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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A basic formula, competently executed

This was not high art, but it was an example of a tried and true formula being executed competently. It was predictable, of course, the only slight surprise for me being that someone I was convinced would show up, DIDN'T turn up at the end. But there's nothing wrong with a well-used recipe where you know what to expect.

The leads did their job well, and I was especially delighted to see Yoon So Yi again. There were a few little niggles naturally, where the level of suspension of disbelief required was risibly high, but that's the definition of makjang, so they didn't detract TOO much from what was overall a fun watch

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Family first, almost flawless

Another outstanding drama about love from Japan. Not a straightforward romcom but a love story for sure, with some really interesting things to say about what love is and what love isn't.

I gave this drama 8.5/10 because it lost its way a little toward the end. Or rather it lost its focus a little bit. The core of the drama was the relationship between the mother and daughter, and it was pretty much perfectly executed. Tender, frustrating, a little confusing, it was so believable and so warm. Sadly, toward the end of the drama far too much time and focus was given to someone with whom the mother had only interacted for one week some 20 years earlier. Not only was the duration of their connection short, there was no depth to it, and yet when this person was introduced to the story in the final quarter of the drama, they were given lines which indicated a very deep awareness of the mother's character, as if they had been very much closer than they were and for for very much longer. It was not credible that this person could know so much about the mother in such a brief and fleeting interaction as theirs is described in the drama.

Nevertheless, 8.5/10 is a very good score and it reflects that with the above exception, the drama really painted the relationships between the characters deftly with skill and a light touch. It's that light touch, that hint of subtlety, which really distinguishes J doramas from K dramas. That and the ability to tell a complete story in ten 50 minute episodes, proving that "less is more". I highly recommend this very, very satisfactory family love story.

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No better and no worse

I watched this because I was interested to see how much would change in a first sequel made 13 years after its original. The answer? Not much. Which may well be an accurate reflection of the Japanese employment environment it depicts, but does not make for riveting viewing.

There was nothing WRONG with the Drama, and it had a few interesting flashes of insight, but overall it was "same old same old", and rather forgettable because of it. I can’t think of any compelling reason for anyone to watch this unless you’re following one of the leads and want to watch their complete body of work

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A one note song

I started this for the excellent Ms Shinohara, and both she and and her character did not disappoint. There was, however, far too little growth in the supporting characters. They started as 1-dimensional caricatures, and more or less remained that way until the end. The ditzy temp was particularly hard to put up with - brain damaged rocks would experience more personal and intellectual growth than did this character. The ML also remained annoying, but at least in his case it was clear that his was supposed to be a comedic role as well as the "romantic" male lead.

In this regard, the show reminded me of Nagi No Oitoma, another workplace drama that suffered from trying to force a romance. This Drama too would, or at least could, have been better if there had been no romance at all

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This was my 33rd completed drama from mainland China. It is the 5th to score at least 9/10. It was really, really good!

Above all, it was the intelligent writing. This was a youth romcom, of which China seems determined to produce one for each of its 1.3 billion citizens. Unsurprisingly, most of them are indistinguishable forgettable clones when they are not excruciatingly awful. But when they get it right, they've REALLY get it right.

This drama respected and played by the tropes of the genre, but it did so with a gently amused and affectionate self-awareness. It had fun with the tropes, but it didn't mock them. It acknowledged the inherent silliness of the romcom tropes, but thanks to the chemistry of the leads and the gentle wit of the writing (at least as it came across in the subs I saw), this remained sweet and surprisingly insightful.

One of the obvious markers of difference for this drama is in the appearance of the female lead played by Wan Peng. Most of the cookie-cutter C dramas have interchangeable clones for their leads. At least eight out of every 10 female leads in this sort of drama looks like an ad for surgical perfection. Ms Wan on the other hand has a face which seems to have had little if any knife work, and perhaps even more remarkably she has noticeably imperfect teeth. I absolutely loved this. That she hadn't been airbrushed or surgically transformed made it easier to accept her delivery of her character, and it was a great character.

A lot of C dramas are at best patronisingly chauvinistic, and at worst misogynistic, in the way they treat the female leads – as delicate flowers who need to be protected. Often this is reflected in the excruciating dubbing that they use - some high-pitched childlike voice regardless of the actor's own voice or the appearance of the actor, the need to show the female lead is some sort of adult. This drama on the other hand showed the female lead picking the male lead up and carrying him on her shoulders. There was a whole arc in the middle of the drama celebrating the right of strong, fit, athletic women to be proud of who they are regardless of the narrowminded gossip that might be generated.

