First Love

Prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike offers another in his wild yakuza movies in this mixture of romantic comedy and ultra-violent action flick, with a dash of the supernatural thrown in for good measure. Set over a single night in Tokyo, the multi-character piece stars Masataka Kubota as Leo, a taciturn boxer whose career is derailed when he gets a diagnosis that he has a brain tumor. By chance, he meets Yuri, or Monica (Sakurako Kanishi), a girl who has been forced into prostitution (and drug use) to pay off her father’s debts and is haunted by his ghost. Leo rescues her from crooked cop Otomo (Nao Omori), who is conspiring with mobster Kase (Shota Sometani) to steal a pile of cash from Kase’s gang and pin the theft on her. When Kase kills one of his comrades in crime, the dead man’s sword-wielding girlfriend (Becky Rabone) furiously seeks revenge. All of them, along with a slew of criminals and cops, engage in a succession of chases, fistfights and explosions that culminate in an extended standoff in a huge store; along the way there are plenty of sudden deaths, some by grisly decapitation. Miike’s cartoonish style—at one point the movie actually turns into animation—and dark sense of humor are everywhere apparent, and the result is a thoroughly outlandish, but enjoyable, piece of pulp nonsense, though not for the faint of heart. Extras include two trailers and previews for several other films. Recommended. (F. Swietek)