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First Love

Country: Japan, Language: Japanese, 96 mins

Original Title

Hatsu-Koi
  • Director: Kouichi Imaizumi
  • Writer: Kouichi Imaizumi
  • Producer: Kouichi Imaizumi; Hiroki Iwasa

CGiii Comment

Cheap and incredibly painful to watch.

Stay clear.


Trailer...

The(ir) Blurb...

Tadashi is about to take his final school examinations. Unbeknown to anyone, he has fallen in love with his fellow-pupil, Kota, and doesn’t dare to tell anyone. One hot summer’s day, some of the other schoolboys taunt him, calling him a ponce. This destroys all hope he ever had of getting together with Kota.


Thoroughly depressed, Tadashi meets a gay couple on the train. Hiroki and Sinji are fascinating; their conversation is so stimulating that, before he realises what he is doing, he decides to follow them.


It is completely irrelevant how old you are and how often it happens to you, falling in love is always just like the first time. In HATSU-KOI, director Imaizumi Koichi tells a story about coming of age, coming out and a gay marriage that is sprinkled with both love and hard-core sex, at the centre of which is a teenager who doesn’t yet know what he wants.

Cast & Characters

Hiroshi Murakami as Tadashi;
Teppen Matsunoki as Keigo;
Ryoya Kawashima as Hiroki;
Shinji Horie as Shinji;
Kei Shibata as Kota;
Kiyomi Ito as Hiroki's mother;
Hotaru Hazuki as Girl driver;
Kouichi Imaizumi as Keigo's ex-gay lover;
Takao Kawaguchi as Bar master;
Mai Kawana as Todashi's mother;
Shibata Kei;
Takahiko Kobayashi as Passenger;
Shusaku Nohara as Gay rapist;
Kawashima Ryoya;
Mioo Sato as Tomoya