Ichi the Killer (Unrated Edition) Reviews

• Impressive film from Takashi Miike

  
  By A2V3P1XE33NYC3 on 2004-01-15
  After watching Takashi Miike's powerful "Audition," I thought following up with "Ichi the Killer" an excellent idea. I don't see much of a comparison between the two films unless you wish to look at the disturbing scenes of gory violence and the fact that "Audition" has more of a social message than this gore extravaganza. I have come away with the impression that Miike is a brilliant filmmaker capable of forcing extreme reactions from his viewers. Hollywood should take note of this guy and bring him over here for a project or two. But doing so probably wouldn't work out; Miike's warped visions would send American censors scrambling for a sedative, and most mainstream viewers would recoil from the graphic nature of this director's films. A word of warning for those thinking of indulging in "Ichi the Killer": the movie is loaded with sadism, gore, black comedy, and all around unpleasantness. It's as though this movie turns upside down everything we associate with cleanness and decency. It's a tough watch, even for a gore fan like me, so prepare thoroughly--how, I cannot really tell you because I do not know--before diving in. Good luck.

  "Ichi the Killer" is based on a "manga," a Japanese comic strip of a type often embodying grotesque images and disturbing themes. The film follows several Yakuza gangs as they do what they do best: murder, torture, plot, and generally cause lots of unpleasantness. I am unfamiliar with the structure of the Yakuza, but I gathered from the film that there are numerous gangs (or families, as the mafia would say) each headed up by a boss. These bosses then report to a committee composed of other gang leaders and a sort of "boss of bosses"--played here by a wheezy little runt who pops up to mediate disputes every now and again--designed to keep everything from getting out of hand. When an anonymous killer named Ichi takes down a yakuza leader, the boss's underlings, including a bleach blond thug by the name of Kakihara, seek revenge. At first, Kakihara thinks rival groups had something to do with the disappearance, so he kidnaps some thugs and tortures them in an effort to get information. These gruesome antics go so far beyond the pale that the yakuza overlords send Kakihara and his fellow gang members into exile. Instead of putting an end to the out of control violence, this judgment only encourages Kakihara to even more extreme acts of nastiness. It turns out that this blond goon worshipped his boss because the leader possessed the ability to fulfill Kakihara's S&M cravings. This is sick stuff, to be sure, but it only gets worse as the movie progresses.

  Kakihara seeks out Ichi to avenge the boss but also to challenge the enigmatic assassin to a showdown. We soon learn Ichi is far from the icy killer we have come to expect. He's actually a meek sort who witnessed a brutal incident as a child and has since become a victim to his own guilt. A guy named Jiji expertly manipulates Ichi's psychological problems in order to carry out assassinations. All Jiji needs to do is tell his friend that certain people were involved in Ichi's childhood trauma and mayhem rapidly ensues. Clad in a black suit bristling with razor sharp blades, Ichi can turn a room full of people into sushi in about thirty seconds. After the murders take place, he often sinks into a weeping, cringing depression over what he has wrought. Jiji, completely indifferent to his friend's remorse, always has a few more targets lined up for the slaughter. Women, children, and men: all are fair game when Ichi goes on a rampage. As the movie progresses, and as Kakihara comes closer to his final showdown with the hyper violent Ichi, Miike throws in enough plot twists and turns to keep the viewer constantly guessing as to character motivations and the very nature of the reality these people move in.

  I am guessing I missed out on a ton of inside jokes and cultural references, probably because I do not speak the language, am not Japanese, and do not live in that country. I have never even seen, let alone read, a manga comic strip. Fortunately, Miike's film boasts plenty of black humor and gory violence to the point that being non-Japanese makes little difference in understanding the picture. You don't have to be an expert on Japanese cinema to laugh at Jiji's "muscular" transformation or the scenes where Kakihara expresses his disappointment at Ichi's subservience when the two finally meet (Kakihara actually attempts to pick his foe up in order to get him to fight! Funny!). And you definitely don't need any inside knowledge to gape at the violence. This is an insanely sick film packed to the rafters with bloodshed and carnage. My mouth dropped open, and stayed that way, when Kakihara administered a hot oil "bath" to a particularly close-mouthed gangster.

  Gorehounds the world over will flock to "Ichi the Killer." While you will need an iron stomach to get through this one, the film goes to great lengths to prove this is all cartoonish fantasy. I quit taking the whole thing seriously after the tongue scene, when Kakihara said, "It will get better if I keep talking," and then spoke normally in the following scene. I took this as a wink-wink, nudge-nudge from Miike, a message to the viewer that one should not take the film to heart. As far as the DVD goes, I think it should go without saying that watching the unrated edition is the way to go. If you really want to watch a movie like this one, why waste time and money fiddling around with a cut version?
  
