First Love jmovie review

Miike Takashi. No other director has directed so many movies that I love: Zebraman, Gyakuten Saiban, Taiyo no Kizu, Salaryman Kintaro, Ichi the Killer and yet created so many bad movies like Laplace's Witch, Yakuza Apocalypse and Mugen no Junin. 

Laplace's Witch was really, really bad. It was like a songwriter who thought he had written a good song because he copied some beats but did not realise that nothing flowed together. Will Miike get his groove back?

In the beginning of the movie, Miike feels more focused. We are introduced to a young boxer, Katsuragi Leo. We are told that he is an orphan and that he boxes because its the only thing he knows.

Next we are introduced Sometani Shota and Omori Nao as a yakuza and corrupt cop who cook up a plan to steal from the yakuza. There is a drug addicted prostitute who has hallucinations called Monika who runs into Leo.

There are two main stories in First Love. First is the story between Leo the boxer and Monika the prostitute. The second is this yakuza dark comedy mix up where nothing in Sometani's plan to betray his yakuza group happens according to plan. Sometani really steals the show as the slimy Kase who has no conscience and I did not want him to die because I wanted to see what he would do next.

Two-thirds of the movie, I really enjoyed. I was grinning ear to ear thinking this is going to be one of Miike's best. The last third, not so much because it turns into a really badly shot 'action' mayhem. The camera work and choreography is truly C level. 100 movies later and Miike can't shoot action to save his life. 

There are some scenes with low level, can't see anything camera work that feels like it should have been edited out of the movie. I think he convinced Uchino Masaaki to be in this movie on the promise he would play a yakuza with a sword but what's the point when you can't see anything? Where the hell is quality control?

I am not against close cameras and quick cuts for action. I love Paul Greengrass's work because he knows how to frame action and make it coherant like manga panels. Miike's framing feels lazy as if they ran out of time and budget to shoot the final action scenes or maybe he didn't care.

I just hated how the turned such a promising movie into a nonsense, badly shot action scene. Why is the Chinese mafia lady in there with her talk of chivalry (ninkyou)? What is the whole point of Uchino Masaaki's character? 

Miike is trying to merge the nihilistic action comedy from Ichi and Yakuza apocalypse with the story of Leo and Monika and they just cancel each other out. He is such an infuriating director to me. First Love could have been just a great movie.

Loved the first two thirds of First Love and hated the last third. I don't know how to rate this. I think I will be staying away from Miike movies for a long while. I wonder what Sono Sion has been doing lately?