First Love
Well Go USA Entertainment | Release Date: September 27, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
77
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangSep 26, 2019
To watch it is to feel Miike’s industriousness and partake of his pleasure: The cinema is his first love and likely also his last. Read full review
90
The New York TimesGlenn KennySep 26, 2019
Miike’s seemingly offhand inventiveness is evident in almost every shot and cut. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeFeb 6, 2020
While the film is kinetic, colorful, and frantically paced, it’s also not quite as outrageous as Miike’s gonzo ‘90s yakuza movies. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloSep 24, 2019
First Love ranks among Miike’s most purely entertaining movies (out of more than 100 now!), gradually building steam until it reaches a sustained pitch of cheerful insanity. Read full review
83
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMay 18, 2019
Frequently sublime ... a piece of work so feral and full of life that you’d never guess it was (at least) the 90th feature its director has made in the last 30 years. Read full review
83
The Film StageRory O'ConnorMay 18, 2019
The pacing is breakneck but the economy with which Miike establishes his various narrative threads and characters is astonishing. Read full review
80
Little White LiesAnton BitelApr 5, 2022
This is a high-energy caper with lots of larger-than-life characters circling to kill, and two innocents at its centre about whose fate and very survival, against all odds, we are made genuinely to care. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawFeb 26, 2020
As ever with Miike, the sheer profusion of material, the torrent of wacky creativity, means that there is always something to hold the attention. It’s bizarre and very unwholesome. But weirdly inspired. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Simran HansFeb 17, 2020
Eye-popping is one way to describe the prolific Japanese director’s 103rd film, a cheerfully pulpy Tokyo-set noir. Read full review
80
EmpireAlex GodfreyFeb 13, 2020
Sweetening up a smidgen without chilling out, this is Miike having fun, bombarding us with squirm-inducing violence while making us laugh and — ever so slightly — tugging on the heartstrings. Read full review
80
Film ThreatAlex SavelievOct 12, 2019
Supremely entertaining and hilarious, First Love will melt your brains, punch you in the gut and leave your hearts a-flutter. Read full review
80
VarietyJessica KiangMay 31, 2019
First Love may be a fluffier, more eager-to-please bauble than Miike’s more challengingly outré titles, but like the cutesy mechanical toy puppy that turns up yapping in the middle of the film, it is wired to explode, and it is a blast. Read full review
80
Screen DailyAllan HunterMay 18, 2019
An exhilarating cocktail of bloodbath violence and tar-black humour that will be catnip to Midnight Madness programmers and Miike devotees. Read full review
79
The VergeTasha RobinsonSep 27, 2019
First Love is the kind of film that’s designed for seen-it-all genre fans who know these tropes (the scheming criminal, the dewy ingenues, the cold-hearted lady assassin, and so on) and appreciate seeing them tweaked in new directions, and treated with an air of fond familiarity rather than dour airlessness. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleJenny NulfOct 2, 2019
Yet while this vibrant and energetic version of Miike is certainly a blast, it can feel underwhelming when you know this was the same man who made the visceral and disturbed "Visitor Q" and the bone-chilling "Audition." Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzOct 2, 2019
First Love is neither a return to form for Miike nor is it a groundbreaking new leap into the unknown. The film rests instead in the mushy, bloody Miike middle – a pleasant diversion for the director’s faithful fans and an easy-ish entry for those eager to jump on the man’s over-the-top-is-not-good-enough wavelength. Your Miike mileage may vary – but rest assured, there’s no barf bag required. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineChuck BowenSep 23, 2019
First Love reveals itself to be an elegant and haunting Takashi Miike film in throwaway clothing. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreSep 18, 2019
If you haven’t sampled the works of Miike before now, here’s the perfect introduction. And yakuza action-comedy fans, you never forget your First Love. Read full review
75
The PlaylistBradley WarrenMay 23, 2019
While not quite arriving at the delirious cult highs of a classic like “Ichi the Killer,” “First Love” is Miike’s most accessible work in years. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghOct 10, 2019
First Love might not ultimately mean much, but its wily mix of colorful elements – romance, organized crime, slapstick and ultra-violence – makes for a bracingly weird cinematic experience. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonMay 18, 2019
It offers little thematically or stylistically novel that devotees of Japan’s most prolific B-movie maestro will not have seen many times before. Even so, the Tarantino-style rollercoaster ride is as effortlessly enjoyable as ever, accentuating the director's lighter comic leanings over his bloodthirsty side. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyOct 2, 2019
So expect the upending of expectations: visual, emotional, tonal, generic. Especially generic. Is First Love a comedy? A crime thriller? A love story? An advertorial for subscriptions to Guns and Ammo?...Yes. Read full review
63
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanSep 30, 2019
First Love isn’t art, by any means, but it’s way more entertaining than it should be. One brief sequence, involving an airborne car, was probably too crazy — not to mention too expensive — to actually film, so Miike renders it as animation. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comNick AllenSep 27, 2019
Though it has a tight course of events and is spiked with a few surprises, First Love is far more impressive for how it collides its many characters than what it ever feels for them. Read full review
60
CineVueChristopher MachellSep 10, 2019
This is pop-punk filmmaking – vibrant, disposable, and shallow. Still, it’s difficult to care about the nutritional content of your confectionary when it tastes this sweet. Read full review
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