  

• Love really hurts

  
  By A2B8GXSCB1R05T on 2004-08-27
  "Ichi the Killer" ("Koroshiya 1") is a stylistic, well-made film representing a Japanese idea that seems strange to most non-Japanese, the idea that violence, even extreme violence, can be beautiful. As seen in films such as Kenka Ereji's "Elegy to Fighting," violence is an art form and a genre of Japanese movies.
  
  This film is about killing for the sake of killing, by those who love doing it with a sexual passion. Kakihara, the masochistic Yakuza killer featured on the box cover, complains while receiving a beating that "There's no love in your violence." To commit violence without love is like having sex without emotion, and empty physical act. Director Miike Takashi has put love in his violence, and style and art.
  
  Kakihara is the star of the film, being both brash and beautiful, but it is Ichi the Killer who is the true protagonist. Mentally unstable and boyish to the extreme, Ichi is a deranged assassin who wears a superhero costume with a bold Number 1 ("Ichi" means "Number 1" in Japanese) emblazoned on the back. Ichi is an almost-controllable tool of Jijii, who plays the gangs against each other for a mysterious motive. Jijii aims Ichi like a gun, then pulls the trigger. Kakihara deepest fantasy is to be slain by Ichi, the ultimate killer, but not before the time is right.
  
  As you can see from this description, "Ichi the Killer" is a trip into a dark underworld of sado-masochism, lustful violence and other avenues of human nature that most people would not willfully venture into. It is without a doubt the finest film in the genre.
  
  

• Beautiful Violence

  
  By AIKTK703685OT on 2003-11-16
  Ichi the Killer certainly is a gore fantatic's dream, but I can't help but feel this trivializes the movie in the extreme. Takeshi Miike seems to have gained a reputation as a purveyor of shocking, disgusting and vaguely surreal images (indeed, a recent book about him is titled 'Agitator'), but his films (or at least hte one's i've seen) have worth beyond what they mean to gore addicts. Miike is not a mindless provocateur, gore doens't seem to be an end in and of itself to him, and it's presence exists only as something that exists (even in other movies, where it's left out of frame). The beauty and craftwork in Ichi's scences of torture and all out violence betrays hidden aspects of both the beauty and the violence. Many of his movies, even the most bleak are also decidedly humorous, Ichi certainly not least among them. That I smirk while a man is having the skin peeled off his hand says a lot more about modernity than a lot of other things with that course as a particular goal.

  Likewise, the characters, certainly not sympathetic, at times seem tangentally derived from certain unpleasant emotions, and that we share our humanity with them is very disconcerting. Audition, as much as it was a nihilistic horror film, was also a sweet love story even in the most horrifying moments. Ichi isn't disimilar... a yakuza superhero psychotropic gore fest that doesn't care about genre and shares a deep connection to humanity.

  That said, Ichi's certainly not for the narrow minded, weak stomached, or self righteous... of course, seeing the dvd cover you probably already know if you want to watch it or not, I just hope that people who love cinema but are turned off by gore will give it a chance, as it has a lot of depth and terrific direction.
  
  

• A Must-See for Miike Fans . . . Others Should Proceed with Caution . . .

  
  By A2LW5AL0KQ9P1M on 2007-01-29
  I am a big fan of Miike's work. "Happiness of the Katakuris" is an irresistible, charming work of art. Similarly, "Audition" is a chilling cautionary-tale. But "Ichi the Killer" is not as engaging as Miike's other films . . . many people will try to convince you otherwise though:)
  
  Foremost, it must be noted that much of the gore is laughable (intentionally) . . . the face sliding down the wall, the tongue being severed, the pimp being "split" . . . funny stuff, I admit!! Moreover, it does not appear that Miike was overly concerned about these moments appearing "realistic" (most of his films have a "dreamlike" quality). Granted, the suspension scene and subsequent scalding solicited a fairly visceral response . . . which was pretty impressive! One other aspect of the film is ALL TOO REAL . . . check IMDB for a horrific bit of trivia on the opening sequence!! (I cannot mention it here!!)
  
  I noticed that some people are complaining about the over-dubbing. Leave it to Americans to select the over-dubbing option!! When you select over-dubbing, you obscure artist-intent . . . you destroy the tone of the film . . . if you are watching a film in a language with which you are unfamiliar, it is your obligation to READ the subtitles. So, stop embarrassing the rest of us and click that "subtitle" button.
  
  The plot is pretty convoluted (which is not necessarily a failing point), so it may require more than one viewing . . . or, at the very least, pay close attention during the initial screening. SPOILER: Nonetheless, the plot is a bit of a Palahniuk rehash. So, the ending should not surprise the viewer (even though it was intended to).
  
