Hatsu-koi

placeholder

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.
>>> watch trailer with Engl. subtitles on YouTube

details

  • Runtime

    96 min
  • Country

    Japan
  • Year of Presentation

    2008
  • Year of Production

    2007
  • Director

    Imaizumi Koichi
  • Cast

    Hiroshi Murakami, Teppen Matsunoki, Ryoya Kawashima, Shinji Horie, Kei Shibata, Kiyomi Ito
  • Production Company

    habakari-cinema+records (Imaizumi Koichi)
  • Berlinale Section

    Panorama
  • Berlinale Category

    Feature Film

Biography Imaizumi Koichi

Born in Tokyo on 16.11.1965. Since 1990 he has appeared in over 100 films, mostly pink movies. In 1998 he also took up screenwriting and directing. In 1999 he founded his own production company, HabakariCinema+Records. 

Filmography Imaizumi Koichi

2002 Naughty Boys | 2017 Subesube no hihou