The First Frost

I know it has been a while but I just have to share how much I am in love with this drama. One thing I like to do other than reading and fashion is watching Asian dramas, but in the past couple of years the drama just doesn’t hit quite like they used to for me, So the fact that I am talking about this drama says a lot. 

First off, the reason why I was interested in this drama to begin with is because of Bai Jing Ting. I absolutely adored him in New Life Begin, another great drama by the way if you guys are looking for something light and fluffy to watch, but the other thing was when I saw the first promotional poster for The First Frost I was intrigued. I know it was just a poster and nothing can be said about how the drama is going to be but I was in love with the style of how the poster was shot.  

I knew about Zhang Ruo Nan and have seen, (keyword seen, not finished) some of her dramas but I really did not have much of an opinion on her acting so I was going into this drama with an open mind as to how she was going to portray her character. I know a lot of Chinese actresses tend to play the same characters in their dramas so I was trying not to compare her to the other drama she has been in.

Another thing I want to get out of the way is that I know this is a companion novel/drama to Hidden Love but with a whole different cast. I have not and am not interested in watching Hidden Love so I cannot compare how each actor/actress portrays their roles in each drama. I can share my opinion on this drama because this is the drama that I watched. I also did not read the novel until after episode 16 so I can only compare it to the novel based on the small parts that I read while waiting for the episodes to come out. I did not read the whole novel from beginning to end. 

With that being said, let’s move on to the review. 

Characters

I absolutely loved how Zhang Ruo Nan portrayed Wen Yi Fan. I think she did a great job playing the reserved quiet type who just keeps to herself. Like I said before I did not expect much going into this drama with her acting but I really enjoy her acting in this drama especially when it comes to more of the heavier emotional scenes. One of the first scenes that stood out to me at the very beginning of the drama was the flashback scene after her fathers death and she was worried about getting sent away again because she lost the money her aunt gave her. The compilation of that flashback just makes the scene a little more heartbreaking. I don’t know a whole lot about sleep walking but I think she was really good in those scenes with the blank expressions. 

What can I say about Bai Jing Ting? Even though I am a fan of his does not mean I loved every drama he starred in. I might start the drama but he alone is not going to make me stick with a drama. Case in point Destined with Song Yi. I started watching that drama but never made it past the first 10 episodes. Though I would say he looked beautiful with Song Yi. But he was perfect in this drama playing the cool nonchalant guy who does not let the love of his life know that everything she does affects him. I love how he loves her and does not force her to do anything that she is uncomfortable with. In other words he is perfect. 

Story

I absolutely love the story and how it was directed. Though the pacing is a slow burn romance it did not have any parts that were boring per se. I’m not a big fan of slow burn but when they are done right it makes for a perfect love story. I loved how the director was able to take things from the books and incorporate it into the drama. As someone who has seen many and I mean many book to movie adaptations and how much were changed from the book to the movie I was glad that not a lot has changed based on the parts of the novel that I read. 

Now I can’t say anything about people who have read the whole book but I can say about the parts of the books that I read. And from the small handful of chapters that I read to get me through the days of waiting for the drama episodes to come out, I can say that a lot of what happened in the books was portrayed on screen. From the sleep walking to the confession scene and even the apple that she promised him for christmas. Don’t get me started on the bathroom scene, I didn’t think that would have made the cut but it did lol. I also love the tone and color scheme of the drama. I feel like the director did a great job there. 

Afterthought 

Overall I really love this drama and the story. I am glad I picked up this drama and my excitement for it did not disappoint. I can honestly say I have not been this invested in a drama for a while. If you are looking for a slow burn more mature drama that focuses on character development of the female character I highly recommend this drama. There are some topics covering assault if that is a trigger for you just know that the female lead does face a couple assault attempts in this drama. Other than that I think the story played out beautifully and both Bai Jing Ting and Zhang Ruo Nan did an excellent job in this drama. 

Side note. I also really enjoyed the second couple and wished we had more of their story but for now I will have to settle with what we get. 

Overall this is definitely a 10 out of 10 in my book and will go down as my all time favorite. Now excuse me while I go and rewatch the drama again.