Because This Is My First Life

YES.

I watched this awhile ago but I felt compelled to contribute a bit more gushing for this show in the hopes that more of its ilk are made.

I often find K-dramas fall in one of two camps: super-technicolour surreal middle-class world where everyone lives in nice apartments, works hard at their jobs, drinks soju with colleagues after work and get given piggy back rides home by their crushes OR the super-in-your-face gritty world where the hardships of society are magnified, intensified and delivered as a punch to the gut so that we think a bit more (and probably feel a bit of guilt). This show managed to gently blur the lines between these two camps. It takes a lot of the conventions of an Asian rom-com but gives it to us as a group of friends who are all experiencing quite different but very relevant challenges. It asks the hard question: if you only get one life, who are you living it for? The answer should be obvious but real life is never as obvious or easy.

Is it fun? Yes. Is it funny? Yes! The support cast are as solid as the leads - side-note fan girl moment, is there a character on this planet where Kim Soo Young hasn't yet made it all her own? The sheer variety of roles she has played, and with such skill, continues to baffle me.

Okay, back to the show: it was visually lovely and the music is wonderful; a little bit in your face in parts, perhaps, but that tends to be the K-drama way. The pacing is largely great, although sometimes the FL is so agonisingly slow to make her revelations that I wanted to scream at her a little bit to hurry up! The story and and the journey are wonderful, and even as a non-Korean speaker like me I got a sense of how beautiful the writing was. I won't spoil it for you but there are some truly great moments that will make you laugh out loud and some equally moving ones. If there was ever a show with character and gumption, this one has both in spades.

This show, for me, is a class above many of the K-dramas I've consumed. Let's hope South Korea hears us loud and clear and gives us more.

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Masterpiece romance drama

This show has one of the best concepts I've ever seen for a romance drama. Start with the lead characters getting married. But they don't marry out of love. Only then does the show break down the preconceived notions of love, marriage, and happiness between two people. It questions what marriage truly is and why marriage doesn't automatically mean love between two people.

The character development is also some of the best I've seen in a kdrama. The male lead goes through a ton of growth from the start of the show to the end. The female lead all throughout the show wrestles with her emotions for the male lead. By the end of the show you feel satisfied with where the leads end up and the amount of growth each character goes through

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Good show about the idea of marriage

I really liked this drama and bingewatched it without fastforwarding through boring parts, which I do with 9/10 drama's after the first couple of episodes. the side characters were interesting, although I thought her friend who wanted to get married was really toxic to her boyfriend.

I would've rated this 9/10 if it weren't for the ending though, were the FL went off the rails. Without spoiling too much, her behaviour in the last two episodes was manipulative, toxic and selfish and I didn't care about the story from that moment on. I wish she had communicated with him instead of what she did, but oh well. It was a great watch overall, except the last two episodes so I would still recommend it.

I would've rated this 9/10 if it weren't for the ending though. the

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Good Story but Just Not For Me

This started out good, even thought from the get go I knew I wasn't going to like Sehee. I didn't like the whole cold, socially awkward act. Not that's its bad or wrong to be that way ofc, but it was just done horribly. Throughout the course of the drama I expected for the relationship between Jiho and Sehee to develop and have depth but that didn't happen at all (like I wanted it to) and I just kept getting bored. I'm really into dramatics and into couples with deep intense feelings but that wasn't their dynamic. The drama does a good job exploring different social constructs around marriage and relationships in South Korea and I appreciate that but again, it wasn't my vibe. Overall, this was a very chill drama that explores the complications of life, and relationships, and I can see why some people love it but it wasn't my cup of tea.

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Great acting but confusing ending

The thing I enjoyed most about the drama was the separate character development for the main characters and the most important supporting characters. The main couple's chemistry was very sweet and down-to-earth, definitely refreshing if you want a change from the high school/first perfect love trope. ML is very charming here, a cool and smart lead who shows some realistic warmth from time to time. FL is actually super sweet while being mature at the same time.

Ending left me a bit confused. Not even in the sense of plot but rather how the whole thing played out in the last episodes and the vibe of it all. It reminded me of a 10-episode J-drama - slow-burn progression overall but lots of plot dumping at the end. For me personally, it didn't ruin the story as a whole, but at the same time it didn't give me the feeling of ultimate satisfying ending either.

