Hatsukoi is the first real must watch dorama this year that has been consistently good. Mixing Sekachuu with the tired affair genre has produced a really beautiful story about a hatsukoi that never ended. As I've said previously, I never thought Kimura Yoshino could really act but she really rose to the occasion.
The ending is good. I love it when we finally get to hear Stay Gold and we get the beautiful montage at the end. In a lot of doramas, the music + montage at the end usually feels so cliched and unnecessary but in Hatsukoi's case, it was built up slowly. Littering the dorama with flashbacks and slowly feeding the audience with little snippets of Mishima and Midori's past has been good for the pacing.
Regrettably, the one other thing that stuck to my mind was the whole Midori not seeing her son thing. How a father can forbid the mother from having contact with the child just because she was the one who had the affair. Japanese custody law is different but Hatsukoi is a prime example of how it should not be about fault but rather the best interest of the child. That look of happiness from Midori in the above screencap is reason enough that every child should not be deprived from contact from either parent with the exception of serious family violence issues etc.
We're more than half way through the year and nothing on the level of Suzuki sensei or Soredemo Ikite Yuku has turned up yet. Hatsukoi is pretty good but not in the classic level of the above two though its pretty much now sitting in the no.1 spot of my top five shows for 2012 which is currently looking very thin. All the other must watch shows have fizzled out at the end. Hatsukoi is a must watch dorama that is absolutely beautiful literally and storyline wise.
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ReplyDeleteslight error, so here it is again:
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you kept this must watch. It was a humane story until the ending. Good direction can make things work, even if they seem contrived, and even with mediocre actors (which might not have been that bad after all, since they're dependent on a good script and direction).
I loved this series!
By the way, since this season also had Saigo kara no nibanme Koi and Shokuzai, I could not consider it a bad season : )
Very much agree with the good direction part. It felt very inspired and movie-like. It just does all the little things well.
ReplyDeleteSaigo Kara and Shokuzai were so good yet both faltered around the middle that when I think of them I can only remember the flaws.
I really didnt like eps 7 and 8. well 8 was better than 7, although it was getting really empty, with Mishima's condition as the focal, and nothing else really going on. But I agree with you that after ep 6, it didnt matter how the story would go, because this has been a substantial dorama.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the recommendation!