  This is a tough call. While many claim this piece is "one of the most violent films in existence," they fail to acknowledge that Miike's work is amusing (again, intentionally!!) So, it is not that this is a TENSE film that has you on "the edge of your seat." Personally, I thought it was a little tedious (I actually fast-forwarded through segments).
  
  I gave this film one star . . . simply because I feel it would be dishonest to inflate the rating. It is not a "good" film by any set of standards (even unconventional ones!!) STILL, if you love Miike's other films, watch this one . . . just so you can see this man's tremendous RANGE!! And so you can engage in this debate!!
  
  

• Ultra Violent Madness, For Better or Worse

  
  By A34D4KCP94ACJZ on 2007-05-11
  Live Action Anime...yes it is an oxymoron, but it's one way to describe what Director Takashi Miike has done with Ichi the Killer. It's like a live action version of Akira or Ninja Scroll.
  
  The film's plot is secondary so I won't dwell on it here, but if you have never seen Miike's films, get ready for a ride through the imagination of a complete mad man. The best part about the film is that Miike and his team are actually outstanding technically, and his sense of humor is both original and in my opinion hilarious.
  
  Ichi the Killer is as glossed over and stylized as it is sadistic and violent, and believe me when I say that this film is violent. It's sexually violent content is out of whack as well and alone might earn Ichi an NC-17 stamp but it's violence is so fantastic it almost seems cartoon-like. If you didn't find humor in films like Dead Alive, Robocop, Evil Dead 2 or Kill Bill pass on Ichi, but if you like those films like I do, give Miike a chance, you won't regret it.
  
  
  
• You always hurt the Ones you Love
  By A2HII4U9WQ0XUV on 2004-11-09
  "Ichi the Killer" is a cinematic tone-poem to ultraviolence, a sleek red-hot super-sized serving of cinematic slaughter and winking nihilism that, in a supreme credit to its creator Takashi Miike, persuasively advances the argument that bloodletting can indeed be a thing of sublime beauty.
  
  Whatever you think about Japanese uber-director and cinestylist Takashi Miike---cinematic God-Emperor, criminal mastermind, visionary, genius, madman, pornographer, sadist, lunatic---you have to admit four truths about him hold: 1) he's fearless; 2) he's prolific; 3) he doesn't skimp on the special sauce; and 4) within about 2 minutes you can figure out if one of his masterworks is going to exceed your personal puke threshold. It's all about setting realistic expectations.
  
  Take "Ichi the Killer" then: 'Koroshiya 1' is its Japanese title, 'Ichi' being Japanese for "Number 1" and 'koroshiya' meaning "killer", the title reading effectively "Number One Killer" and the correspondent Japanese ideograms rising up in bas-relief constructed from the eponymous idiot-savant [...] own seminal juices that form the film's opening credits (NOTE: you must watch "Ichi" in the original Japanese with English subtitles, or you're just wasting your time).
  
  Within the first iconic five minutes of this thing, you'll know whether "Ichi" is for you, and---coincidentally---you'll also have pretty much all the plot the movie has to offer. Things are already wrong in the techno-neon glittering sprawl of Tokyo's crime-infested Shinjuku district, where a Yakuza clean-up team has been dispatched to scrub the site of the [...] Ichi's latest killing.
  
  Ichi, evidently, is not a believer in the "Clean Hit". The team has to wear bio-hazard gear, industrial booties, and goggles to enter the once sleek apartment of top Tokyo crime boss Anjo, which the still unseen Ichi has turned into an abbatoir festooned with the crime-lord's body parts: the walls still run slick and wet with blood, and intestines are tossed about on the expensive furniture like plump red sausages.
  
  Soon enough Anjo's loyal thugs show up, lorded over by his deputy, lover, top [...] and all-around hipster Kakihara (played to the acid-envenomed hilt by Tadanobu Asano, who owns this movie), whose battle-scarred face looks like a Tokyo streetmap. One of his opponents has thoughtfully expanded Kakihara's mouth by about three inches; he holds it together with two little hoop earrings, and when he takes a philosophic drag on a cigarette, smoke vapor trails out through his flayed cheeks. But the clean-up crew has been thorough: not a trace of Anjo is left, the Yakuza decide the Big Boss is missing along with 100 million Yen, and Kakihara is determined to find him.
  
  Seconds later---and mind you, this all occurs in the film's first few minutes---we catch a glimpse of Ichi, avidly watching a brutal rape through apartment blinds and enjoying himself.
  
