The ultra-prolific director Takashi Miike already had about 30 films under his belt at the end of the 1990s, when the one-two punch of the art-horror date picture “Audition” and the ultraviolent art-horror gangster movie “Dead or Alive” wowed Western audiences. Now he’s beyond his 100th movie. Not all of his efforts make it to the States but his latest, “ First Love ,” demonstrates that his energy and inventiveness are still intact.

The movie doesn’t breathe new life into the genre conventions of Masa Nakamura’s script. But Miike choreographs and executes the proceedings with such deftness and enthusiasm that the movie feels like a standard revisited by a particularly inventive jazz pianist: the changes are familiar, but the variations set them in an exciting new environment.

Once the air of crime is established with a beheading , the next 20 minutes of “First Love” are devoted to an unhurried introduction of the key players. Leo (Masataka Kubota) is an intense, taciturn young boxer who is scolded by his trainer for declining to rejoice in victory. He makes ends meet by assisting the owner of a tiny restaurant; after taking an unexpected fall in the ring, he learns that he has an inoperable brain tumor.