We’re introducing Night Mode … Try it out with the sun/moon icon at the top left. Or change font settings with the ‘A’ to make the site work for you.
Got it
ICA is closed from the 30 May – 3 June inclusive.
0 / 256
First Love
Institute of Contemporary Arts
First Love (ファーストラヴ), dir. Yukihiko Tsutsumi, Japan 2021, 119 min., Japanese with English subtitles, 15


Kanna (Kyoko Yoshine) is a university student who, by all appearances, was on the fast track to achieving her dream of becoming a TV announcer. That is, until the day she stabbed her father to death without any apparent motive. Assigned to write a book on the crime and the mental state of the perpetrator, clinical psychologist Yuki (Keiko Kitagawa) begins a series of face-to-face sessions with Kanna in prison. As Yuki attempts to delve into the motivations for the murder and begins to be drawn into Kanna’s testimony as well as her apparent emotional state, the process in turn causes repressed memories of her own to rise to the surface which she must now confront.

This edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller, adapted from a novel by the Naoki Prize-winning author Rio Shimamoto (who also wrote Shape of Red), will keep you holding your breath until the very last second. Directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi (Initiation Love), it brilliantly captures the psychology of women who suffer from their pasts in silence.
© 2021 First Love film partners
 
Ticket information
  • All tickets that do not require ID (full price, disabled, income support) can be printed at home or stored in email
  • For aged-based concession tickets (under 25, student and pensioner) please bring relevant ID to collect at the front desk before the event.
£13 Full, £11 Concessions, £6.50 Green/Blue Members

Red Members gain unlimited FREE access to all exhibitions, films, talks, concerts and performances. Join today for £20/month

All films are ad-free and 18+ unless otherwise stated, and start with a 10 min. curated selection of trailers.

Members+ and all Patrons gain free entry to all cinema screenings, exhibitions, talks, and more.
Join today as a Member+ for £25/month.