  Squeamish? Then you've probably already checked out. Otherwise, turn off any moral faculties you possess and enjoy a visually kinetic, insane, brutal little travelogue through Hell.
  
  This is what "Ichi the Killer" is about: brutality, butchery, rape, massive atrocity, torture, murder, degredation, and high good humor and insane dollops of style. Oh, and something about a gang war. Kakihara is all kinds of cool, the film's Crawling King Snake: he struts about in his platinum punk hair and leather trenchcoat exuding malice, serenely and maliciously presiding over his doomed victims like one of Hell's more stylish demons.
  
  On the other side we have the character of Ichi (Nao Omori). I found Ichi annoying at first: when he's not flying through the air and slicing his victims into sushi with his razor-blade track shoes, he's writhing on the ground in angst-ridden torment and crying like a little girl. Hell, sometimes he flies through the air, blades a-twitching for fresh meat, crying all the time.
  
  And that, precisely, is what makes him fascinating and terrible: Ichi is a monster. He's an automaton, once taunted at school, now working a wretched job as a short-order cook and snivelling pathetically for time off (to go slaughter Yakuza, which he's ordered to do by the mysterious JiJi, who issues his Manchurian Candidate-esque orders over the telephone): Ichi is what would happen if you spliced the genes of Bob Cratchit and "Taxi Driver"'s Travis Bickle. Brrr.
  
  Miike is not a simple director, and thus, delightfully, "Ichi the Killer" is not a straightforward revenge flick. Kakihara is professionally and personally dedicated to destroying Ichi, but he is perversely fascinated by and attracted to him as well. Ichi, when not traumatized and crying or razoring to pieces some unfortunate Yakuza, is likewise drawn to Kakihara: indeed, the two orbit each other, like tiny ferociosly violent little planets, spiralling closer and closer to some orgasmically apocalyptic collision.
  
  And apocalyptic is what you get. That's really what "Ichi the Killer" is all about: there is no sub-text, no ur-message, no wry social commentary here; I truly believe Miike has painted a compelling picture of highly stylized nihilism on his blood-spattered canvas, something the happy Droogies from "A Clockwork Orange" would instantly recognize as a little of the old ultraviolence.
  
  People are not simply 'killed' in "Ichi": they are galactically ripped apart; raped and squished; stomped on and exploded; suspended from the ceiling from fish-hooks, from which position they can be flayed, boiled alive, or treated to tiny little needles being shoved through their tongues and eyeballs. Faces are ripped off, sliced in half, and slither/slide down the walls of countless rooms turned, by Ichi and Kakihara's magic, into charnel houses. It's all movingly beautiful, surprisingly repulsive, and highly addictive. Even the theme is simple and stark and beautiful, a little riff that calls to mind the old spaghetti western anthems of Ennio Morricone (fittingly, Kakihara's cell phone ring tone is the movie's theme).
  
  I have written before about the viral quality of much of the best Asian horror, and "Ichi the Killer" is no exception. If there is such a thing, "Ichi the Killer" itself is a pure chunk of evil, highly toxic and contagious. You don't want to look but you have to watch, and the price of watching is having to replay the scenes on your closed eyelids long after the final credits have rolled---and being happy to do it. You are arrested, halted, infected, probably fatally compromised. "Ichi the Killer" is genius masquerading as virus.
  
  
• Scenes Cut, PG13 CRAP
  By A3SU305GU3JW8D on 2005-11-30
  Well, I caught this movie in the early AM on cable one night and was totally blown away by the sheer psychotic violence of it. Demented, more bloody than Texas chain saw by a long shot...just ultra violent. I was shocked and disturbed, which is why I had to order the DVD.
  
  WHat I got in the mail looked like the same movie. However, I've literally just finished weatching it..or most of it. I actually stopped to write this review and a letter to the merchant. EVERY SINGLE SCENE HAS BEEN CUT OR EDITED. There is no violence, only the suggestion of violence. There is no shocking bloodshed (as in the scene where a man gets split in half with a blade and literally peels apart while still living...). What remains is shocking only in the realization that all I got is a PG13 Japanese gang movie with poorly dubbed british accents. I can't friggin believe they actually sell this without the violence. I mean, what's the point? Isn't that what the whole genre is about? It would be like watching porno because you like the acting. NOT.
  
  Save your time and money, don't buy this pile of dung. Wait for a directors (UNEDITED) cut.
  
  
• DO NOT CUT THE BLOOD PACKAGING!!!!
  By A3FLT1XUROIYI0 on 2007-06-09
  While the packaging can be a little tricky and isn't super effective in the way of disc protection, this is a great collectors set for a great classic film. There are openings on the side of the pouch for each disc so that they APPEAR to be floating in blood. They slide in and out. Please ignore the section in the earlier review about cutting the blood pouch open. Aside from that just look at every other review for the movie to decide. While not for everyone, Ichi is a movie that doesn't hold back and this a solid release for it.
  
