Because This Is My First Life (2017) [+]
Jun 19 2024
Because This Is My First Life is a Korean romance/drama.
Failed assistant drama tv show writer Yoon Ji-ho (Jung So-min) moves into a cheap bedroom rental in very logical chief software developer Nam Se-hee's (Lee Min-ki) condo. It's funny because they manage not to see each other for several days and believing that the other party is the same sex.
Eventually though the truth comes out but after some awkwardness they decide to continue the landlord/tenant relationship. She really needs a cheap place to live and she's also the best tenant he's ever had. A couple episodes later, to fend off pressure from his parents to get married, Se-hee proposes to go into a contract marriage with Ji-ho and it takes another episode or two for her to agree.
They both want to keep it strictly professional but being around each other more and more they develop hidden feelings. Se-hee is amazingly poker-faced so Ji-ho just doesn't know how he feels. Meanwhile Se-hee is not great at interpreting facial expressions so he also doesn't know how Ji-ho feels about him.
That goes on for half the series and when you think they're actually going to admit their feeling for each other -- and by then everybody around them knows one or the other is in love but perhaps only one person knows it's a mutual hidden love -- they instead break up. The last half of the last episode flashes forward a few months when they happen to run into each other again and finally admit their feelings for each other.
There are two other relationships involving Ji-ho's childhood friends. Ho-rang (Kim Ga-eun) has had a boyfriend (Kim Min-seok) for seven years and is yearning to get married but when she pushes him into it it eventually leads to them breaking up then eventually realizing they still love each other. Meanwhile Soo-ji (Esom) is a businesswoman who is sexually harassed by her coworkers and being pursued by Se-hee's friend company CEO Sang-goo (Park Byung-eun). Her arc involves accepting a long-term relationship -- previously she's always been a one-night stand kind of gal -- and finally standing up to her coworkers.
This is a very thoughtful series with conversations about what it means to be in love and how it contrasts with marriage and we also get Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs relating to both. Besides the three main relationships we also have the parents and how their imperfect marriages work. Part of why Ji-ho breaks up with Se-hee is to see if it's their marriage that is keeping them together or if there is actual love between them.
I did love this series and watched it over a few nights. The chemistry between the leads is good (and there is little romantic competition for the two leads so the story can concentrate on their inner conflicts). Jung So-min is very charming yet playing a fairly subdued character that still contrasts well with Lee Min-ki's performance which has to be very deadpan with hints of emotion.
Although I think the ending didn't quite stick it (I'm not into the break up then skip a few months for the reconciliation) overall it's a good and touching romantic drama.
Failed assistant drama tv show writer Yoon Ji-ho (Jung So-min) moves into a cheap bedroom rental in very logical chief software developer Nam Se-hee's (Lee Min-ki) condo. It's funny because they manage not to see each other for several days and believing that the other party is the same sex.
Eventually though the truth comes out but after some awkwardness they decide to continue the landlord/tenant relationship. She really needs a cheap place to live and she's also the best tenant he's ever had. A couple episodes later, to fend off pressure from his parents to get married, Se-hee proposes to go into a contract marriage with Ji-ho and it takes another episode or two for her to agree.
They both want to keep it strictly professional but being around each other more and more they develop hidden feelings. Se-hee is amazingly poker-faced so Ji-ho just doesn't know how he feels. Meanwhile Se-hee is not great at interpreting facial expressions so he also doesn't know how Ji-ho feels about him.
That goes on for half the series and when you think they're actually going to admit their feeling for each other -- and by then everybody around them knows one or the other is in love but perhaps only one person knows it's a mutual hidden love -- they instead break up. The last half of the last episode flashes forward a few months when they happen to run into each other again and finally admit their feelings for each other.
There are two other relationships involving Ji-ho's childhood friends. Ho-rang (Kim Ga-eun) has had a boyfriend (Kim Min-seok) for seven years and is yearning to get married but when she pushes him into it it eventually leads to them breaking up then eventually realizing they still love each other. Meanwhile Soo-ji (Esom) is a businesswoman who is sexually harassed by her coworkers and being pursued by Se-hee's friend company CEO Sang-goo (Park Byung-eun). Her arc involves accepting a long-term relationship -- previously she's always been a one-night stand kind of gal -- and finally standing up to her coworkers.
This is a very thoughtful series with conversations about what it means to be in love and how it contrasts with marriage and we also get Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs relating to both. Besides the three main relationships we also have the parents and how their imperfect marriages work. Part of why Ji-ho breaks up with Se-hee is to see if it's their marriage that is keeping them together or if there is actual love between them.
I did love this series and watched it over a few nights. The chemistry between the leads is good (and there is little romantic competition for the two leads so the story can concentrate on their inner conflicts). Jung So-min is very charming yet playing a fairly subdued character that still contrasts well with Lee Min-ki's performance which has to be very deadpan with hints of emotion.
Although I think the ending didn't quite stick it (I'm not into the break up then skip a few months for the reconciliation) overall it's a good and touching romantic drama.