This ended up being my pick. I loved this the first time I saw it and always felt like it went a bit underseen. This was the last movie for July, which ended up having an unofficial theme: gangster movies.
Takashi Miike is a prolific director and First Love is his 103rd credit. This gangland romp is familiar territory for him, following Leo Katsurugi (Masataka Kubota), a young boxer who feels a lack of purpose in life and is told he has a brain tumor with only a few weeks left to live. Shortly after learning this he crosses paths with Yuri (Sakurako Konishi), a drug addict forced into prostitution by the yakuza in order to pay off her father’s debt, who has also been set up to take the fall for a robbery plotted by a yakuza member and a corrupt cop. The situation grows increasingly complex as the robbery spirals out of control and a misunderstanding ignites a conflict between the triad and yakuza, with each party converging as they chase after Yuri and Leo over the course of one hectic night.
Trivia:
- The 11th collaboration between director Takashi Miike and screenwriter Masa Nakamura. Miike directed Nakamura’s first film, The Way to Fight (1996).
- Intended to be a throwback of sorts to “v-cinema”, Japanese straight to video genre films, as Miike felt like yakuza films were losing popularity, while also being a bit of a crossover film due to its young stars and romance angle.1
What did you think? Share your thoughts below!
Up Next: August’s theme is Flopbusters! Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017) is up first. Here’s where it’s available:
USA
- Stream: Prime Video, Filmbox+
- Rent or Buy: Amazon, Apple TV, Microsoft Store, Google Play, YouTube, Fandango At Home
Canada
- Steam: Prime Video, Filmbox+
- Rent or Buy: Apple TV, Microsoft Store, Google Play, YouTube, Cineplex Store
UK
- Stream: Filmbox+
- Rent or Buy: Amazon, Apple TV, Microsoft Store, Google Play, YouTube, Rakuten TV, Sky Store