Four friends who kept postponing the trip of a lifetime finally take it in The First Ride, and predictably, nothing about the itinerary survives first contact with reality.
What is The First Ride about?
Tae-jeong, Do-jin, Yeon-min, and Geum-bok have been promising each other an overseas trip since they were younger, single, and far less encumbered by adult life. The 2025 South Korean film catches up with them years later, older, busier, and still nowhere near as prepared as they think they are, as they finally set off together. What was meant to be a relaxed getaway quickly turns into a string of chaotic detours, mishaps, and long-buried arguments the four of them have been avoiding for years. Director Nam Dae-joong leans into the comedy of grown men behaving like the twenty-somethings they used to be, while leaving room for the trip to surface feelings none of them planned to deal with on the road. By the end, the misadventure becomes less about the destination and more about the friendship that got them there in the first place.
About the cast
Kang Ha-neul, Kim Young-kwang, Cha Eun-woo, Kang Young-suk, Han Seon-hwa, and Kim Kang-hyun make up the film's core group, playing friends whose dynamic has clearly been shaped by years of history together. The ensemble spans well-known faces from South Korean film and television, giving the four leads an easy, lived-in chemistry that a road-trip comedy depends on.
Context & significance
The First Ride sits in a familiar but reliable tradition of friend-group travel comedies, the kind built on the gap between what a trip is supposed to be and what it actually turns into once real personalities and old history get involved. At 117 minutes, it has enough room to let both the comedy and the more emotional threads land without rushing either. Fans of adventure-comedy will recognize the beats — missed connections, unplanned detours, disagreements that have been simmering for years — deployed here with a lighter touch than a straight drama would allow.
Watching The First Ride on Ktime
The film is available on K-Time with both a Persian dub and Persian subtitles, so viewers can choose whichever format suits them. Streaming it requires nothing more than a free K-Time account login, while the page itself remains free to browse and read without signing in. K-Time's interface is built Farsi-first for the Iranian diaspora, meaning search, recommendations, and watchlists all appear in Persian from the start.