First Love
2019 · Directed by Takashi Miike
Original language: Japanese
- crime
- action
- comedy
The story
One night in Tokyo, Leo, a young boxer, meets his first love, Monica, an imprisoned sex worker. Caught up in a drug-smuggling scheme, they find themselves pursued by a corrupt cop, a yakuza, his nemesis, and a female assassin.
What it’s like
Neon-soaked Kabukicho nights rendered in saturated reds, sickly greens and hard white streetlight, with Takashi Miike's restless handheld camera lunging through narrow alleys, love hotels and dim izakaya rooms. The mood swings hard between bloody, hyperkinetic violence and sudden stretches of tender stillness, all held together by a bright, loud pop-punk-flavoured score and a dark comedic streak that keeps the chaos from feeling oppressive. Violence is frequent and graphic: stabbings, beatings and gunfire, some of it played for absurd, stylised effect, with blood spray and brief sexual content and nudity tied to the sex-work setting. The emotional core is a young man and a woman who have been cut apart by the world, now racing toward one last night together against a terminal diagnosis, so the arcs are about doomed devotion and reckless self-sacrifice. Best suited to viewers who want a frantic, romantic crime ride with dark humour, and who can handle explicit violence without flinching.
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