I watched First Love (初次爱你) mainly because of Tian Xi Wei whom I first came across in New Life Begins. I also thought it would be good to see the differences between this drama and Double Love which was aired at around the same time. While college romance is not really my cup of tea, I’m always prepared to give such dramas a try. After all, nice surprises do come by every now and then even for cliche rom-coms. Whether this 2022 release qualifies as a nice surprise is answered in my First Love review below. Feel free to scroll down for the full review to check if this would be worth your time.
My rating: 6.5/10
Episodes: 24
Type: College Romance
Aired: December 2022
Images Credit: iQIYI Taiwan Facebook
The Cast Of First Love 2022
- Wang Xing Yue as Ren Chu
- Tian Xi Wei as Lu Wan Wan
- Tian Xu Ning as Meng Xi Bai
- Wang Jia Yin as Wang Xin Yu
- Cui Shao Yang as Fan Yi
- Chi Ning Ning as Gu Qiao
- Fang Xiao Dong as An Jia Xian
- Zhao Yu Xuan as Liang Xia
- Fang Si Chang as Guan Ai
- Liu Jian Yu as Wang Yu Yang
Main Characters
Ren Chu
Ren Chu is a top scholar in Maths and President of the swimming club at Qingyao University. He is intelligent, athletic, and good-looking. Hence, Ren Chu is an ideal boyfriend and is known as the campus king. However, he is also a very rational and theoretical guy which makes him socially inept and direct.
Lu Wan Wan
Wan Wan is a sophomore at Qingyao University’s medical faculty. She is an ordinary girl with mediocre results. She also gets nervous easily which affects her performance during exams. Wan Wan has a secret long-term crush on her close friend from high school. Her hobby is baking and she is the president and sole member of the university’s baking club.
Supporting Characters
Meng Xi Bai
Xi Bai is a postgraduate student in medical research and Wan Wan’s senior. He spends the majority of his time in the research lab. Xi Bai is a guy who likes peace and quiet. His ideal girlfriend is someone who is demure and reserved.
Wang Xin Yu
Xin Yu is Ren Chu’s cousin sister and a dance student. She is a very expressive and straightforward young lady. Xin Yu is not the shy and modest type. She is deeply in love with Xi Bai and tends to be clingy towards him.
Fan Yi
Fan Yi is Ren Chu’s dorm mate and good friend. He is a friendly and sociable guy.
Gu Qiao
Gu Qiao is Wan Wan’s dorm mate and best friend. She is also Wan Wan’s course mate.
An Jia Xian & Liang Xia
Jia Xian and Liang Xia are Wan Wan’s college mates. They are also close friends since high school. Wan Wan has secret feelings for Jia Xian for a long time which was never expressed.
Guan Ai
Guan Ai is a beautiful girl and is known as the campus queen at Qingyao University. She has interest in Ren Chu.
Wang Yu Yang
Wang Yu Yang is a student at Qingyao University and Wan Wan’s target boyfriend. He can be quite blur when it comes to love and romance. He sees Wan Wan as a bro.
Synopsis
Wan Wan and Jia Xian are close friends since high school and she has been in love with him for 5 years. Just when she thought he will finally profess his love for her, he drops the bombshell that he has been dating her best friend for the last 2 years. Wan Wan is heartbroken and in a drunken spell, utters that she will pursue the university’s top scholar and most sought after male student, Ren Chu. This starts off a chain of events that leads to them being seen as a couple. Rumors begin to circulate and they become a fodder for gossips in the university.
As a result, Wan Wan wants Ren Chu’s cooperation to put a stop to the rumors. They agree on a plan to get a boyfriend for Wan Wan so that she will no longer be associated with Ren Chu and hence, the gossips will cease. However, Ren Chu finds himself falling in love with Wan Wan instead. He gets jealous when Wan Wan begins to pursue the guy that they have identified as her potential boyfriend. He pretends to help her but sabotages her efforts behind her back which angers her when she finds out.
First Love 2022 Ending (Spoilers Alert!)
First Love 2022 has a happy ending. All the 3 couples end up happily together. Although Ren Chu has to leave for a year on an exchange program, Wan Wan is supportive of his decision. They trust each other to make things work between them. Ren Chu also gives Wan Wan a ring during a game that simulates a traditional wedding. He asks her whether she is willing to be with him forever to which she says yes. They spend the night together.
A month after Wan Wan has her appendicitis surgery, she meets Ren Chu at the aquarium theme park which is the location of their first date. Their gossip elimination plan has now become their relationship development plan instead. The drama ends with a kiss that gets cut short by Wang Yu Yang’s untimely appearance again.
When Did They Get Together?
