First Love (5 Stars)

When I tell people that I like Japanese films, the usual reaction is, "Oh, so you like Takashi Miike?" That's understandable. He's the best known Japanese director among younger film fans. Older fans might think of Akira Kurosawa first. In actual fact, I don't like Takashi Miike. I might like some individual films of his, but I've seen a lot of his films, and there were more that I disliked. "Ichi the Killer" is one of the few films that I turned off without watching it to the end. I bought the DVD about 15 years ago, and it's still lying on my shelf unwatched, apart from the first half hour. I can even remember buying it at Asda Small Heath, from the DVD department which has now become an optician's. That's how much of an impression it made on me.

"First Love", fortunately, is one of his best films. It begins with a young boxer called Leo training, but this is no "Rocky". We see him in two fights. He wins the first, and then he collapses in the second after what is considered to be a light punch. The doctor tells him that he has a brain tumour at the base of the skull, and he has to quit boxing.

But this is the beginning of his life.

While walking home, feeling depressed, he sees a young woman running away from a man. He knocks the man unconscious with a single punch. He checks the man's pockets (not something I'd do after a fight) and finds a police badge. That would have made me walk away from the woman, but he talks to her. Her name is Monica, she's a prostitute, and she says that the policeman had hired her for the whole night. She wasn't running away from the policeman, she was running from a vision of her dead father. She's also a heroin addict. There are so many reasons why Leo should run home and forget her, but when is love ever sensible? Especially first love.

Now the story gets complex. Six bags of heroin were being stored overnight in the apartment of  Yasu, Monica's pimp. It was due to be picked up in the morning by a Yakuza member. Another Yakuza member called Kase wanted to steal the heroin and sell it to Otomo, a corrupt policeman, blaming the theft on Monica. Otomo is the one who hired Monica, and he intended to kill her and hide the body. Kase expects the apartment to be empty, but Yasu is at home. He steals the heroin and kills Yasu, but Monica is still alive and on the run. He tells his boss that Yasu has obviously been killed by the Chinese Triad. This leads to a gang war, with Leo and Monica caught in the middle.

What can Monica see?

Ugh! A hallucination like that would terrify me as well.

The film has moral overtones. The Yakuza boss, Gondo, sees the Yakuza as a continuation of the noble Samurai tradition. Chiachi, a Triad enforcer, thinks in a similar way. She says that the Triad is bound to uphold the ideals of Confucianism. They both stand in opposition to younger Yakuza like Kase who have no honour and only want to gain wealth. Chiachi also despises Otomo for being corrupt and not fulfilling his duty.

The final three-way battle between the Yakuza, the Triad and the police is over-the-top. While the others use guns, Gondo proudly steps into battle brandishing a sword. The inclusion of a one-armed Chinese swordsman called Wang is totally irrelevant to the plot, but it adds yet another amazing fight scene.

The film is insane, but I say that as a compliment. The critics seem to get it, based on the 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Some reviewers compare "First Love" with Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill", but I don't think the comparison fits. "Kill Bill" has a logical progression that "First Love" lacks.

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