First Love: Hatsukoi (2022)

Hatsukoi

First of all, the song is phenomenal. I have known this song for so many years now, more specifically the Tagalog version. (First Love Repablikan)
The Tagalog version is basically about loving someone fictionally. Like anime. It's crazy because when this drama first came out on Netflix I felt goosebumps and instantly felt emotional. I guess this song has a soft spot for me.
It took me a while to watch this because I didn't want to feel sad😅. Just the title makes me emotional but I finally took the courage to watch it cuz I felt emo at that moment.
It's crazy. This drama is good!
The approach of their love story, the struggles, the life of being in their 20s and the pressure from their parents are well portrayed.
The twist…. I'm speechless.
That twist significantly impacted my decisions again in life. It's like choosing a path. Left or right. I don't know how to explain it but I cried numerous times. The romance between their youth life made me so emotional. The actor and actress, (Taisei & Rikako) definitely did an outstanding job. I like their chemistry more than the adults. Probably because being an adult is hard and going back into your youthful years seems freer.
Also, the adult main character stated that Taisei and Rikako did an excellent job portraying their characters and I agree. Every time they do flashbacks, I reminisce. I don't have experience at all with love but watching them just gives me chills.
Moreover, this drama was worth walking.
It hit on the spot.
Yae’s mom… ugh. Bat kci 🥹😭
Anyways. Goodbye.
12:22 pm
9/11/23

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Beautiful heartrending nostalgia

The pangs of first love is hard to forget...
The story is nothing new. In fact it's more cliche ridden and superbly tropey but one have to greatly appreciate how they were masterfully utilized to not only tell a tale of love but also of life.

- ACTING:
I was initially invested because of takeru satoh as I loved him as kenshin. The trailer with him giving that yearning look and hikaru utada's first love really sold me to watch this but I am simply blown away by the superb acting of the whole cast especially the younger versions of haruimichi and yae. Although they were playing each other's older and younger versions they managed to bring their own refreshing element in their acting which was brilliant.
-CINEMATOGRAPHY AND COLOR PALETTE
The director and ALSO the scriptwriter knows her shit for sure. Much of the story was elevated because of how impressive the cinematography, lighting and colors presented a beautiful backdrop on the story, the characters emotions, their journey, their trials and tribulations.
-OST
Last but not least, the ost. Since the whole story was inspired by a song it took the centre stage and accompanied the viewers as we glide with the characters in their journeys. The whole ost just stayed with me like an aftertaste. There were some English songs in there which in my opinion were unnecessary.

The CONS
-Rushed ending which I understand is because of 9 episode limit but I wanted it to be a little more. It was pleasant but convenient.
I felt there were some loose ends that were not tied properly as well, some plot holes that were not explored properly. I also wanted more angst and heartbreaking scenes between the adult haruimichi and yae as they start falling in love with each other all over again.

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first love nostalgia

This has been on my watchlist since I first saw the trailer in 2022 and love that they were inspired by Hikaru Utada's single from 1999. I've listened to the soundtrack before watching this series and it just fits the overall setting, situation, and theme so well. I thought this was so cinematically beautiful, the timeline progressed so well, the flashbacks between past and present-day yae and harumichi. Everything was so beautiful and nostaligic at the same time, my heart fluttered a LOT during the scenes in the past (the one scene at the rooftop of the school where they're both listening to the First Love record player)

In the end when Yae is listening to the CD player with Tsuzuru and her memories start flashing back...literally in tears. I had to replay that part multiple times. Can't imagine losing an entire piece of your youth storyline and forgetting about the most important person to you, starting new as if that part of your life never existed. It was a pretty chaotic ride but it was played out in the most calm and collected way possible. Such a great cinematic masterpiece and I hope to see more future films from this Yuri Kanchiku.

I'm giving this a 9.5/10 because I wish it wasn't this short and I wanted more scenes of them in the past.

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Pleasantly Surprised

I really enjoyed this beautiful love story of soul mates who fall in love as teenagers and lose track of each other into their adult years. It had me from the very first episode, very well-written and just a joy to watch the highly talented cast. When tragedy strikes, I was afraid the show would fall into a cliche plot, but it kept its dignity and sailed to a satisfactory end, despite the slow parts in the plot midway. I loved the slow burn of the first episode. There was an intimate sweetness portrayed so wonderfully by the young actors that they won me over completely.