Ren Chu already developed feelings for Wan Wan by Episode 4. He tries to confess his love for her twice in Episode 9 but fails on both attempts. He then decides to wait until she is ready to date. Ren Chu then proceeds to help Wan Wan in her studies in various ways. He also comes up with ways to assist her to overcome her anxiety and nervousness. Due to Ren Chu’s care and concern for her, Wan Wan also starts to wonder if she might be in love with him by Episode 10.
However, Wan Wan’s bad experience with Jia Xian makes her cautious. She doesn’t want to repeat the same mistake of assuming that the guy also has feelings for her. But after Ren Chu spent the Lunar New Year break with her and her parents in Episode 14, she impulsively asks him to be her boyfriend. To cover up her fear of rejection and shyness, she improvises on the spot that the request is only for pretense purposes as she needs a fake boyfriend for a high school reunion in Episode 15.
Wan Wan finally expresses her feelings in Episode 17 when Ren Chu arrives to save her and Liang Xia from a group of drunken thugs. Ren Chu also plans for a confession but gets thwarted by Guan Ai. Wan Wan thinks Ren Chu has chosen Guan Ai over her but still gathers up the courage to say what is on her mind. However, Ren Chu surprises her instead when he asks her to be his girlfriend in Episode 18. They become a couple then.
Is There Any Breakup & Love Triangle?
No, there is no breakup between Ren Chu and Wan Wan after they got together. There is only a temporary long distance relationship when Ren Chu is attached to another university for a project for a month.
As for the love triangle, Wan Wan got over Jia Xian very early on in the drama while Ren Chu has no interest whatsoever in Guan Ai who is after him. Jia Xian only knows that Wan Wan used to like him after a quarrel with Liang Xia in Episode 17. When he asks Wan Wan about it, she tells him that it is all in the past and she is now in love with Ren Chu.
Guan Ai tries to pursue Ren Chu but knows that Wan Wan is a threat. So, she befriends Wan Wan and then tells her that she likes Ren Chu in Episode 11. This is to make Wan Wan feel guilty about stealing a friend’s love interest. Hence, Wan Wan denies having feelings for Ren Chu. But she decides to tell Guan Ai that she is also interested in Ren Chu in Episode 16 when she could no longer hold back her feelings. In Episode 18, Guan Ai has to admit defeat when Ren Chu makes it clear that he wants Wan Wan to be his girlfriend.
Jia Xian & Liang Xia’s Relationship
Liang Xia quarrels with Jia Xian in Episode 17 as her parents want her to move overseas for her graduate studies while he is unsure of what he wants to do. She also feels insecure and brings up the past that she has stolen him from Wan Wan who used to like him a lot. Liang Xia always feels that Jia Xian has chosen her because she confessed first. Otherwise, he would have ended up with Wan Wan.
In Episode 18, Liang Xia makes up her mind to go abroad. She gives Jia Xian the freedom to consider his options. They break up in Episode 20 since he is reluctant to follow her and no one can guarantee what will happen in the future. Both Wan Wan and Jia Xian send Liang Xia off at the airport in Episode 24.
Side Couples
Xin Yu has been pursuing Xi Bai all along and kisses him in Episode 5. They start dating in Episode 6 but Xi Bai asks for a breakup in Episode 13. This is because he finds Xin Yu is sacrificing her passion for dancing to spend time with him. She tries to salvage the relationship but he insists on breaking up in Episode 15 although he still cares about her.
After the breakup, Xin Yu puts her attention back into dancing and wants to make Xi Bai notice her and regret his decision. With her ability to attract admirers, Xi Bai becomes jealous and tries to chase her back in Episode 20. He even buys a smartphone which he has never seen the need to own one in order to get close to her again. She ignores him initially but they finally reconcile in Episode 23.
Fan Yi has already been dropping hints that he likes Gu Qiao after getting to know her. In Episode 14, he tells Gu Qiao that he will miss her during the Lunar New Year break. They get together in Episode 18 after their friends encourage them and suggest that they do so. Fan Yi asks Gu Qiao then if she is willing to try being with him and she says yes.
First Love Review – Sweet But Sluggish
I can appreciate why some viewers would find First Love to be a great watch. Yes, it is sweet and charming in its own way. The whole drama is light and easy to breeze through. There is little angst and a comedic undertone lightens the mood. The not so happy moments don’t linger around but are very quickly dispensed with. Generally, it is a feel good drama ladened with the sweetness and innocence of first love.
You will like it if you are into a serious and high IQ male lead who is a total blur when it comes to wooing a girl. On the other hand, the female lead is optimistic and cheerful but is scarred by her past of misreading a crush’s actual feelings. So, you will have a guy who has trouble wooing and professing his love and a girl who has gotten into the habit of not seeing those hints of interest for what they plainly are.
