"This Life Is Our First Life" Episode 1 recap

Ji-ho (played by Jung So-min) always hated feeling like she wasn't the priority back during childhood. While it's easy to blame her family, they're just not...malicious enough to really warrant hating. After all, her dad Jong-soo (played by Kim Byung-ok) is just a sloppy idiot. But when unexpected circumstances make Ji-ho realize that she's going to be even less appreciated than usual, that's when the woman pushing thirty realizes it's time to finally ditch the family home.
The main immediate standout quality of Ji-ho is just how well-adjusted she is. Ji-ho is ridiculously mature, and refuses to fight or get mad with anyone for any reason. Ji-ho never indulges in self-pity, fully recognizing that all the people in her life are behaving in a generally sensible way befitting their self-interests, and does not hold grudges. Ji-ho even makes the extra effort to be super nice to a complete stranger- albeit Ji-ho does indeed have her own self-interest to think about there.

So what's Ji-ho's big flaw? Mostly that she's kind of a romantic. Ji-ho is a drama writer, after all, and we quickly see that Ji-ho's main coping method to avoid dipping into overly negative thinking is to just get philosophical. Like, all right, so she's pushing thirty. But that doesn't mean life is over or anything. Because "This Life Is Our First Life", that just means there are always exciting novelties around the corner. So focus on the novelties, and save the worries for the next one.
The contrast with Tae-soo (played by Lee Min-ki) is quite pointed. Tae-soo works in software, cares entirely about functionality, and expresses minimal curiousity in the world around him. That on its own is not unusual- what's weird about "This Life Is Our First Life" is that it makes Tae-soo's lack of expressiveness seem completely normal and applicable to a happy life style. I can't quite recall the last time I saw an antisocial character being portrayed as something aside from a total psycho.
That much alone gives "This Life Is Our First Life" some impressive potential as a romantic comedy. Well, granted there aren't really any jokes but the whole production is just so gosh darned cute that's this is the vibe we end up getting. The big climactic moment, where Ji-ho impulsively decides to live life like it were a drama just this once while Tae-soo is simply baffled by the aftermath...it's just so easy to take from that a clear picture of who these people are, you know?
Review by William Schwartz
"This Life Is Our First Life" is directed by  Park Joon-hwa, written by Yoon Nan-joong and features Lee Min-ki, Jung So-min, Esom, Park Byung-eun, Kim Ga-eun-I, and Kim Min-seok.

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