So up to this point you have the charming Aoi Miyazaki playing in a movie centered around first love and an infamous bank heist. The movie sounds like it will be great hunh? Well sad to say, but the movie was about as exciting as watching wet paint dry on a white wall. The entire movie felt like it was shot in slow motion, while Aoi Miyazaki’s character was so withdrawn it was hard to feel any type of empathy for her. “First Love” was based off an “allegedly” autobiographical novel by Misuzu Nakahara. Without having read her novel, I would guess having such a withdrawn protagonist could work well in a novel, but such a character did not translate well to the big screen. Without having a voiceover to explain Misuzu’s thoughts, Aoi Miyazaki’s character often appeared as a sullen mute. In a way First Love felt like the first half of “Sukida” minus the ambiance or romance, which would basically leave you with a snore fest.

The crime itself was quite daring. On the morning of December 10, 1968 a car left the Nihon Shintaku bank and transported 300 million yen. As the car passed an isolated area near the Tokyo Fushu prision, they were stopped by a police officer riding what appeared to be a police motorcycle. The policeman warned them that there could possibly be a bomb placed somewhere in their car. The people in the car waited outside, while the police officer checked under the car. Smoke and flames started to appear under the car, while the policeman screamed that the car was going to explode. The occupants of the car had by now retreated all the way to the entrance of the prison and then the motor cycle police officer got into the car and drove away, never to be found again. It should also be noted that in Japan statue of limitation exists for most crimes ranging from simple theft all the way to murder. After the statute of limitation ran out for the “300 Million Yen Robbery” Misuzu Nakahara published her novel placing herself as the police officer that perpetrated the most famous unsolved heist in Japanese history.