{ "id": "ep1nbhjsde", "slug": "first-love-1993-film", "title": "First Love (첫사랑) (1993 film)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance", "label": "Comedy and romantic films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-1990-to-1994", "label": "Comedies of 1990 to 1994", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-1990-to-1994" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-1990-to-1994.slapstick-black-and-family-comedies.alpha-symbols-to-j", "label": "Titles symbols to J", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-1990-to-1994.slapstick-black-and-family-comedies.alpha-symbols-to-j" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Asia (other) · 1946 to 2000: Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "path": [ { "id": "geo.asia", "label": "Asia (other)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946", "label": "Asia (other) · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" } ] } ], "excerpt": "First Love (첫사랑, Cheot sarang) is a 1993 South Korean drama-romance film directed by Lee Myung-se, starring Kim Hye-soo as a 19-year-old art student in love with an older drama lecturer; a box office failure (5,856 Seoul admissions) later reevaluated as a 1990s Korean classic.", "snippet": "First Love (첫사랑, Cheot sarang) is a 1993 South Korean drama-romance film directed by Lee Myung-se, starring Kim Hye-soo as a 19-year-old art student in love with an older drama lecturer; a box office failure (5,856 Seoul admissions) later reevaluated as a 1990s Korean classic.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-1990-to-1994.slapstick-black-and-family-comedies.alpha-symbols-to-j", "markdown": "# First Love (첫사랑) (1993 film)\n\n**First Love** (첫사랑; also released internationally as *First Lover*) is a 1993 South Korean drama-romance film directed by Lee Myung-se, in which a 19-year-old fine arts freshman falls in love with the older director of her college drama club. It was Lee's third feature, following *[Gagman](https://www.edgepedia.org/gagman)* (1988) and *My Love, My Bride* (1990), and was produced by Samho Film.[1](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/library/search/video/110565) • [2](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/kofa/news/webzine/BC_0000061188)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Release | January 22, 1993, South Korea; 108 minutes; rated 12 and older[3](https://www.cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=1619) |\n| Director and writers | Lee Myung-se, co-written with Yang Sun-hee[1](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/library/search/video/110565) |\n| Lead cast | Kim Hye-soo as Park Young-shin; Song Young-chang as Kang Chang-wook; Jo Min-ki as Kim Moon-soo[1](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/library/search/video/110565) |\n| Box office | 5,856 admissions in Seoul, a commercial failure[3](https://www.cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=1619) |\n| Awards | Blue Dragon Film Awards 1993: Best Actress (Kim Hye-soo) and Best Screenplay (Lee Myung-se); Baeksang Arts Awards 1993: Best Art; Asia-Pacific Film Festival 1993: Special Jury Award[4](https://www.filmmakers.co.kr/movies/en/19930032) |\n| Later standing | Frequently cited by Korean critics as one of the masterpieces of 1990s Korean cinema[5](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/view/news.jsp?blbdComCd=601018&category=IN_FOCUS&seq=370) |\n| Restoration | Original negative lost; digitally remastered from the sole surviving overseas print and released on Blu-ray by the Korean Film Archive in 2024[2](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/kofa/news/webzine/BC_0000061188) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nYoung-shin ([Kim Hye-soo](https://www.edgepedia.org/kim-hye-soo)) is a first-year student at a provincial university's fine arts college. She had expected college to bring something new, but her life is an ordinary one of tutoring sessions, cinemas, and coffeehouses. Then Chang-wook ([Song Young-chang](https://www.edgepedia.org/song-young-chang)) is invited to direct the drama club she belongs to. At first she sees him only as a scruffy, chain-smoking drinker, but she comes to love him, so that his ordinary gestures and words become, to her, song and poetry. After a few dates and a first kiss, he leaves her behind.[1](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/library/search/video/110565) The Korean Film Council's English synopsis adds that Chang-wook is a guest drama lecturer about ten years older than Young-shin.[6](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=19930032)\n\n## Production and casting\n\nLee conceived the film around questions he posed to himself and others: what first love is, what color or shape it has, and why first loves always fail. A dream in which the words \"the secret of time\" appeared on a blackboard gave him the theme, and he has said the film is close to his own first-love story.[2](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/kofa/news/webzine/BC_0000061188) • [7](https://news.nate.com/view/20071122n04060) He worked out the overall structure over about a year, then dictated images and dialogue to co-writer Yang Sun-hee, who transcribed them, finishing the screenplay in about a month.[2](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/kofa/news/webzine/BC_0000061188)\n\n**Casting change.** The role of Young-shin was originally offered to [Choi Jin-sil](https://www.edgepedia.org/choi-jin-sil), the star of Lee's *My Love, My Bride*, who reportedly offered to work without pay. After reading the screenplay she objected to the character's personality, and Lee cast Kim Hye-soo instead.[8](https://v.daum.net/v/20160205162659124?s=print_news) • [2](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/kofa/news/webzine/BC_0000061188) The choice drew opposition around the production, since Kim's public image, built on her taekwondo background and earlier roles, did not match the naive girl of the story; Lee cast her because her debut appearance in *Kambo* (1986) connected with the image he wanted for Young-shin.