First Love

First Love is gangster film at its most entertaining, and good news for those who tend to think that Takashi Miike's most gory and violent cinematic excesses can be a bit too much. The plot evolves around a young boxing champion with a deadly brain tumor, who gets involved in an internal yakuza conflict together with a young prostitute with a severe trauma inflicted by her childhood. The conflict plays our first in psyhological thriller mode, before the film kicks into action gear before its blood-dripping, gut-wrenching finale.

Takashi Miike (b. 1960) is one of Japan's best known and most versatile directors. Since 1991 he has directed more than 100 films for TV, video, and cinema. Best known for his yakuza or gangster films, he has also directed comedies, musicals, children's films, and period drama. Many of his films have played at Films from the South, such as Terra Formars in 2016.