There are a few things I would have liked fleshed out. Perhaps a tete-a-tete between mother and daughter after everything transpires. The talk on how her mother's over-proctective attitude basically changes the course of her life and affected her would have added some closure in that, at times, rocky relationship. The pace slows down a bit towards the middle but then picks up again. The ends wrap up much too nicely making her eventual healing a little implausible. I was still very pleased with this beautiful love story. I highly recommended it.

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Forceful Fateful encounters

I am always skeptical about watching a Japanese drama.......They are capable of making a perfectly fine love story into a tragic ending one or not so great love story into somehow workable piece. So i read a lot of comments before staring this and 80% of the comments are positive.....so i gave it a go.......

Let's talk about the story first....... Was it unique , NO? Was it memorable, NO? Was it worth your time, Probably yes.....
This story spans from leads highschool till all way to their late 30s. They are each other's first love, how sweet it is......But here comes the 1st cliche , Amnesia ........Damn!!!! FL conveniently just forgets her years with the ML...lol.....Later she falls in love with some other guy and marries him and they have a son together...... But she gets divorce with him for some silly reason. In every household , every in laws looks down on the other...but to get divorce over that...hmmmm....i mean, FL didn't do anything when she found out her husband is cheating on her but decided to divorce him when her mother in law insulted her mom. Ok.....This mom of FL's, she single handedly destroyed her daughters life because she wanted her daughter to lead a life different from hers. FL's misery for 20 years was because of this mom's single decision of keeping the leads away from each other....I don't know why people forget that getting rich on our own is different than marrying into a rich household. Obviously the poor will be looked down upon.

Acting by the cast: ML's younger version is the only memorable character for me.....His acting was by far superior than all the senior actors combined. Rest all did a good job, i might forget about them in a day or 2.

Casting: Cast for the ML (Harumichi) , both the actors(young and the old) looked more or less similar but not the FL. Their faces are so different , i don't know who approved them to be cast as younger and older version of Yae. No doubt both are good looking but not similar looking at all.

Cons:
1) Many viewers have pointed out many discrepancy in timeliness but i didn't note down that in particular because there were many time jumps in just 5 mins of a scene. Something else stood out for me....The actor who has played Yae's ex-husband is the same guy. There is no young and old version for him. He dates the younger version of the FL but after marriage she has magically turned into the older version, lol.....

2) I still didn't understand the motive behind Harumichi looking for Yae after 20 years in tokyo. I mean, after he found her, he flirted with her, made her fall for him, kissed her and when she confessed her feelings he left her and went abroad...i mean, why? Didn't he love her so he looked for her , so he broke up with his gf then why did he reject her ??? This is beyond me.....

3) Yae's memories came back just by listening to one song. I mean, she was just one song away from her lost memories. lol....

I feel life is short and the leads just spent 23 years in pushing and pulling. Last 3 years is totally on the ML, god knows why he rejected her....Writers attempt in showing the play of fate was little irritating. Thank god, this was just 9 episode series......

Will I watch this again, No....Will i recommend this to other, maybe....

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watched 11/24-25

when i first saw the trailer i knew i was definitely going to be tuning in tho i do not know much of hikaru utada's songs, the trailer was enough to get me hooked. fist love stories may be cliche but it's a classic and if it's done well then im sold! what made me interest to even watch was the early 2000s/late 1990s setting (tho they can absolutely be heartbreaking - looking at you 2521 and 20th century girl) and the cinematography, let alone i had never seen a drama based on a song before. on an 'overall' note, the drama does not only touch on the main first love storyline, but as well as a youthful coming of age story of two people you see growing up and how it unfolds. it's also a story about a mother who works two jobs day and night to support her family. its about teenagers having dreams and goals of their own. it's about a man and woman finding themselves years later. i loved this drama on how it would give us a certain 'piece of the puzzle' then showing the backstory leading up to the exact 'moment'. i tried veryyy hard to avoid spoilers and the way yae (FL) got into the car crash and HER GETTING AMNSESIA??? had me shocked because i know the way dramas try to work around the trope and it sometimes does not end up as good as it should have been, but let me say that if yae never regained her memories with harumichi i would be pissed off and im so glad they did not do them dirty <3 i also loved harumichis relationship with his family (especially w/ his sister)

