'First Love'

The freakishly prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike throws his all into his latest blood-drenched gangster drama, “First Love,” whose title isn’t as ironic as you might think.

In the darker recesses of a city, Monica (Sakurako Konichi) is trapped. She’s forced to pay off her father’s debts by selling her body to the yakuza, and she’s kept as a slave by Yasu (Takahiro Miura), a drug dealer who keeps Monica high on his product.

Elsewhere in the city lives Leo (Masataka Kubota), a boxer whose promising career seems to be cut short when he goes down too easily during a bout. After looking at his MRI, a neurologist tells Leo that he has an inoperable brain tumor and not long to live.

When Leo crosses paths with Monica, it’s when she’s running in terror from Otomo (Nao Omori), a dirty cop who’s involved in a plot to kidnap Monica so Yasu can deliver drugs to an ambitious junior yakuza, Kase (Shota Sometani). Leo can’t help himself but to drop Otomo on the ground with one punch, and he and Monica are suddenly on the run, as a convoluted gangster plot plays out in their wake.

Mike keeps the action moving with barely room to breathe — and the action is so outlandish and comical that, at one point, it literally becomes a cartoon. When Miike does slow down, he creates space for a tender romance to bloom between Leo and Monica, two innocents amid the gunplay and swordplay going on around them. 

“First Love” is the sort of over-the-top action comedy where when someone mentions a contract killer named One-Armed Wang, you can bet the farm that a guy will eventually show up cocking his shotgun with his one good arm. It’s got plenty of gags, buckets of blood, and a surprising amount of soul.

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‘First Love’

★★★1/2

Opened September 27 in select cities; opens Friday, Nov. 1, at the Tower Theatre (Salt Lake City). Not rated, but probably R for strong violence, drug use, and some sexual references and language. Running time: 108 minutes; in Japanese with subtitles.