PopHorror Let's Get Scared
I’ve loved Takashi Miike films for years, ever since my brother first introduced me to the wonder and the horror that is Audition. So I was so excited to get to review his new film, First Love. The film stars Masataka Kubota, Sakurako Konishi, Takahiro Miura, Jun Murakami, Shota Sometani, Nao Ohmori, and Becky.
Synopsis for First Love
When a duplicitous scheme by the low-level yakuza, Kase (Shota Sometani) goes hilariously wrong, a terminally ill boxer, Leo (Masataka Kubota), and a disturbed drug addicted call girl, Monica (Sakurako Konishi), find themselves innocently caught in the crosshairs of two warring gangs. Over the course of the increasingly ludicrous night, the two fall passionately in love, while the hail of bullets and blood fall quietly in the background.
The story starts with a somber, orphaned boxer, Leo, who collapses during a fight, and later finds out he has a brain tumor. It moves on to a drug-addicted call girl named Monica, who is working off her dead father’s debt to drug dealers. Then on to another story that includes a crooked cop Otomo and thug Kasa, who decide to rip off drugs from Kasa’s own Yakuza gang. But things just never seem to go the way our characters plan, and Leo and Monica find themselves together in the middle of Otomo, Kasa, the Yakuza, and the Chinese Triad. They better start running!
In true Miike style, the characters are many, and the plot is downright crazy! At first, I had a little trouble keeping track of the characters, but he does a great job of weaving all the plot lines together skillfully all the way until the wild, insane, and chaotic end. My main criticism of First Love is that there were so many characters that there was no time to really develop most of them. Leo was the exception, and he was beautifully done, a sweet, soulful type who learns to use his skills to protect another instead of just in the ring. He is played to perfection by Masataka Kubota (13 Assassins), and he is the beating, sweetheart of this film.
Any Takashi Miike lover will want to see this! There is not as much violence as some of his usual fare, but there is as much action and some wackiness (a ghost in tidy whities?!) too. I’d absolutely recommend this! First Love is now available on Digital, Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD from Well Go USA Entertainment.
