Series Opinion Piece: My First First Love - A coming of age tale more than the romantic title suggests

Warning - May contain spoilers for both Season 1 & 2 of My First First Love on Netflix. If you haven't seen or finished the series yet, you may want to do that before reading this piece.

The last thing I finished watching was My First First Love on Netflix. I was drawn to it not only for it's pretty and lighthearted looking aesthetic, but also because I saw Ji Soo as the leading man. I've been a fan of Ji Soo ever since I saw him as the second lead in Strong Woman Do Bong-Soon - He has real lead potential with his pretty face, deep voice and ability to play both the warm caring guy and the colder, Tsundere roles. Hearing that My First First Love was his first leading role piqued my interest big time.

Chaeyeon, his love interest, also looked super cute and I'm always interested to watching new rising stars. She's quite pretty and I believe she's from a K-pop group (I'm not so familiar with K-pop, so sorry about not providing a name!), but her acting was pretty good, so I can see her getting getting more roles in the future.

I really liked the series and it was sweet and enjoyable from start to finish. The settings were so pretty and everything was bright, pastel and sunlit. From the dream sequence kisses...

To the lovely shops and school grounds that the characters visit. South Korea, as a whole is pretty aesthetic, but this drama features a lovely compilation of pleasing aesthetics.

Even on gray rainy days, the settings were felt nostalgic or warm. It was very visually appealing for a drama and really brought that light, hopeful feeling on screen.

I did come into this drama thinking that it would follow the typical friends-into-lovers formula and in a way it did - there were moments of tenderness which blurred the lines between friendship and lovers, the pining for each other at different times and slight jealousy when a new person came into the picture. But I found the series to fall under a coming-of-age genre more than a typical love story due to it's focus on several characters, rather than just the main pair. Like many Korean dramas, the series explored themes of wealth inequality, dreams, independence from parents and finding one's own path against social expectations. But unlike most drama series, these themes were spread across and given to a lot of the side characters so that there was more of an equal weighting between the roles. I found this super refreshing, but also longed for a bit more of the leading pair.

There's a realistic tone to the dreaminess of this romance. Both Yun Tae-o (Ji Soo) and Han Song-i (Chaeyeon) are friends who grew up together and they don't date each other first. There's the usual 'you can be blind to love even when it's right in front of you' concept, especially since  gotten use to each other's looks, habits, strengths and weaknesses and don't want to risk losing that comfortable space with each other. So they fall for, and date, different people.

And this is where I found My First First Love differing from most dramas - there's a detailed story for both those other relationships that Tae-o and Sung-i find themselves involved in. They are not flings on the way to dating each other, but actual relationships that you follow in the series until both characters get a better understanding of their own feelings and find the same window of timing to align their feelings and confess to each other. It's definitely a strong way of showing how deep and important Tae-o and Song-i's feelings are for each other compared to their feelings for other people....but it did mean watching many episodes of them both dating other secondary characters - in fact, I wonder if they spent more episodes 'dating' the secondary characters than each other. With that said, the scenes they do have together are extra cute, so it does make up for the long time spent getting to that point.

Sometimes I like the secondary characters a lot and don't mind their extended airtime in a drama, even if they are the 'baddies' or side story. But I wasn't a fan of Tae-o's girlfriend, Ryu Se-Hyeon. She calls Tae-o cute several times, but never invests in him or their relationship. What is frustrating is that it's shown several times that she dates other guys while she's 'with' Tae-o and doesn't personally care about his life, but Tae-o never finds out. She even has the audacity to accuse Tae-o of not paying attention to her and caring about another girl and she threatens to slap him even though she doesn't do it seriously. What is most annoying is that Tae-o is still shown as being on good talking terms with Se-Hyeon in the last episode, even after their break up.

Sung-i finds out about the cheating, but doesn't have the heart to tell Tae-o, so the story line never develops any further. I suppose this is why there's a realistic element to this series - real life is never tidily resolved and sometimes you may never find out if someone mistreats you behind your back.  Also, guys are likely to still stay friends with their attractive ex's, provided they don't know they've been betrayed! Slightly frustrating as a viewer, but since Tae-o discovers his feelings for Sung-i faster than she does for him, their relationship finishes more quickly and the unresolved story doesn't actually impact the story line other than make Se-Hyeon look like a user.

On the other, Song-i's relationship with Do-Hyeon is sweet before it falls into a drag with dramas revolving around insecurity and jealousy. I feel sorry for Do-Hyeon as most of the limitations in his relationship have to do with his poverty and his duty to his father, a single parent. Here, we see the genre of the series really show itself as a coming of age genre - where Do-Hyeon's fight to find what he wants as opposed to the safe choices he's always made, almost take over the series for a while. I do wish that they had shortened the arc with Do-Hyeon as his relationship with Song-i spans almost as long as Tae-o's relationship with Song-i during the 16 episodes. While not wholly opposed to Do-Hyeon, his purpose as a character had finished long before his screen time did.

Opposite to Tae-o and Sung-i's relationships and story-lines are that of O Ga-rin and Choe Hun. I enjoyed the stories of these characters (even though they could be a bit cheesy at time) because they illustrate that struggle for independence that is so central to the coming-of-age-genre. Although the main characters go to school and have their own goals (Song-i wants to be an architect who builds comfortable houses for people), Ga-rin and Hun spend most of the series focusing on their dreams and dealing with their choices, which are not aligned to those of their parents.

