect Japanese Love Story

In three words: Do Not Miss. You Won't Regret. No plot spoilers: rest assured you may well be mesmerised by the impact of this masterpiece. Beautifully arranged with parallel timelines, necessary realism (sex scenes) in a few places, gentle emotive score and soundtrack, and 'less is more' editing, direction and acting across every aspect of this film. Allow yourself to be swept up across the storyline, and prepare to give your heart to the young lovers and their older counterparts. The thinking person's sex symbol, Mister Micro Expressions himself, Takeru Satoh, delivers a compelling role of profound masculine sensitivity and restrained passion that will define acting craftsmanship for years to come. Do real men cry? Yes, they do. If you are not familiar with Takeru and his body of acting work, do yourself a favour. Viewers may well hold their breath until most of the way into the last hour.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said: 'Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.' The same applies to this emotional masterpiece. It is the perfect length, story, acting and direction that will in time, define modern Japanese drama. You Will Love.

Personally, very few shows or films deserve near perfect ratings. This one kept your reviewer wondering until the very last 20 minutes, and provides deep thought for the remainder of the day.

All of us live with the question of 'what if...?" and this series explores what we do when the heart and mind open together.
Feel free to explore my other reviews to discover more exceptional Asian dramas. Thank you. ~Fumiyawagi

Citeste mai mult

Hikaru Utada's sensational songs gave us a gem

I will refer to Harumichi as Haru in this review. When I started watching this show I was in the mindset that they would give us a bittersweet ending. Infact if the story ended at episode 8 I wouldn't mind. It was bittersweet but felt much more realistic than the real ending. I loved the acting of the main leads and their younger selves in this show. Haru is a character who is a delinquent during his high school years. However he changes after his encounter with Yae. Both of them are each other's first love. They sprinkled the sweet and tender moments between them throughout the show. But then the tragedy strikes. Yae gets into an accident and loses her memories of few years especially the ones she spent with Haru. Yae's mother who keeps her daughter away from Haru (and justifiably so) results in their seperation. Yae gets married to a doctor and gets pregnant with a son, Tsuzuru. One of the things I really loved about the show is Haru's bond with his deaf sister Yu. Knowing Japan and it's obsession to incest I was surprised to see such a beautiful sibling relationship. But I guess it's much more prevalent in anime. Also speaking of Yu I loved her and Haru's best friend Bonji's short love story. The way he freaking proposed to Yu was really adorable. It was such a heartwarming moment. I also liked that they showed how Haru tried to get over Yae with Tsunemi, although it didn't work. I liked they dedicated an episode to her and how she met Haru. It was also nice to see that they didn't just put her there for a plot point. Tsunemi is nyctophobic and that made her a much deeper character. Haru's development from a delinquent to a man who will protect the country was wonderful to see. There are things that I did not like in the show. I didn't care about Tsuzuru's love story. That's not to say he himself was a bad character. But his love interest didn't feel anything special. I didn't care for their resolution. While I love episode 9 because it shows us the start of the main relationship of the show I can't help but wonder episode 8 was a better ending. Although episode 9 ties up all the loose ends of the show. It's nice to see a happy ending in a show full of heartbreaks. I am thankful to this show for introducing me to a wonderful song.

Citeste mai mult

LIFE IS FULL OF SPECIAL AND MEANINGFUL ENCOUNTERS !!!

It just left me speechless !!! I want to try to pour all my love for this show but I'm short of words ??

This story had been told manytimes ,it's not something new but the beauty lies in the execution of this drama . screenplay ,performances ,music and notably cinematography were ideal and perfect !

I was witnessing the story that was happening infront of me for real .


NOTE: It is very simple ,ordinary and so real but that's life . some might find it repetitive and boring but for me it's one of those well made dramas which make you cry ,smile and root for the people in it . I repeat it's so perfect in every sense


I want to pour my love and can write like essays about it but right now I'm just numb and still tearing up ? cuz i just finished this

I don't know it make sense or not but I wanted to kill the FL's mother for real ??? .She literally spoiled her daughter's life with her own hands .Though she did that with good deed but yeah .
I better stop it here ..... I just love love love the leads ? :(

Citeste mai mult

I watched this drama simply because it's inspired by Utada Hikaru's First Love. I love that song. I was hoping for a more melodramatic story with a happy ending, but I didn't get what I expected. The first two episodes show promise, but anything after that feels slow. The drama alternates between now and the past. The side character story is not interesting and boring to me. Sadly the drama fell flat for me. I guess I was expecting a more rollercoaster ride of emotion for this drama, but it failed to bring out any emotion (except for bore.. is that even an emotion? :)). I couldn't even connect the Utada Hikaru song with the two main characters, which is such a disappointment. But this is just my personal opinion.

Citeste mai mult

The Song - First Love - by Utada Hikaru Got Me!

I was drawn to this drama because of the song "First Love" by Utada Hikaru -- SO MANY MEMORIES...

I decided to watch this drama because of the song which I heard when the trailer flashed.

I would say that I actually kind of like this drama but it is a little too slow-moving for me... I think it could be one of those "healing" types of dramas (yet again). The acting is pretty good. I think the young version of the FL is very attractive. She has an X-factor of sorts but the young version of the ML seems a bit too dorky and he smokes too much for my liking. I have dropped this for now but, I may pick it up again. :) As it's just 9 episodes long, I think that I can, perhaps, find time for it? I'm not sure... I do prefer dramas with more of a Fun Element and more of a Dramatic Element though. :)

The OST for this drama should be good though. Going to listen to First Love by Utada Hikaru again and reminisce.

Citeste mai mult