The finale drew a 65.8% nationwide audience share and became a cultural phenomenon.
Its mix of innocent teenage romance and family conflict left a powerful aftertaste.
The choice not to reunite the leads in the end sparked discussion that crossed generations.
Asking Again: Why Did "First Love" Become a Legend?
The story began with teenage love
Innocence and conflict coexisted.
After the first broadcast on April 13, 1996, the show quickly became a national drama.
Early ratings were in the mid-30s, then rose past 40% within a month.
The 65.8% finale remains a landmark that shook Korea's TV industry that year.
However, the broadcasting environment and social context were different then.
Families still gathered around the TV on weekend evenings, and there was no on-demand replay service.
Therefore a single episode could become the conversation topic for an entire society.
As a result, a slang term—"first-love depression"—even entered the vernacular.
Ratings were not just numbers but evidence of widespread empathy.
The production was adapted from A Dog of Flanders and layered with Korean sentiment (A Dog of Flanders is a well-known 19th-century European story often adapted across cultures).
Family conflict, class differences, and opposition from a mother and maternal uncle supplied the dramatic tension.
Strong performances and a popular soundtrack deepened viewers' immersion.
Looking into the protagonists' world
Their childhood meeting, separation, and attempts to reunite drive the plot.
Their story moves between private feelings and family and social restraints.
Chanhyuk (played by Choi Soo-jong) and Hyokyung (played by Lee Seung-yeon) embodied adolescent purity.
However, that purity soon collided with the barriers of reality.
Opposition from Hyokyung's mother and uncle symbolized forces that limit private love.
Those forces touched on patriarchal and class pressures present in Korean society at the time.
Meanwhile, comic characters eased the heaviness.
Small jokes from Dong-pal and light husband-and-wife comedy scenes balanced the drama and increased its appeal.
This genre mix widened the show's emotional reach.
The love story resonated by swinging between sorrow and laughter.
Social reverberation and cultural meaning
Its impact was the result of national consumption of a shared story.
After episodes aired, people still talked about them on streets and in schools, showing the show's power.
An episode could dominate Monday conversations, revealing the cultural focus of the moment.
Reports even said some couples postponed weddings because of the drama’s emotional pull.
Moreover, the series reflected social structures beyond a simple romance.
Class differences and family problems connected directly to Korean sentiment.
That connection offered many viewers a point of empathy.
Consequently, the drama formed both private feelings and collective memory.
The aftertaste of the show became a social memory as well as a personal one.
The soundtrack's popularity and the actors' fandoms formed another axis of media consumption.
In that way, "First Love" rose above a single broadcast and came to symbolize a generation.
That symbol has continued to influence later romantic dramas.
Balance of genre and narrative
Direction that refuses to tip completely to one side.
The series mixed melodrama with comedy and social realism.
This combination engaged viewers on multiple emotional levels.
When emotions surged, comedy offered relief, and social conflict lent weight to the story.
As a result, the work resisted easy categorization into a single genre.
Also, the media environment then intensified immersion.
The inability to replay episodes made viewing a focused activity, and that focus became social sharing.
Such a chain reaction expanded the narrative's impact beyond the writers' and directors' original intentions.
Genre mixing was one of the main reasons the show became legendary.
For: the artistic justification for no reunion
The ending can be read as intentional incompletion.
It highlighted the meaning of the process rather than the completion of love, leaving room for lasting reflection.
This narrative choice raised the work's artistic stature and made it memorable.
At the core of this view is an appreciation for the "aesthetics of the process."
Supporters value the relationship's tension, wounds, and potential for growth more than a simple reunion.
Chanhyuk and Hyokyung's separate paths can be read as growth through love.
Therefore, a conclusion that prompts long-term reflection can be more valuable than instant satisfaction.
On the other hand, reflecting life's imperfections adds authenticity to the work.
Seen against Korea's economic and social constraints at the time, a tragic or unfinished ending can feel truer to reality.
In short, art often resonates more when it reveals pain and lack rather than idealizing life.
Not reuniting the couple makes the drama's message linger longer.
Against: audience expectations and emotional cost
Some felt the audience's emotions were overlooked.
Many viewers hoped for consolation but left with sadness instead.
Critics argue the ending imposed an excessive emotional burden on viewers.
Weekend dramas were media consumed during family time.
Therefore, some believe producers should partly account for viewers' need for catharsis (emotional release).
If an ending is too bleak, it risks being read as a lack of consideration for the audience rather than merely an artistic choice.
As the phrase "first-love depression" suggests, some viewers suffered real emotional strain from the show.
Younger audiences, especially teens and students about to enter college, were seen as vulnerable to the series' emotional shocks.
They sought comfort or hope but found a different, disappointing conclusion.
The tension was between artistic integrity and viewers' emotional safety.
Root causes: what made this happen?
Several elements combined to produce the phenomenon.
First, the narrative structure was designed around lasting conflicts and gaps.
Devices like class difference and family opposition served to prolong tension.
Second, the broadcasting system and social conditions concentrated audience attention.
Weekend family viewing and the lack of on-demand replay amplified single-episode impact.
Third, the actors' presence, the music, and comic elements strengthened emotional identification.
All these factors together produced a social phenomenon.
Meanwhile, the creators' narrative choices were intentional.
They adapted A Dog of Flanders to a Korean setting and added antagonists and realistic constraints.
As a result, the adaptation retained the original sentiment while creating a story that resonated particularly well with Korean viewers.
Such production decisions drove the public response at the time.
Legacy and present-day meaning
It remains a legend that cannot be reproduced.
After the 2010s, on-demand viewing and diverse platforms made that kind of concentrated phenomenon unlikely.
Conversely, the internet and social media can spread moments quickly, but they rarely replace the sustained, shared memory that "First Love" created.
Thus the series is best seen as a cultural product tied to a specific media ecology.
However, its themes and narrative choices still raise timely questions.
Which should a love story prioritize: resolution or the journey? How do creators balance artistic truth with public emotional expectations?
These remain important concerns for writers, audiences, and scholars today.
Conclusion
"First Love" (KBS, 1996) is a memory of an era.
Its mix of pure love and family and social conflict produced broad public sympathy.
The decision not to reunite the leads sparked debate between artistic value and audience expectation, and that debate helped make the series a legend.
Ultimately, the drama left the meaning of the journey longer in people's minds than the fruits of love.
Summary: "First Love" is remembered for a 65.8% finale rating, its social impact, and its unresolved ending.
The work is a product of Korean sentiment and its media era, and it remains a key case for pop-culture and narrative studies.
How do you interpret the show's ending?
Please share your thoughts.