  
• Ichi and Scratchy
  By A3JG72P0KY27HW on 2004-09-30
  When I was 10 years old a friend of mine told me that "The Lord of the Flies" was such a great book because it was about a group of lost schoolboys who went crazy and started eating eachother. I was so horrified that I went straight to the library and read the book cover to cover in about three days (I found out by the end that my friend had lied to me, but it turned out to be a good book anyway). The point of the story is that I have always been fascinated by things that shock/horrify me. I call it the car crash syndrome; the inability to turn away or lose interest in something that is universally seen as shocking or grotesque.
  
  In order to sit through Ichi the Killer you need to have at least a little bit of that syndrome lurking inside you. Ichi the Killer is quite possibly the most disgusting film ever made (ever seen Braindead? say no more); a human embodiment of Itchy and Scratchy if you will.
  
  The film situates us in the underbelly of the Japanese underground, where the Yakuza rule the streets and every taboo imaginable roams free and unapologetically. Our protagonist, a Yakuza cappo known as Kakigahara, is a sadist who is sexually aroused by pain. He might actually be one of the greatest characters ever put on screen, with his bleach-blonde hair, flamboyant clothing and piercings that are so cringe-worthy that you have to see the film in order to truly get the picture (let's just say that his mouth has exceedingly more potential than most mouths do). His boss is (or was) a masochist who essentially fulfilled all of Kakigahara's sadistic needs until one day he dissapears. Kakigahara spends the rest of the movie searching for his boss with only one lead: Ichi. Ichi is another great character - he is a super human slicing and dicing machine whose power derives from his costume. He is bent on mutilating all that stand in his way; he leaves a disgusting trail of clues for our protagonist to track him down with, i.e. corpses cut in half, disemboweled, decapitated etc... not to mention the glob of semen that he leaves behind as well because of how aroused he gets whenver he inflicts pain.
  
  Takashi Miike directed this film so you cannot really expect anything less than shocking, but this really takes the cake even for Miike's standards. Underneath the blood and gore there is, actually, a very good story that deals with interesting themes (considering the circumstances) such as love, loss; there is even an interesting existential sensibility to this film. The film leaves little space for characters to develop but there are very interesting characters nonetheless.
  
  As a fan of Japanese film I really enjoyed this, although even as a car crash syndromee I found it really tough to sit through. If you have a sensitive gab reflex, or a weak stomach, I advise you to ween yourself onto this film by checking out some of Miike's less-gruesome works, such as Dead or Alive. I don't think there is anything in the history of film quite like Ichi the Killer, so I assure you that it is worth a look, but don't come crying to me if the man who cuts his own tongue out scares you.
  
  
• Holy God. I think my eyes are bleeding.
  By A2W80YA2QQTWPM on 2007-01-13
  Ok, I'd like to think that I've seen my share of crazy Japanese movies. This one took the cake. Maybe I didn't catch enough of the references, or maybe I wasn't strung out on heroin. Either way, this movie was hard to follow. When your movie's hero is crying AND reassuring a woman that things will be ok, because HE'LL rape her instead of someone else... Well, stretch that scene into an hour and a half and you've got this movie.
  
  
• Annoying and obnoxious
  By A24ULXZJ5I8O9V on 2006-12-27
  This is a ridiculous and pointless film. The terrible dubbing only adds to the displeasure of viewing this film. The story is non-sensical; the "shocking" parts of this film are not really shocking; the characters are one-dimensional caricatures; and what is up with that stupid suit that Ichi wears? If you must watch something by this director, then watch Audition, which actually has a point to it.
  
  
• great cover...and a great coaster for drinks as well
  By ADQBJJNYIM9JH on 2006-10-03
  Eh...despite the hype about this director and the smashing style of lead villian Kakihara (the one on the cover), this has the air of some Tarantino wannabe with an extensive collection of crappy techno trying to make an "edgy" action movie. The gore is pretty extensive, but it's such cheesy CGI that you might as well be watching any random ultra-violent anime...most of the characters are either annoying (Ichi) or two-dimensional (pretty much everyone else) and the acting is straight out of college film class. I've heard great things about Visitor Q and Audition, but based on this they've moved from the middle of my "buy" list to the bottom of my "rent" list.
  
  
• The Epitome of Ultra-Violence
  By A11A8432XGFSXN on 2007-06-05
  This movie is the true definition of a car wreck. From the opening credits to the ambiguous ending, you cannot turn away from the shock and horror director Takashi Miike serves up.
  
