‘First Love’ furthers director’s stylistic trademarks

“Don’t you know? What matters the most is keeping humanity.” 

That line in the film may have been delivered as a moral declaration, but it is also a basic question of screenwriting 101: How can we best bring a character to life, as a believable and three-dimensional person without relying on tropes that render them flat and utterly predictable?

Takashi Miike has a masterclass to offer on this subject in his body of work, a streak he continues in his latest film “First Love.” 

The film was screened for students and faculty at the School of Cinematic Arts’ Michelle and Kevin Douglas IMAX Theatre Tuesday as part of SCA’s weekly Outside the Box [Office] international film showcase. 

The noir-tinged gangster action-comedy follows an unlikely pairing between up-and-coming boxer Leo (Masataka Kubota), who has recently learned he has mere weeks to live, and drug-addicted call girl Monica (Sakurako Konishi). Monica runs into Leo while escaping the hallucinated ghost of her abusive father on the grimy streets of Tokyo.

Through a string of crazy coincidences (which make the film a true Miike narrative), the two somehow become scapegoats in a drug heist by mid-level gangster Kase (Shôta Sometani) during a fierce turf war between a waning local Yakuza branch and the Chinese Triads encroaching on their territory. What ensues is a beautiful chaos of personalities, blood and betrayals that gets more and more fun as the night goes on.  

In spite of the lost and hopeless souls that navigate the narrative, Miike imbues the film with a flippant ‘c’est la vie’ sort of attitude that might be distantly discomforting. He makes a dancing joke out of the ghost of Yuri’s abusive father, and as Kase’s failed wannabe-Machiavellian trysts continue to churn out an unintentional yet brutal body count, you can’t help but laugh at the outrageous, morbid ways in which things have gone wrong because of the blasé way he shrugs them off as nothing more than a grating inconvenience. It’s a little tame by Miike standards (for comparison, his 2001 “Ichi the Killer” was banned for showing and distribution in several countries due to its graphic content), but overall, it is quick-witted and wildly entertaining. 

You never doubt that Miike loves all his characters. It is Monica’s circumstances, not her character, that make her an object of pity, and Miike never ceases to remind us that through a bout of chance on one crazy night, those circumstances can be redeemed. Leo’s journey from wayward fighter without purpose to reluctant hero with no fear of death (which is, in a way, a superpower) brews with potential and hope. 

With such a large ensemble cast, there is a feeling that none of them get as much screen time as they should, but from their introductions to their untimely deaths, each character arc is made thoroughly memorable. And amid rolling heads and ringing shots, this is still a sweet story of blossoming trust between a boy and girl — a little clichéd, a little simple to follow, but genuine nevertheless. It’s a crowd-pleaser for sure. 

So while the level of ultraviolence may be daunting and most of the players are not left standing at the end of the film, in a roundabout way there’s a saccharine-sweet core to this morbid Yakuza flick. Even the most sentimental (though maybe not squeamish) viewers will be heartened to know that in his 103rd feature, the veteran Miike doesn’t fail to capture the essence of Hatsukoi — of sweet, sincere “First Love.”