The movie "First Love" starring Masataka Kuwata was officially released on DVD, and the title of the film alone thought it was a pure love film, but in fact, it had little to do with first love, and seeing that the director was Takashi Miike, there was a very unusual premonition about this movie.
Director: Takashi Miike
Starring: Masataka Koda
Co-stars: Nantomo Omori / Shota Someya / Koko Konishi / becky / Atsushi Murakami / 3 provinces / 圣阳 / Kodai Miura
Synopsis:
Set one night in Tokyo, a well-run boxer Leo (Masataka Kuwata) meets his first love, Monica (Sakurako Konishi), who turns into a drug-addicted call girl who unknowingly falls into a drug smuggling scheme, and the two are hunted down by corrupt police, gangsters, Leo's rivals, and killers sent by the Triad.
▲American version of the poster
Takashi Miike is one of the few well-known directors in The International Film Scene in Japan today, and this "First Love" was shortlisted for the parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival.
As a commercial film director, he has also been nominated twice for the Palme d'Or at Cannes and the Golden Lion of Venice twice. (Generally, this kind of international award is biased towards the selection of literary and artistic films)
Takashi Miike and Masataka Kuwata in Cannes
Takashi Miike, who was an assistant to Masahira Imamura, a japanese temple director in his early years, is a director with a very personal style, who once wore a Japanese geisha costume at Cannes to attend the promotional meeting of his new film, both in the film and outside the film.
Although he has made a lot of works on the dark side of society, he bluntly said that it is not to solve social problems, which has nothing to do with him as a director, he just makes movies.
Some Chinese media asked him, now more and more Japanese directors and Chinese films cooperation, he should not consider it, Miike Takashi directly replied "I will never go abroad to make movies", even though there are already many Hollywood film companies to talk about cooperation, but he thinks that it is difficult to create without the local environment, if overseas audiences like their own movies are also very happy.
"Violent aesthetics" and "heavy taste" are his biggest characteristics, and his past representative works include "Hot Blood College", "The Cult of Evil", "Love of Skin", "Thirteen Assassins", "4.6 Billion Years of Love", "Shield of Straw", "Infinite Resident" and so on.
Masataka Wata revealed that when he first met director Takashi Miike that year, his first impression was that he was sitting there, like a terrible person.
The director initially said" "I want to make a pure love film this time".
However, within three minutes of the film, a human head rolled out... Sure enough, you are a bad old man, very bad, still that Miike Takashi, or that familiar taste.
If you must say it, this "First Love" is a hardcore love story.
Masataka Kuwata plays boxer Katsujo in the film, who is defeated by the other side in a match that should not have been lost, and happens to meet his first love Monica, she is caught up in a drug smuggling plan, the two are chased by the police, gangsters and killers sent by the rival triad, and spend a black romantic night in the underworld.
One is a delirious teenage girl, the other is a down-and-out boxer who has no thoughts about life, they don't have too much language between them, occasionally listen to the Walkman together, occasionally shuttle between the streets, subways, occasionally being chased, occasionally meeting in fists.
Originally gave people a warm and jade feeling that The little brother of Wada was trained by Takashi Miike, it was also a bright spot, whether it was the shape or the demeanor, he had a different consciousness, from thin and thin to the boxer's lean and healthy body, punching powerful and accurate, like a professional boxer.
In terms of demeanor, he deliberately adjusted the exposure of emotions, especially when he learned that he was in the advanced stage of terminal illness, several sets of reactions were exemplary, from panic to loss of concentration, to disbelief, to sudden realization, to the final mourning, the level is progressive, extremely soothing and real.
Bunya Jun felt that Masataka Kuwata in this film was fully qualified to compete for the film emperor of next year's Japan Olympics.
In this night light, there are some other seemingly insignificant people, the gangster played by Someya Shota, who conspires to usurp the throne and get money and fame, and in the process of implementation, every link goes wrong, especially when he himself faces a sudden accident, his panic and obscenity are in stark contrast to his previous strategizing.
In the gray and dark black painting style dominated by Takashi Miike, everyone is like a battle of trapped beasts, and for the sake of the fly head, a desperate struggle about blood and tears begins.
In the story of Takashi Miike, everyone seems to have no exact purpose, for money, for beauty, or desire, they seem to have a natural bloodthirsty instinct, without saying a word, it is a shot, it is a knife, illogical killing, is Miike Takashi's image style throughout.
Takashi Miike also added a lot of absurdity in black humor, and the appearance of several groups of characters is like an absurd farce, disorderly, that is, the kind of accidental random encounter, which happens and then ends.
Those who like Masataka Wata and Takashi Miike should not miss this movie.