  Sadism is the true star of this flick as we travel a road filled with unrepentant pain and suffering. Unless you have seen the movie, then you have no idea how confrontational a film can be to your very senses. Rape, torture, murder, gore and general brutality are relentless traits of this movie. Sometimes cartoonish (its Manga roots showing), sometimes jet black in its humor, the savage pace of Ichi never slows even with a 2+ hour run time.
  
  This is not a film for the squeamish. It makes no apologies for what it is and dares you to eject it from your DVD player. But, you simply can't. This movie can only be described as beautiful revulsion.
  
  Just a quick comment about the packaging (which is the only downside to this release). The "Blood Pack Edition" contains 2 discs of excellent material including a commentary with Takashi Miike and Ichi's Manga artist/writer Hideo Yamamoto and an intensive "making of" documentary. However, the plastic blood bag housing the discs is a sadistic joke. The suction cup like plastic sleeve makes it incredibly difficult to actually get the damn discs out of the bag to watch them! Great gimmick, poor execution.
  
  If you are a true horror and gore enthusiast, your collection is incomplete with this brutal slice of Japanese genius.
  
  
• bunch of weenies acting tough
  By AVF60NZ99H9D5 on 2007-06-12
  not a single frame of celluloid that is believable here. bunch of puny little wimps acting tough. oh yeah. so bad, so ridiculous...and, ultimately, so moronic.
  
  the reason this "director" (I use the term loosely) tries to "shock" (and can't even do that very well, by the way) is because he lacks true talent required to tell a great crime story.
  
  Let's hope he didn't give himself hernia while straining to disgust us with this pile of vomit.
  
  
  
  
• It couldn't been so good... darn
  By A2J59727RVI91G on 2003-12-16
  First, an apologies. I don't own the DVD. I just saw this with a friend, so I have nothing to say about it technically, special features wise, etc... Second, my rating would be 2.5 stars, it just wasn't a selectable option. Ok, here goes:

  Ichi the Killer essentially follows two opposing, incredibly violent characters. Jiji is pulling the puppet strings of one, but he's not nearly so important a character thematically.

  The title character, Ichi, is tightly wound up in hazy memories of being bullied and likely feelings of sexual inadequacy, and can't cut through the fog. Unable to control emotions himself, he is manipulated by Jiji to act as a (highly effective) slice'em dice'em style murderer. The opposing character, Kakihara is overly cool, full of cynicism and torture of others and masochism are all that gets him engaged. You get the feeling he's unsatisfied, though, and these just break the boredom. He's looking for the next thrill... Ichi.

  This could be a setup to a masterpiece, perhaps something on violence's emptiness and consuming power? Well, it isn't anything like that, folks. What's missing of course, is a character we can take a personal interest in. I wrote the next two paragraphs a mental accounting of the way to change the characters to fit my "allegory on violence", but really any of the changes would have helped the movie, even if they did not go remotely so far as making this my movie.

  Ichi is made too nice, and far too pathetic... the transformation into crazed killer doesn't work, it's too cartoonish. He and the movie would be more interesting and disturbing if undercurrents of the violent temper came out at times other than when he starting killing, if at some level or some of the time, he wasn't really fooled, and you could watch him killing without laughing because of how fake and stupid it all looked. If this movie took you from a plausible, somewhat sympathetic character to a bloody killer, it would be truly great. Instead, it takes you from an implausibly pathetic character to a demented superhero. At the very least, please loose the costume!

  They give Kakihara more viscerally intense stuff, (a particular torture scene certainly comes to mind) but don't do enough with his character either, preferring to concentrate on how cool he is with his slit cheeks and killer wardrobe. Exactly how and when did he get to be so messed up? If asked, it might have given the film some depth. It wasn't, at all. That's a terrible shame.

  Stripped of interesting, developed characters, the movie becomes largely a comedic splatter film with a few sideshows. It's watchable with that as the expectectation, but then the genuinely disturbing violence (which IMHO isn't the slice-dice, but the torture, and beatings/rape) is out of place to me.

  They had a great chance here to make the movie I was thinking of and they didn't even come close... argh!
  
