This film marked the first time I've bothered seeing a new Japanese film in theatre in 2½ years... shouldn't have.
First Love (初恋) (Japan, 2019) [DCP] - 1.5/5
Miike's "return to roots", a dull one-night yakuza/cops/youngsters crash course completely void of the vigour that made his old films cinematic Duracell bunnies. Masataka Kubota and Sakura Konishi make a pair of good looking young leads with zero sparks between them; Shota Sometani gets the laughs by looking absolutely ridiculous as a mad yakuza. There's not one interesting action set piece in the film despite plentiful mayhem during the second half. Even worse, the film opens with a grainy Toei logo, but immediately after reverts to digital dog shit that looks like Japanese TV or a DTV yakuza film. Oddly though, the last 10 min looks very good, and is the only interesting part of the film story wise as well. Other two positives: no CGI blood, and finally there are convincing gun effects (largely MIA from Japanese cinema for the past 10 years).
Version reviewed: 115 min Japanese theatrical. The US/UK version seems to be about 7 min shorter, running 108 min as confirmed by various sources including the BBFC.
Taku enjoyed it much better than I did
Guro Taku wrote: ↑23 Feb 2020, 19:40
First Love (初恋) (Japan, 2019) [BD] - 3.5/5
This turned out to be a pleasant surprise from Miike, who arguably directs his best film here since 13 Assassins (2010). This story of a young boxer diagnosed with a brain tumor getting involved with a girl who's been selected as a scapegoat in a drug war between yakuza, triads and a crooked cop, also feels closer to what got me interested in Miike in the first place than the rampant idiocy of, say, Yakuza Apocalypse (2015). I would have rated it even higher if it had stuck the landing as well but after 95 propulsive minutes the film can't seem to find an ending and keeps going for another 10 minutes. I did love the final shot, though.
In case someone's a fan, Hard Core Chocolate has made a pretty nice t-shirt

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