the cinematography was breathtaking, every shot was so beautifully done - i think one of the best this year! as well as the writing, it was so inspiring sometimes. the soundtrack was great as always i think using 'first love' by hikaru utada was a perfect option for a drama based on it. rewatch value 3/5, not bad i think i see myself rewatching on a cold or rainy day when im sad or bored a year from now since its such a quick watch anyways. it really sucks how little promo there's been for the drama but i better see more people watching so it gets higher ratings and im very content this was my first japanese drama for 2022!!

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encounters and disagreements

To begin with, I should say that I cried a lot, I was extremely moved by many moments.
At first I discovered the drama because of the music and every time it played I would burst into tears. When you catch the references throughout the series it's very emotional, like the strawberry scene, when you notice the fish scene...
I believe a lot in destiny, and that was exactly the case, I identified with the story a few times, and when I realized it, it was a new reason to cry.
It hurt deep in my soul to see all the time they wasted, the dreams they gave up on realizing, hurts to know everything she could have been, what they could have been if her mother hadn't done that, and then her mother still comes with the hypocritical talk that her (the mother's) fate was terrible? Everything was her fault and hers alone (it made me very angry).
I cried really hard in the scene where she was working cleaning while watching the flight attendants pass by, living the life she dreamed of living.
To top it off, I found the ending extremely rushed, it could have shown her meeting his family, her son discovering his mother's story. I was happy that they made their dreams come true. But I found the son's romance with the dancer a bit drawn out, I understand that because of that he got a lot closer to his mother and Namiki, but I found it so boring (It seemed like they were trying to promote some career, it wasn't natural).
Namiki is the embodiment of my ideal type, and their story is the most perfect thing, all the encounters and disagreements brought them together on the same path. It was emotional to discover the moment they fell in love for the first time they teenagers were the most perfect and cute thing).

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Great Acting, Lacking in Writing

LIKES:
Colour palate, cinematography, landscapes and location settings, lighting, are all very good.
Acting: Young Harumichi (Kido Taisei), FL (Hikari Mitsushima), ML (Takaru Sato), young Yae (Rikako Yagi), were all excellent showing emotion and fitting their characters.
The concept of the story: First Love, the kind you can’t forget even as an adult and want to find again.
The sign language used was nice to see too.
Sound Track was okay, but needed more from the 90s to fit the story. The music didn’t overpower the voices of the actors and actresses. I did like the music tracks used to show Tsuzuru’s music production talent.

DISLIKES:
Production: once again no film stabilizer and it was extremely annoying and unnecessary for the camera to be shaking!

Editing: some of the sequences were out of order for showing the past when the main characters were teenagers.

Props: CDs, CD player, movie references, had wrong year if it’s supposed to match the song release. Some of the “costumes” were not the correct era.

Writing: Plot holes, cliches and a totally stupid (X-rated or should be) sex scene thrown in. KassyFan27 gives a lot of insight into the messy writing. Amnesia as a plot device, to explain Yae’s memory gaps… ridiculous or just lazy writing. Side characters that didn’t add to the story or help with character growth. Yae seemed to have character growth but not so much with Mr. Namiki.


OVERALL: I power watched it all in one night. I did like it, although it had some slow spots (pacing issues). Some stand out acting by a few people. I would recommend it if you like Melodramas or the ML & FL, but I won’t watch it again, (even though Takaru Sato looks very good in a uniform).

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100% worth watching if you enjoy romance

The male leads (both the teen and the adult) were just absolutely phenomenal in this show. The teenage girl and the adult woman FL didn't look much alike and that was honestly distracting.
Some of the camera shots looked like paintings, especially at the beginning of each episode where they'd show the title. The still shot with the title was always absolutely beautiful.
It's not comedy, but-- like life-- there were some funny parts.
It's mostly sad, with a bit of hopeful and happy. I do have to say, I didn't understand the hero's reasoning in episode 8, it make no sense to me. Nor did the heroine's choices right after. It would've been good if they'd talked to someone to spell it out for the audience.

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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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