Right to the end this drama made me laugh and made me love the leads. The only reason I scored it 9/10 is because it should have been 20 episodes not 24. A little nip and tuck of the drama itself would have enhanced it. The other slight failing is not a much really a flaw just something I would have loved to have seen. I would have given the drama more points had the drama had a little bit more courage. It celebrated the strength of women who are strong physically strong athletic independent who can stand up for themselves and others. That was awesome, and I loved it. But the drama could have taken it a little bit further, could have really set itself well above the rest if it had demonstrated just a tiny bit more courage by doing something I have yet to see in this sort of drama.

There is a situation where the female lead faces a life changing challenge. Something happens that threatens her whole sense of identity and everything she's worked for. She gets through it, and the male leaders wonderfully supportive et cetera et cetera but it would have been really awesome if the lead who suffered that life changing challenge to their sense of identity in their goals and purpose in life had been the MALE lead. It's not that the male lead rescued the female lead, but she was the one that was threatened with losing everything that mattered most to and he supported her. Had the drama flipped THAT trope it would have been 9 1/2 at least.

In summary if you want to see what a romcom can be when it's done right, watch this drama!

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This was easily one of the best C dramas I have seen. I ended up scoring at 7.5 out of 10 on the strength of the amazing OTP. Their chemistry was authentic and truly enjoyable to watch. It felt like a natural relationship between two people who happened to have a roughly 15 year age difference between them. That gap never felt creepy, and it's probably because a lot of the time, they go into an unusual amount of the time for the often patriarchal C drama, the relationship was depicted as one of genuine peers. The young female leads willingness to mock her boyfriend in good humour by teasing him with ads for health products aimed at senior citizens was an example of the way the drama didn't hide from the age gap but did not make it central.

The OTP was so strong it carried me through the one significant problem I had with the drama, which is simply that it was four episodes too long. Had this been 20 instead of 24, I probably would have scored at 8.5 or 9 because especially the first 10 episodes were just outstanding. It revived my faith in the entertainment potential of C dramas and confirmed that Romcom tropes can still work with the right combination of cast writing performance and chemistry. This kitchen based romcom had all the right ingredients and blended them to perfection. It was just a touch overdone.

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Seriously Cute

I was slow to warm to this Drama at first because of the formulaic tsundere/Candy setup, but the magic of the OTP won me over. ESPECIALLY Ms Li. Being cute on demand is not easy, yet she sells it throughout the Drama, never overdoing it, and so very many times conveying the impression of an adorably cute kitten with eerily uncanny accuracy. The strength of her performance was such that her "I wanna hear it again" scenes at the very end actually bumped my score from 7.5 to 8.

I also liked the balance that was nicely encapsulated in the very last lines of the Drama. In the end, it was clear that they were a pair, a partnership, with none of the implicit chauvinism so common in this trope. Having checked Ms Li's SNS, it's very clear that she is not "Nuannann", which is why I am so impressed at how well she and the ML sold me on their characters. Another fluffy keeper from the PRC, yay!

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A Brony's dilemma - When "cute" is just CREEPY

I'm a proud Brony. I love sweet, fluffy, chocolate box romcoms. I am also a late middle-aged male with basically zero tolerance for misogyny, chauvinism and patronising patriarchal propaganda. Finding dramas that deliver the sweet fluff, without the Neanderthal nastiness is not easy. It's not impossible, as my "Evolved Male Lead" list ( https://mydramalist.com/list/LAlZ2Z21 ) shows, but it is not easy. Sadly, this drama is not one of the success stories.

I am really not a fan of the kindergarten Kismet trope, and this drama shows that troublesome trope at its worst. To celebrate a man controlling a woman and considering that he has the right to do so simply because she was his childhood crush 20 years ago is creepy not cute.

The scene which ended my ability to tolerate the OTP actually links nicely with the reason I started this drama, and illustrates the difference between the right and the wrong way to do cute. I started this drama because I really enjoyed Xing Fei in "Put Your Head on My Shoulder". That phrase is an invitation, offering closeness, comfort, affection - IF the invitee so chooses. The drama of that title did manage to deliver cute romance without creepy controlling overtones. To simply PUT a sleeping person's head on your shoulder without their knowledge or consent when they only met you two days ago and don't know you at all, as happened in this drama, is not romantic or cute. It's creepy, controlling and stalkerish.

After realising that I was simply not comfortable with the regressive setup of the OTP, I penned my hopes on the initially more promising secondary pair. Sadly, that to very quickly degenerated because of a theme which is all too common in PRC romcoms - namely, that women quite simply and literally NEED men. They are depicted as incomplete without the protective support of a man. No matter how skilled they may be in whatever field they operate in, all of their efforts are at best incomplete, and at worst utterly futile without the approval and endorsement of, and often also needing the rescue by, a male. And of course, they need to openly and cravenly acknowledge this innate inferiority.

