First Love (Hatsukoi), dir. Takashi Miike, Japan / United Kingdom 2019, 104 min., Japanese with English subtitles, 15
Legendary Japanese director Takashi Miike dives back into the yakuza underworld for this exhilarating thriller.
Leo (Masataka Kubota) is a young boxer who looks down for the count when he’s diagnosed with a brain tumour. One evening, he meets Monica (Sakurako Konishi), a young woman forced into selling her body to pay a debt – and Leo’s first love. But when the pair are unwittingly caught up in a drugs-smuggling scheme, they’re pursued by a corrupt cop, a yakuza, his nemesis and a female assassin in a wild and electric chase through the Tokyo night.
no. 236848.