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Quietly steals your heart

I went in expecting a typical cliched romcom but got pleasantly and wonderfully surprised at how this drama turned out to be. All episodes except for the last two are charming and warm your heart, they contain so many life lessons and musings which strike a chord in sensitive hearts. It was a refreshing change from the jaded and cynical world. Lee Min Ki oozes quiet charm. The soundtrack is endearing and I can't get 'This Life' track out of my head. It perfectly suits the quiet love of this drama.
****Major Spoilers****
The last two episodes were a letdown. Even knowing the reasons of why the FL would behave in such a way - to test their feelings in the long term - it still felt cruel and so unlike her character to leave the ML completely clueless about her thoughts and feelings. After opening up his wounded and tired heart by healing words, and knowing that he had feelings for her already (as plenty shown by actions) she still left because she wanted his room 19 forcibly opened for her selfish emotional validation. I just could not digest her laughter at the face of him expressing his anger to her for the first time- triumph that he is opening up could be there but it felt more malicious and sociopathic of her to laugh at the face of it. And to see her living it up with her friends completely unconcerned about her lover while he is shown sobbing alone in his apartment.. it was heartbreaking and unfair. And why would she let him think she reappeared in his dream, hear his love for her and still act completely clueless about it the next day is beyond me.
**** End of Spoilers****
Ok so maybe I loved Lee Mi Ki's character too much to accept this behaviour :) Nevertheless this is a must watch.
The side stories are quite impressively portrayed as well and very well interlinked with the main story. Even the old girlfriend has a refreshing and dignified contributing role to the drama, not the typical evil girlfriend. This is a story to be enjoyed by adults. It is something I feel I will keep coming back to over the years, it has that something special.

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Have your tissues ready

I really enjoyed this Drama. I wasn't sure at first to watch it as I hadn't seen any rave revues but I binge watched it over 3 days.

I think most of the plot was good but they rushed the ending abit as I feel it should have had the last 2 episodes to do it properly.

Overall though the characters were likeable, no serial killers for a change trying to kill the female lead which was a nice change.

As well none of the old tropes of rich guy poor girl. Just everyday people trying to live and live and face the delimmas most people face. Support cast had well rounded characters and did well.

Well worth watch for sure.

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A realistic drama about love, relationships, and marriages... but...

This kdrama started out perfect. Everything about it was great. Everyone was interesting and going through realistic struggles, such as being house poor, regular poor, sexual harassment and being the subject of workplace gossip, marriage and relationships etc. The show was slow paced but thought provoking and I really loved how everyone matured at the end, however, that's the problem, the ending.

Before we get to the ending we need to talk about one of the side couple, Yang Ho-rang and her boyfriend of 7 years, Sim Won-Seok. They were a couple that dated since college but had financial issues. As well as other relationship issues, the biggest one being that Ho-rang wants to get married while Won-Seok doesn't want to commit to it. They were in an on and off relationship (this is important). After Ho-rang finally spilled the beans on why she was so upset and after rubbing it in her boyfriend's face with things like "I won' have sex with you because we're not going to get married" the man finally proposed. However, like I said they had financial issues they couldn't get married until in 5 years. They eventually broke up and that moment felt so realistic for me. They had differences in what they want in the future and their relationship and realized that no amount of love can make up for it. I loved that couple so much for its realistic portrayals. They finally broke that cycle of being in an on and off relationship and they found someone who has compatible expectations for their relationships and future. Or so I thought. But in the most cliche and cringey moment at the end they realized they deep down love each other blah blah blah, a bunch of tears at the end. Except the relationship issues these two had did not go away, and they showed that no amount of love for each other can make up for that. I was so emotionally invested in the side couple. A show with one of the most realistic relationship got ruined in a 5 minute scene to the most cliche.

I also wished the show made. Yoon Ji-ho (our protagonist) resolved communication issues by... you know... communicating the communication issues by her husband/landlord Nam Se-Hee. Instead of throwing in a break up and seeing him go through it to see "how much he really loved me". That way we the writers could show us Woo Soo-Ji getting into the career she is truly passionate about and not be subjected to sexual harassment.and gossip. That girl was finally achieving her dreams, but instead of showing that they showed the aftermath of the breakup and makeup.

I had such high expectations for this show and if they didn't ruin it with the last 2 episodes it would've been one of my top shows of all time.

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