Hun's desire to be an actor leads him to several low points throughout the series where failure and rejection really hurt. These story lines are actually explored in detail and show both the benefits and struggles of fighting for independence and going against convention. At times, it may feel like some of these stories take away from the time that could be spent on Tae-o and Song-i. However, they do give a sense of encouragement and purpose and reflect the experiences of the audience.

There is also the more comical and puppy-love romance between Ga-rin and Hun that off-sets the other other more serious relationships in the show and adds comic relief. The confession between Hun and Ga-rin was also super cute, given how innocent and caring Ga-rin was and how amused, but also teasing Hun was.

Housemate dramas are always fun because they usually involve very different personalities all sharing space and learning to get along. Often they add a lot of warm scenes to do with friendship and comical misunderstandings.

While Ga-rin and Hun were both predominantly comical characters, there was a really genuine and wise side to them both as well with Hun able to see Tae-o's feelings for Song-i before he can even voice them out loud and Ga-rin supporting everyone with her child-like innocence. One element that I wish they had explored, via a brief flashback for each, is how Tae-O came to know Ga-rin and Hun. Their friendships are explained the first time they come to beg for him to take them in, but it would have been fun to see all their first meetings with Tae-o.

I've saved the best discussion for last though. Even though this series looks at multiple characters in depth, the story does start and come together because of Tae-o and Song-i.

I really enjoyed seeing Tae-o come to terms with his feelings. Always feeling irritated and anxious when he finds out Song-i has been suffering or hurt. Always thinking about how he can better tend to her needs. Always seeking out her company and opinions and approval. Tae-o's love sickness makes him very endearing and cute.

I do wish that we'd also been able to see it more from Song-i's side because she seems to treat Tae-o as more of a friend until the arc confronting her runaway mother. Although it's implied by her actions throughout the series that she does love and appreciate the little things he does for her (eg. running barefoot in the rain rather than ruining the new heels that Tae-o bought her.) I guess to be fair, we also see Song-i and Tae-o's roles reversed in the last arc of the series when Song-i really protects and support Tae-o when they both find out about his family situation.

Since I mention the rain scene after Song-i's first date, did you notice Tae-o uses a yellow umbrella again when he goes to look for Song-i. It's similar to the one he was going to share with her back in high school? This seems to be a metaphor for Tae-o's actions: He always tries to bring her warmth and shelter every time there's a storm in her life. Of course, there's a contrast between the first rainy day scene and the second as Tae-o was hurt when he secretly overheard that Song-i hadn't been attracted to him. He immaturely withdraws his offer of the umbrella, but in true Song-i fashion, she turns it into a tease and the two go back to their natural play fighting rather than stay seriously mad at each other.

The romance in My First First Love is more subtle than a number of other dramas I've watched, but it's a beautiful, quiet  and natural transition between friends to lovers. They have that essential thing for a real relationship to work out: A strong friendship, as well as  love. Their friendship serves as the backbone to their romance with their play fighting and bickering leading to the eventual realization for each character that there is no one else they understand so completely and no one else they share so much chemistry with. Because this relationship is so precious to them, they are hesitant to change anything about it because there's a risk they'll lose what they have.

But their understanding of each other's feelings are so strong that there isn't really a risk. Their ability to read each other, and to make each other feel comfortable, is shown in two main scenes: Firstly, when Tae-o finally confesses to Song-i, it's not some grand affair and they don't kiss or even hug. While it's in a beautiful setting, it's pretty much a hang out until Tae-o gathers his courage and pretty much says, "Hey, I don't think I can live life without you always being next to me."

Song-i is caught by surprised, but it pretty much sums up how she's been feeling. And it's her mutual agreement and the gaze between them that shows the shift is felt and there's no need to display it with some grandiose gesture.

Secondly, when Tae-o tells Song-i that he'll wait for her romantic feelings to develop more thoroughly towards him - that it's not the "season" yet, as Winter doesn't just become Spring immediately.

But it's lovely to see that Song-i senses that he's feels she's uncomfortable and responds quickly to tell him that she's actually just nervous about how much she really does like him and all the things he does for her, even just the way he says her name. Her feelings are deep, but she's not used to expressing them to him in that romantic way, though she wants to. It's sweet and makes all the following montages sweeter as you see her melt away from this shyness.

This was a beautiful scene and such a nice backdrop for a kiss, but I wish they had shot the kiss from with better close-up angles. They chose somewhat awkward looking angles, but the long shot from the couple looked magical enough.

It would have been great to have at least one more episode dedicated to this level of cuteness, but we do get an entire montage sequence showing them living together and doing everyday mundane things like brushing their teeth together and working on their laptops whilst stealing kisses and holding hands.

It's a lovely slice-of-life element, showing us that it's in the little things that makes love brighten up the most ordinary of days. I guess it also shows that it doesn't really take that long for Tae-o and Song-i to transition comfortably from friends to lovers.

Although there's not many, the series does end with a cute, playful kiss between Tae-o and Song-i on the couch of the house they live in together. It's this subtly finally blooming into sweetness that makes this series worth the watch.

Personally, it reminds me of a milder version of Weightlifting Fairy which I loved. Ji Soo shares the warmth that Nam Joo-Hyuk exhibited in his character (I can totally see how they're best friends off camera!), while Chaeyeon has a similar playfulness, grace and beauty as Lee Sung-Kyung. In this time of sadness, My First First Love brings a lot of warmth, joy and subtle romance and was a fun cheer-up watch for me.