Further Afield: Takeshi Miike's First Love (2019)

Harkening back to the likes of Dead or Alive (1999) and City of Lost Souls (2000), Takashi Miike returns once again to the Yakuza genre with First Love (2019), a dementedly violent and blackly comic crime thriller.

While more mainstream than those mentioned, First Love still proves the director hasn’t lost his touch when it comes to taking his audience on a wild ride amongst the Japanese underworld. Filled with unexpected twists and the eccentric characters we have come to expect from Miike, there is no way fans of his work would be disappointed.

Those put off with the title shouldn’t worry. Sure, there is primarily a love story at the centre of the tale, but he makes sure to surround it with enough of his usual gonzo elements that fans of his will feel right at home.

Initially the focus is on Leo (Masataka Kubota) a young and upcoming boxer who has just been informed that he has an ineoprable brain tumour. Walking the streets in a state of shock he comes to the rescue of Yuri a.k.a. Monica (Sakurako Konishi), a young woman who has been sold into prostitution to pay off her Fathers gambling debts.

From here we are introduced to a multitude of characters, some important to the main plot while others are introduced to merely be cannon fodder minutes later. Also on the lookout for Monica is low level Yakuza Kase (Shôta Sometani) and a corrupt cop (Sansei Shiomi) who have concocted a plan of stealing drugs from the Yakuza and plan to pin it on Yuri.

Due to Kase’s continuing foul ups, more and more people end up on the trail of Leo and Yuri throughout the night, with it escalating into an all-out battle between the Yakuza and the Chinese Triads.

First Love marks Miike’s 103rd film, with him still displaying the energetic flair apparent in the majority of his back catalogue. Miike doesn’t waste any time in letting the audience know what they are in store for, with a beheading taking place before the five minute mark has even passed.

This is only the first of the films many violent encounters. Typical of Miike, a good deal of these encounters are played for laughs, with the suddenness of the violence being as much comical as it is shocking.

Although on paper the plot seems straight forward, Miike makes sure to give it his personal touch. One standout element is Yuri constantly having hallucinations of her father, who in her eyes is naked other than a pair of Y-fronts. One scene on a train is both creepy and hilarious in equal measure.

Setting it apart from other mainstream actioners is the amount of eccentric characters that fill out the cast. Both Masataka Kubota and Sakurako Konishi are fine in the lead roles of Leo and Yuri, but truthfully their characters are somewhat bland in comparison with the support roles. This is more to do with how the characters are written than the actual acting ability of the leads.

Considering his filmography features the likes of High & Low: The Movie (2016) and Tokyo Ghoul (2017), it is no surprise that Kubota does well in the action scenes. This is good, as Leo is mostly the brooding angry type so he doesn’t exactly give Kubota a chance to stretch his acting muscles.

Likewise, Konishi’s Yuri is mainly there to be protected by Leo, although the addition of her drug addiction and hallucinations do give her role some more dramatic weight.

However, the real stand out is Shōta Sometani as Kase. Setting the wheels in motion, Kase just has a knack of making things worse for himself and everyone else as the film progresses. Even he jokes at one point how he can’t believe how many people he has had to kill.

Raising the crazy factor is Julie (Becky), the crazed girlfriend of Yuri’s dead pimp. Hysterically over the top, Julie has made it her mission to kill those responsible for her man’s death, no matter who they are.

Rounding out the cast are the likes of Sansei Shioma, Takahiro Miura and Nao Omori, who all make lasting impressions. Miike fans should recognise Omori from the earlier Ichi the Killer (2001) where he played the title character.

First Love takes its time before getting to the action. Miike takes time to introduce all the characters and plot strands before bringing them altogether, climaxing in a lengthy action scene that begins with a car chase before extending into a massive hardware store that brings all the separate characters together in a violent free for all.

The action isn’t on the scale of Miike’s best work, with him occasionally shooting too close to the actors and restricting the full impact of the choreography. Perhaps this was to cover over the limited capabilities of some of the cast. Still, for the most part the action is fun and frenetic, with Miike including some noticeable homage’s to Hong Kong cinema and Jidaigeki films.

He even includes his very own one armed swordsman in the form of Yen Cheng-kuo.

Theres even a particularly memorable animated sequence that was probably included to cover up what would have been an otherwise expensive stunt. In any other film it would feel out of place, but here it fits in with the overall style Miike has created.

It is no surprise to see that the script is the work of Masa Nakamura, as he has worked on numerous Miike films through the years, with The Bird of People in China (1998) and Dead or Alive 2: Birds (2000) being clear stand outs. Clearly Nakamura shares a lot of the same ideals as Miike when it comes to storytelling.

Surprisingly, First Love was released in the U.S. and U.K before being shown on its home turf. While not a classic on the scale of 13 Assassins (2010), I would disbelieve anyone that says they weren’t won over by First Love’s exuberant energy.

Rating: 4/5