  

• WTF indeed
  By A2YA08WU9N86GQ on 2003-12-24
  After seeing the first Dead or Alive Movie, i knew i just had to see Ichi the Killer (or maybe because on the DoA DVD Interview, Miike Highly recommends it.) Being familiar with Miike, i knew what to expect, which was a bit of the old ultra violence, to quote a classic. this film is extremely violent, and what makes it more shocking is that most of it is pointless. but at the same time the violence is handled in an extremely over the top way that you just have to laugh(unlike Gaspar Noe's Irreversible, which is disturbingly realistic) The movie is filled with so many bizarre and (for me) beautiful images that it was hard not to enjoy it. Kakihara,the peroxide blonde on the DVD's cover is the most interesting character, and when he's not in the scene, i miss him (althogh he did make me flinch in the torture scene). to concentrate on the story or the plot would be churlish, if you view this just for the fun of it, you'll enjoy it. there are many problems with this film though. for one thing, after such a brilliant opening, Miike's pace flags with the midsection of the film. there are too many unnecessary scenes of the characters just talking, but i guess you need those type of scenes to relax after the violence. of course, many of the characters are underwritten(like many of Miike's films, it was shot very quickly) but the actors give good performances, nonetheless. Notable mentions are Asano(who plays Kakihara), Tsukamoto(my favorite Japanese director), Sabu and the gorgeous Alien Sun. The movie is perverse, immoral, whatever but i think that we should have realized by now that Miike has always been out to offend.
  the DVD transfer is alright, but not as excellent as Kino's transfer of DoA. there are some blemishes here and there but not really noticeable on a normal TV but very evident on a Widescreen TV.The colors are really amazing in this movie, so it's a shame they couldn't do a better job of transfering. The sound, on the other hand, is excellent(make sure you go to the set up before you play this movie or you'll end up watching the English dubbed version! which actually make the movie feel more surreal.) the extras are scant, just a photo gallery and 4 trailers of other Japanese movies, the most interesting of which is Miike's Visitor Q. there is a slightly informative commentary by Miike and the Manga aritst Hideo Yamamoto, who compare their methods and tell some facts about the actors(a highlight is when it revealed whose semen it is used for the title sequence) japanese filmmaking in general and of course, their (delight?) in violence.
  Ichi is not a masterpiece, but definitely demands to be seen (if you can take the violence that is).
  by the way, if you're wondering what the 1 in the movie stands for, it's not because Ichi will be having a part 2 or 3(well, who knows) but really, Ichi in Japanese actually means 1. so now you know.
  
  
• Eh.
  By A1MARTYASILLZ7 on 2004-03-11
  I dig violence. I dig it a lot. And obviously, that's the first thing I'm going to mention in this review. Call me narrow-minded if you want, but how the hell could I help it? However, like I said, I dig "violence." I don't really dig pain all that much. And that's exactly what I got from this.

  Yeah, it was pretty cartoony most of the time, but there were occasions that were downright unforgiveable. What kind of sadist enjoys seeing a women raped, beaten, de-nippled (yes, it's a madeup word), and battered to death. Sadistic is indeed the word. This includes the film's first of many torture scenes involving hooks, needles, and hot oil. It's slow, drawn out, and simply not pleasant to watch. (And by "not pleasant," I'm not talking about the kind of violence you saw in Schindler's List.)

  Now that I've discussed the hot topic, there's another matter to be discussed. This film is plagued with unnecessary characters. The biggest examples are the ex-cop (who got fired for losing his gun) and his son. As for the other unnecessary characters, I guess it was just more people to torture to death, or murder in some other gruesome way, kind of like B horror movies from the 1980's, which no one ever claimed was art.

  And if you try to say that they were imperative to a complex story, I say p-lease. Good movies, like Snatch or Gosford Park, that have large lists of characters usually employ them cleverly into the overall plot. They each mean something important, and have a substantial impact. You get the feeling that this story wouldn't have been nearly the same had that character been negated. In the case of Ichi, these characters were all just characters who knew other characters; simply more blank faces for the camera.

  I'll give some credit to cinematography, and rushed filmmaking (I'm a huge Robert Rodriguez fan), but aside from that, this film is only worth seeing out of curiosity.
  
  

• Big Gross Out Disappointment
  By A1IYGRATK4W76O on 2004-05-09
  Miike is an imaginative, clever director but his films are a decidedly mixed bag: often surreal, beautiful, grotesque, tedious and original. "Ichi the Killer" is all of that and without a doubt his most extreme work--which is saying alot! It's quite cooly disgusting in a cartoonish way but after a short while it runs out of steam and drags along from one over-the-top sequence to another. It totally lacks the emotion and suspense that "Audition", his best film, had.
  
  By the way, the video transfer is solid but the image is too dark.
  
