First Love (2000) Hatsukoi

Original title: Hatsukoi

Country: Japan

Year: 2000

Genre: Romance

IMDB Rating: 7.1 ^{134 votes}

Plot: A teenage girl finds a love letter written by her mother to her first love. With her mother in the hospital, Satoka sets out on a quest to locate her mother's first love and arrange a romantic reconciliation. But reality isn't as simple as plan: the guy turns out to be a hopeless gambler and a deadbeat with marriage problems of his own. Satoka's naive dream runs into some painful adult realities before resolving itself in an unexpected, moving way.

A teenage girl whose relationship with her father is deterioratad one day after another as her mother is hospitalised for cancer. One day while cleaning her mother's room, she finds an unsent letter designated to a man. Is this her mother's first love? The girl is off to look for the man.

This movie is absolutely beautiful, the flow of the story is very pleasant. Hiroyuki Sanada is featured in the film, he plays a good-for-nothing convincingly. Acting from Rena Tanaka is top notch who happens to be one of my very favourites japanese actress who can actually act. She is prolly the best actress in her generation!
This is one of the best coming of age films, I just love this film! Joe Hisaishi's music is perfect for the film! I just don't find any flaws in this film as more japanese dramas are headin toward art house films which is beyond my comprehension. Nevertheless, the film is a must-see for drama fans! I remember after seeing this film I craved for more japanese dramas!
(c) Pemu

Language: Japanese

Colormode: Color

Running time: 113