FIRST LOVE

Japan, 2020, 108 minutes, Colour.

Masayuka Kubota, Sakurako Konishi, Shota, Sometani.

Directed by Takashi Miike.

A rather enticing title, a gentle invitation to experience the blossoming of love. But, what follows is not exactly gentle nor genteel! This is a crime drama, drug dealing drama, a tough fist fight and sabre-wielding action, one might say, extravaganza.

It is probably prudent to write in a review that this is a Japanese drama that will not appeal to audiences who find it difficult to cope with on-screen violence. Rather, it is for a niche audience for the films of Takashi Miike, very popular in Japan as well as round the world, his films range from samurai blade films to gangsters and guns). It is a film which appeals to his fan base (and bloggers wax enthusiastic about his films and about First Love).

So, a question arises, will one become part of this fan base? An IMDb blogger suggests an approach: “When one goes to see a Takashi Miike film one expects certain things. It has to be grotesquely violent, slightly tongue in the cheek and an over the top story that that would never work with anyone else at the helm.” Another fan adds: “Devilishly intricate and delightfully insane “

So, how does First Love fit in with this scenario? Actually, the title doesn’t come up for 13 minutes, after an introduction to central characters and complex and conflicting themes. There is young Leo, training to be a boxer. There is Yuri, sold by her father to drug dealers, her having to pay off his debt by prostitution, and her becoming a severe addict. Then there is the corrupt policeman, doing deals with the Yakuza, a tough boss getting out of prison, a baby-faced psychopath who will cause all kinds of trouble – and mayhem.

And, yes, as the corrupt policeman is dragging Yuri down the street, plans to get hold of a bag of drugs, Leo bumps into him and Yuri runs away. Not exactly Romeo and Juliet, but one might say with some overtones, touches of tragedy, pursuit, threats, the prelude to love, and saving-love in action.

There are quite a lot of characters in this drug dealing world and in the world of the Yakuza, as well as rival Chinese gangs, all in pursuit of the drugs, but complicated by the psychopath and his greed, his outbursts of violence, carelessly and viciously killing people but getting his comeuppance from one of his victims whom he tried to kill by burning her apartment, confronting him in a clothing warehouse and (spoiler!) decapitation.

In the culmination of the action that does take place in this warehouse, all the interested parties are present, pursuits, shooting, fights, swords, and the police arriving with machine guns.

Actually, the end of the film does have the tone of first love, some gentle sequences with Leo and Yuri, his boxing, her cold turkey experience, some nice sequences in broad daylight with ordinary people around.

For the fan base.