In short, you will end up with a long route of push and pull and a really slow burn romance for the drama. I guess the younger crowd might like this better as such issues will resonate well with them. But for me, this is way too sluggish for such a simple plot and putting in filler scenes to lengthen the drama just adds to the boredom overall.
Thin Plot That Drags On (Spoilers Alert!)
Just like typical romance dramas, First Love’s plot is a very thin one. A thin plot is still okay if done right such as My Little Happiness or even You Are My Glory. These dramas have nothing much going on either but simply showcase the protagonists day to day life in a very sweet and romantic way to hold our interest. In First Love, the he-loves-me-he-loves-me-not stage drags on and on while you wait for the guy to confess. He already knows he is falling for her in Episode 4 but they only start dating in the last quarter of the drama. Hence, it is a long wait for the viewer.
I suppose if you like this kind of ambiguity and innocence in a romance, then perhaps First Love will feel really sweet to watch. For me, I started tuning off after a dozen episodes or so. As I watched, I just wished the guy would quickly confess and be done with it. But nope, we have to wait until the girl finally gathers up her courage to blurt it all out during a dangerous moment instead. What is supposed to be romantic after such long anticipation suddenly doesn’t seem so anymore, at least to me.
After the couple officially got together, the last few episodes become mere fillers. Issues that are not necessary are brought up and then quickly resolved including the male lead’s exchange program which will mean a year of separation with the girl. I really don’t think this drama needs 24 episodes to tell the story. Even Sweet Teeth managed to make do with 22 episodes with multiple couples while Since I Met You only has 16 episodes. First Love is just too long for such a thin plot overall.
Annoying Characters
First Love also has the cliche jealous love rival in the form of the campus queen who tries to sabotage the female lead’s chances with the male lead. Her illusion that the guy should like her just feels forced and exaggerated. However, her onscreen presence is limited which will help to keep your annoyance to a minimum. The female lead’s high school best friend is another negative character who deserves to be dismissed from her life. But as the main character, she needs to be shown as forgiving and kind which also seems a little too superficial.
As for the side couples, they hardly make a difference to the story. The first side couple has a clingy girl who can’t seem to leave her boyfriend alone. The second is a reverse gender role stereotype couple with the girl being the tough and courageous one instead of the guy. Both of these couples love story isn’t exactly inspiring and interesting to follow throughout the drama.
Acting & Chemistry
Personally, I think Tian Xi Wei basically carried the show as the female lead. She naturally attracts attention out of the entire cast with her bubbly portrayal of Wan Wan. I think she did bring out all the right characteristics of Wan Wan in a way that fits the lighthearted nature of the drama. Her acting in some scenes may appear exaggerated but it is always the case with rom-coms.
Wang Xing Yue first caught my eye in Your Sensibility My Destiny and I think he did well there. But as Ren Chu in First Love, he appears as too stiff to the point of being robotic to me. Perhaps it is the nature of the character but he has turned Ren Chu into someone who is a little too boring and dull with his bland expressions. Given his young age, there is certainly still much room for improvement in terms of acting.
There is a 5 year age gap between Tian Xi Wei and Wang Xing Yue with the girl being the older of the two. It isn’t noticeable in the drama and they do seem compatible as an onscreen couple in the looks department. But chemistry-wise, there is nothing really explosive that will set alarms ringing. Maybe Wang Xing Yue’s character is too rational and practical to generate the huge sparks required to make this couple more shippable. Neither can you expect much from the kisses given that this is a youthful romance drama with all its innocence.
My Verdict – If You Care For College Romance…
I see First Love as a typical college romance drama. There is sweetness and fluff and the start is actually pretty entertaining. It is a kind of drama that you watch to feel good rather than one that would give you a good story and move your emotions. This is no Lighter And Princess although both have a college romance theme. This is simply a drama that tries to make you hook to the protagonists’ process of falling in love, wooing, and courting rather than the plot.
The main problem with First Love though is it goes downhill and becomes draggy as the drama progresses. The waiting game of when the couple will just confess and get together is lengthened unnecessarily that the story turns sluggish at the halfway mark. Figuring out one’s own feelings, guessing if the other party feels the same, and then not knowing how to confess basically take up three-quarters of the drama. Add in she tries to confess and he does the same just makes the whole story seems cheesy.
However, that is not to say that the drama is bad. It can be sweet if you are into college romance and like that hesitance, shyness, and ambiguity of first love experiences. For me, it is just that I have watched one too many of such stories. So, for this First Love review, it would get a 6.5/10 score from me. The leads’ chemistry is good but not enough to provide the youthful romance a boost and hence, the drama a better score given the thin and recycled plot.
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