[2](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/kofa/news/webzine/BC_0000061188)\n\n## Style\n\nThe film departs deliberately from the strict realism that dominated early-1990s Korean cinema. Animation and poems are inserted between chapters, Young-shin's house and neighborhood are openly artificial sets, and the heroine speaks directly into the camera. Lee built specific images with practical means: fans and hand fans carry Song Young-chang's cigarette smoke out the window, roof tiles were coated in cooking oil, and magnolias were hung on the set so the roof glittered at midday. The film compresses all four seasons into its running time, which required an unusually long shoot for the period.[2](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/kofa/news/webzine/BC_0000061188) A Google Arts & Culture feature on the Korean New Wave describes it as portraying a college freshman's memories of first love \"in fantastic and artificial scenes,\" and quotes the judgment that if Bae Chang-ho's *Our Joyful Young Days* was the most romantic Korean film of the 1980s, *First Love* held that position in the 1990s.[9](https://artsandculture.google.com/story/korean-new-wave-korean-film-archive/EQUxw3Yiph4A8A?hl=en)\n\n## Reception\n\nThe film failed commercially, drawing only 5,856 admissions in Seoul, and was later listed among the \"cursed\" Korean films of the 1990s in a 1999 *Premiere* survey of the decade's overlooked gems and failures.[3](https://www.cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=1619) • [10](https://dvdprime.com/g2/bbs/board.php?bo_table=movie&wr_id=2341913) Lee himself recalled the initial response: \"In 1993, people saw it and thought it was childish and embarrassing,\" adding that momentary judgment can be overturned at any time.[11](https://www.filmcomment.com/kaiju-shakedown-lee-myung-se/) Over time the film was reevaluated; the Korean Film Council notes that local critics frequently cite it as one of the masterpieces of 1990s Korean cinema despite its cold public reception.[5](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/view/news.jsp?blbdComCd=601018&category=IN_FOCUS&seq=370) It screened in the Korean retrospective at the first Busan International Film Festival in 1996, at the 4th Korean Film Festival in Paris in 2009, and in the London Korean Film Festival's \"Contemporary Classics: Lee Myung-se & The 1990s\" program in 2018.[12](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=1063&pyear=1996) • [13](https://asianwiki.com/First_Love_%281993-Korean_Movie%29) • [6](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=19930032)\n\nKim Hye-soo won Best Actress at the 14th Blue Dragon Film Awards for the role, and Lee won the Best Screenplay prize; the film also took the Baeksang Arts Award for art direction (Cho Yung-sam), the Korean Film Critics Association Award for art direction, and the Asia-Pacific Film Festival Special Jury Award.[4](https://www.filmmakers.co.kr/movies/en/19930032) Kim has described the film as a turning point in her acting career.[7](https://news.nate.com/view/20071122n04060)\n\n## Preservation\n\nThe original negative was lost, so the digital remaster had to be made from the single surviving overseas release print, working from remembered colors of key scenes to reconstruct the palette. The restored version screened in the Kim Hye-soo retrospective at the 23rd Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, and the Korean Film Archive released *First Love* together with *My Love, My Bride* in a \"Lee Myung-se Collection\" Blu-ray box set in 2024.[2](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/kofa/news/webzine/BC_0000061188) • [14](https://view.asiae.co.kr/en/article/2024111310050359109)\n\n## References\n\n1. [첫사랑, 영상도서관 자료검색, 한국영상자료원 (Korean Film Archive)](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/library/search/video/110565)\n2. [\"그 때 그 시절 선재는 어디에?\" — <첫사랑> 이명세 감독 인터뷰, KOFA 웹진 (2024)](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/kofa/news/webzine/BC_0000061188)\n3. [첫사랑 (First Love, 1993) 상세정보, 씨네21](https://www.cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=1619)\n4. [First Lover (1993), Filmmakers (Korean Film Council database)](https://www.filmmakers.co.kr/movies/en/19930032)\n5. [First Love (1993), Korean Film Council In Focus](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/view/news.jsp?blbdComCd=601018&category=IN_FOCUS&seq=370)\n6. [First Lover (1993), KOFIC Korean Film Database](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=19930032)\n7. [이명세 감독 \"김혜수 영화 '첫사랑' 내 이야기다\", 뉴스엔 (2007)](https://news.nate.com/view/20071122n04060)\n8. [김혜수 캐스팅 배경 보도, 다음/연합뉴스 (2016)](https://v.daum.net/v/20160205162659124?s=print_news)\n9. [Korean New Wave, Google Arts & Culture (Korean Film Archive)](https://artsandculture.google.com/story/korean-new-wave-korean-film-archive/EQUxw3Yiph4A8A?hl=en)\n10. [이명세의 첫사랑(1993) 비디오와 이동진 평론, DVDPrime (2019)](https://dvdprime.com/g2/bbs/board.php?bo_table=movie&wr_id=2341913)\n11. [Kaiju Shakedown: Lee Myung-Se, Film Comment (2012)](https://www.filmcomment.com/kaiju-shakedown-lee-myung-se/)\n12. [1st Busan International Film Festival (1996), Korean Retrospective](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=1063&pyear=1996)\n13. [First Love (1993-Korean Movie), AsianWiki](https://asianwiki.com/First_Love_%281993-Korean_Movie%29)\n14. [The Korean Film Archive Releases Blu-ray of Lee Myung-se's Early Work, The Asia Business Daily (2024)](https://view.asiae.co.kr/en/article/2024111310050359109)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of 1990 to 1994 › Titles symbols to J*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/first-love-1993-film", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/first-love-1993-film.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. 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Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "First Love is a 1993 South Korean drama-romance film directed by Lee Myung-se, starring Kim Hye-soo as a 19-year-old art student in love with an older drama lecturer; a box office failure later reevaluated as a 1990s Korean classic." }