Hatsukoi (2022)

Fateful love is the best love

a very beautiful story brought to life by amazing actors.

I rarely watch japanese dramas but watched this within 2 days.
The story felt so real and I was on the edge of my seat so many times.

Their story was very convincing eventho it was melodramatic. Some people’s lives are like that. So painful yet they get to experience true love.

There were 3 things why I didn’t rate it a 10/10 but other than that it was very beautiful, emotional and I‘d say a sad romance with a redeeming ending. But you can’t make up for lost time and that made me cry.

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A vivid portrayal of the flow and interwovenness of Time and the interdependence of fate and effort

The story was amazing, plot lines connected so well, very nice pacing, really sweet/wholesome scenes sprinkled in, and some pleasant comedic relief to top it off. And I liked every character in the story, as throughout the story you begin to slowly understand how we got to this place and what their motivations/backgrounds are.

I will 100% NEED to rewatch this sometime later. This is my 3rd J-Drama and my favorite one so far. I had tears fill my eyes during two or three scenes and that usually doesn't happen. The OST was also really good and fit the scenes well, adding to the emotional impact of them. I'm seriously blown away by how good this was. It pulled at the heartstrings so much (in a good way). This was also a drama very grounded in reality: the retrograde amnesia symptoms were accurately portrayed and there were accurate, down-to-Earth portrayals of real-life events (i.e. the pandemic, etc.), so it was something I could kind of relate to as well and/or look up the events to learn what they are.

Overall, if you enjoy stories that have beautiful use of literary/directorial elements (such as foreshadowing, imagery, cinematography), have a realistic setting, and a really sweet romance story with great acting and chemistry, then I highly recommend this drama.

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BEST Japanese romance drama

There were few hiccups so it isn’t 5 stars but this drama is the BEST Japanese romance I’ve watched. You need box of tissues, so be prepared!

*mature love story
*well written screenplay, but time to time some hiccups but easy to understand
*focused on one main CP story so easy to follow their emotions and feelings
*OST are wonderful
*entire actings were well done
*sceneries are beautiful
*length is perfect, 9 episodes

After I’ve been watching too many twisted dramas with betrayal, lies, bullies and sadness, this drama was refreshing to watch.

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Young love captured beautifully. Would have benefitted from more editing to the script.

The part of the drama that really stole my heart was the past storyline. The young ML and FL acted so naturally, and it never felt cheesy. ML actor captured the essence of his deeply kind, free-spirited, loyal character so perfectly. I cannot overemphasize how wonderful his acting was. Usually, I hate it whenever a character’s main trait is their love, but in this case, it makes sense to me. ML is such a loving character it made sense to me his life’s purpose would just to live happily with his family and the love of his life. Likewise, the FL complemented him so well. She’s a more traditional student, over prepared but has a silly streak that makes their relationship make so much sense. My heart was racing during all their scenes, and I keep on rewatching them.

The adult actors did a splendid job, but unfortunately, their storyline I felt was a little messy. I felt every scene and plot point from their youth had a purpose. However, as adults, I felt the plot points dragged on, and I didn’t feel that all of the conflicts were necessary. This stole time that I think could have gone towards their time together, or spending some more time developing the romance from their youth, which I felt we did not get to see the full depth of. I liked that through their life choices, I could feel how their was a missing part of their lives without each other. It emphasized how complete they were together during their youth, even though they were still growing. They are both romantic about life and dreamers at their core so their relationship really brought out the best in the both of them. However, I'm not a huge fan of how everything bad under the sun happened to the female lead until she met our male lead again.

In summary, the actors and the story of their youth really captured my heart. Such a sweet, heart-fluttering watch.

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Fate might be exist, after all

Why I like the drama?

- The cinematography, music, and acting are amazing!! It really drove me to feel the moods, especially Utada's voice! She never fails to deliver emotions. I cried a lot on the last two episodes.
- It's really realistic, especially with historical events that they put into the story. It creates a connection between the drama and its audience. Another thing about this aspect is that we can actually meet a lot of Harumichis in our daily life-- a man who couldn't move on from his past. I've seen people who got hurt because this kind of man and the story somehow made me able to emphasize with him (I still don't like him though, but let me explain in the dislike part).
- The young actors' chemistries are insane! I fell in love with their parts over and over again.
- The dialogues are pretty like poetry and uplifting. I get lot of moral lessons from this :)
When you're young, you imagine your future will be beautiful, that you'll make a difference. But, as time goes on, you realize your life is shitty. In fact, to be able to pay rents is a pretty amazing achievement. But, no worries, dear friends. Time will tell as long as you never give up on your dreams.

Why I dislike the drama?

- Yae's mother. How dare she hide the truth from her daughter? Because of her bad judgement, Yae and Harumichi's lives turned upside down. She said she didn't want Yae's life to be like her, but she actually threw her daughter under the bus. AND I hate her so much when Yae told her she's gonna get divorced, she didn't ever the whole story, but immediately said: "Can you just go apologize?" What the hell, Ma'am?
- Cliché trope: amnesia.
I have no idea that they would do this trope, I wanted to punch a wall because of this.
- Cheating!!! NEVER GO INTO A RELATIONSHIP WITH A MAN WITH UNFINISHED BUSINESS. Harumichi... I know you're happy to be able to meet Yae, but please, don't cheat on your girlfriend. You made her wait long enough, and when she pushed to the next stage, you told her she's not the one for you. Goddamnit. You just wasted her precious times X__X

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Slow, quiet show that makes you think about "fate"

Though I had a couple of problems with this drama (not going to spoil anything, but some of their behaviors/decisions as adults were highly questionable), it was a beautiful watch. I would suggest watching it in a dark room, because the filming is kind of dark. Lovely cinematography. If you are patient and enjoy watching something for the sake of watching, this is right up your alley. Often, it seemed to me, there wasn't much going on, and being the hopeless romantic that I am, I ached for all their years apart.

The acting by the main characters was top-notch. Satoh Takeru had the perfect look for this drama. His face has hard edges that really fit right into this show. I have to say that the actors that played the teens were excellent. I actually felt more invested in them, because we saw more of them than the adults. When the teenage male writes to the female for a time capsule, oh my gosh, it was so beautiful - the way it was filmed, our look into when he first saw her, her reaction to reading his thoughts...all the feels.

The music was beautiful as well.

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A Fairytale Story

It's a very cute story about two people that really love each other. With some romantic soap opera elements... there for, a fairytale at the end. But they made it cute, so I recommend it ^_^
The song is one I used to hear a lot when Hikaru Utada released it, so for me the experience, had a plus.

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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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