ReviewThe First Girl I Loved movie review: tale of lesbian lovers’ high-school romance let down by hokey screenwriting

The First Girl I Loved tells the story of two girls who start a lesbian affair while they’re students at an all-girl Catholic school

Promising young actresses Hedwig Tam and Renci Yeung play the lead roles in a film let down by heavy-handed writing

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Hedwig Tam (left) and Renci Yeung in a still from The First Girl I Loved (category IIA, Cantonese), directed by Yeung Chiu-hoi and Candy Ng Wing-shan.

Published: 4:25pm, 22 Nov 2021

2/5 stars

The First Girl I Loved revolves around a lesbian relationship that begins passionately in a religious high school and then peters out when the two Hong Kong women are in their 20s and finally in charge of their own fates. This story of yearning and regret is unfortunately far more poignant on paper than it is on screen.

The co-directorial debut of TVB actor Yeung Chiu-hoi and advertising director Candy Ng Wing-shan, who also co-wrote the screenplay (with Susan Sin Wing-na), the film’s heavy-handed writing and curiously regressive view of the same-sex romantic experience turn the premise into a rather corny, naive and hollow story.

What this nostalgic tale of sexual awakening does have going for it is Hedwig Tam Sin-yin and Renci Yeung Sz-wing in the lead roles. The two, who also co-starred in the relationship comedy Ready or Knot earlier this year, are among Hong Kong cinema’s most notable up-and-coming actresses.

Teenage best friends Wing (Tam) and Sylvia (Yeung) are classmates in an all-girl Catholic secondary school. Wing has a crush on their male art teacher, but a playful declaration of love by Sylvia out of nowhere awakens her to an untapped desire, and the two start a chaste but heated romance.