Having just watched the truly excellent Korean drama "Run On", which featured grown-ups falling in love while behaving like grown-ups, and which celebrated all parties involved retaining their individuality, intelligence and independence, I was reminded that life is too short for bad dramas. If Life is like a box of chocolates, then my quest for chocolate box romances without poison candy goes on.

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I started this one straight after "Put Your Head on My Shoulder, which was a real gem. I then discovered that the same writer, Zhao Qian Qian, was involved with both of them AND another all-time favourite, A Love So Beautiful. Which made the leaden dullness of this one even more disappointing.

Perhaps it's because this was a remake of other material, while the others are not listed as such. The writer may have been constrained by the source material, I don't know. I do know that the source was a Thai MOVIE, while this is a 36 episode Drama. And that's a big problem right there. The material is far too thin to stretch out from a movie of under 2 hours to a Drama of something like 24 hours runtime. The contrast with PYHOMS was especially painful because that Drama was very short, just 24 40 minute episodes, and felt lively throughout. In this one, the story proper was barely starting by the time I got to episode 10, ugh!.

Also, with both ALSB and PYHOMS, the Dramas hooked me in episode one, especially the female characters. In THIS one, the female lead was uninteresting and unmotivated, the only characters that drew a reaction in the first 4 episodes were her AWFUL little sister and her only slightly less awful mother.

As a fan of romantic Dramas, I have no problem at all with clichés and tropes if they're presented through good acting and good writing. This Drama was 0 for 2 by the end of ten episodes, so I dropped it. I will be interested to see if Ms Zhao's next Drama, not listed as a remake, is a hit like her other two, or a miss like this one.

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Wristgrabs are as romantic as roadkill

The 2 leads in this had zero appeal for me, but I wanted to watch it for Lee Joo Bin, and several reviewers commented how sweet the OTP were together in the happy middle section, so I waded through 3 episodes. BUT, I simply LOATHE wristgrabs, and when the ML grabbed the FL by the wrist and dragged her in to see her BF and shatter her illusions, I knew I had to drop it. My problem with the ML right from the beginning of ep1 was his assumption of ownership, that he literally had the RIGHT to have the woman he wanted. That feeling lingered through episodes 1 and 2, and was cemented by that noxious regregessive wristgrab in ep 3. To have them end up together is to reward that Neanderthal message, and that's repugnant to me

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Paternalistic propaganda

First, an important disclaimer: I am a middle-aged male, and as a glance through my watchlist will show, I'm a hard-core Brony. I love me a good romcom. I don't mind the usual clichés and tropes if well-executed with clever writing and good acting, and can put up with a lot for the sake of credible chemistry and a sweet story. Which is why I tried hard to like this drama, because so many people raved about the beautiful chemistry. I didn't see any in the six episodes I survived.

What I saw was the sort of chauvinist propaganda that is very common in current PRC romcoms. It was clear after six episodes that the ML was deceiving and manipulating the FL because he knew best, and was doing it for her good. Barf! This toxic trope is one that I cannot stomach. It is possible to have sweet, even clichéd OTPs where the two are in fact equal. There are dramas in which the two are not equal but in which the male lead still avoids treating the female lead with condescension or manipulation. Two of my favourite examples would be Queen In Hyun's Man and Le Coup de Foudre.. Dramas like those show that it is possible to set up formulaic "cute" OTPs without paternalistic posturing. The smug assumption of superiority by every male character in this drama was just too much.

No doubt some who are fans of the drama may feel that I didn't give it a fair shot, but at my age, life is too short to waste on bad dramas. It's also too short too waste on bad on dramas that not only don't grab me quickly, but actively repel me - no matter how amazeballs some insist the OTP becomes. I gave this one a decent shot, watching 1/6 of the entire drama, but can't be bothered wading through more of its "men know best" motto.

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They saved the best till last

The first two episodes of this 4-episode Drama were REALLY tough for me to watch. I loved the FL's character and the story behind her arc, but I literally couldn't stand the ML. He was as cute and endearing do-it-yourself dentistry, and less fun to watch. The less he was in it, the more I enjoyed the show. The final episode was easily my favourite. because instead of focusing on his irritating "cute" persona, the focus shifted back to the FL's personal growth, including her growing realisation of how she felt about the ML. The ending was pretty much perfect too. Overall an interesting watch that ended up getting 7.5/10 when I was seriously considering dropping it after one episode because of the intolerable ML

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