  
• A Haunting Exploration of the Boundaries of Mind and Body.
  By A15H0OGLXJ9FC6 on 2005-02-19
  I really had no idea what I was in for with this film (frankly I was deathly scared to watch it but a friend kept daring me to and calling me "chicken" (I was bullied, you might say, just like our poor film's protagonist antisuperhero - God love him, you really CAN'T help but feel sorry for this kid, even as TOTALLY messed up as he is), so that I finally capitulated to the experience), and I am a little squeamish (well honestly, MORE than a little) by nature so that cinematic violence, or any kind of violence for that matter, typically repulses me with the greatest intensity and I shy away from violence in art imitating life or life imitating art at every turn. Yet "Ichi" cannot be judged because of its violence. This film is PURE ART because of the way it ABSOLUTELY HAUNTS you, with its deep psychological questions (where DO we draw the line between pleasure (happiness!) and pain (misery, despair, depression)? Answer - everybody draws the line a little bit (or a LOT, in the case of THIS movie) differently; spiritual quandaries (for example, Ichi's existential conundrum cum (no pun, or Ichicum, intended) epiphany: "she wants to die because she DOESN'T want to die!" My God! This film is what superior modern moviemaking at its highest fever pitch is ALL ABOUT! Way to go Miike!!!
  
  Despite "Ichi's" WAY-over-the-top breakneck (and often "spray neck!") graphic psychodramas, there is every range of human and even humane emotion and sentiment to be found in this amazing masterwork. Unlike the PURELY exploitational horror flicks of Andy Warhol, for example ("Dracula," "Frankenstein"), director Takashi clearly shows love and compassion, albeit in very modest quantities, towards almost ALL of his characters. I cried almost every scene in which the poor beleaguered excop Kaneko struggles heroically to retain his integrity and honor in the face of near TOTAL "loss of face" (orientally speaking). When Kaneko dies near the film's climactic denoument, I wept bitterly because HERE is a GOOD MAN - SO GOOD, he does not want to kill Ichi, but only shoots him in the foot to try and stop him from rampaging further. Because Ichi is mentally insane he kills his "brother," but not without concomitant and extreme followup torment afterwards. When Ichi says "I'm sorry" endlessly, HE MEANS IT!!! He's just so messed up inside, and nobody (except Kaneko) gives a care about him, but instead Ichi really IS constantly bullied, harassed and hideously manipulated (by the diabolical excop "Jijii"). Did Ichi REALLY kill his parents, or can we trust anything Jijii says at all?
  
  Yet! Even Jijii is a figure for compassion in the end, because he regrets the carnage he's unleashed and the damage he's wreaked upon the innocent and the not-so-innocent alike, that - Judas-like - he hangs himself in the closing scene - because he realizes finally he's BETRAYED the goodness within his own soul, caused the deaths of COUNTLESS people, and violating his own ethics as a police officer to "protect and to serve." We see him pitying the death of Kakiharo, stroking the young man's bleached-blonde hair, almost lovingly. Yes, there IS a homoerotic element in this moment, but much more importantly, the failed yearning for a compassionate resolution to the incendiary Japanese gang crisis. All Dead! All Dead! That's how the final caption reads psychologically here, and what is left for Jijii? It's clear he actually LOVES Kakiharo, and thus commits suicide when his beloved is gone. Amazing!
  
  This movie has more twists and turns than a python roller coaster, and if you can get past (or close your eyes) during the really HEAVY (gruesome) scenes, you will see some top-flight acting and some even GREATER attempts at exploring the inner workings of the human mind, heart and soul.
  
  Now I never thought I would be so HIGH on a whacked-out horror film like this, but like I said, it's HAUNTING. It's addicitng and it brings you back to watch it again, and again, to find out the subtleties you missed in viewings n-1, n-2, and so on.
  
  Do see "Ichi" if you can. It satisfies a kind of "itch" in all of us, more or less. It certainly satisfied me, and I am the biggest coward of them all when it comes to stomaching horror lore. But I fell in love with "Ichi," for reasons not altogether clear to me even now, except that in every character I encountered, I felt deep compassion towards him or her. I tried to understand exactly WHERE he or she was coming from (psychologically/spiritually/emotionally/mentally), and just tried to suspend all judgment as best as possible.
  
  You will too, if you give "Ichi" a scratch, and a fighting chance to capture your heart, without tearing it completely out of your chest. If you treat the film as cathartic psychodrama rather than "cinema verite," you will go a LONG LONG WAY towards understand what Miike is trying to get across to all of us.
  
  He's definitely NOT advocating violence for violence's sake. But instead, love. It's just that, a lot of these poor souls in the story don't know HOW to love properly, because they themselves have never BEEN loved properly. Miike is offering us a "morality play" and a hope for more humane treatment of our fellow passengers and soulmates on the one ship we all share, Spaceship Earth. Again, WAY TO GO MIIKE!!!
  
  
• Takashi Miike Needs a Shrink Badly!
  By AL4MKKO24563R on 2005-02-22
  Sickening sights like sadomasochism, eyes gouged out, people being chopped in half, noses and ears being chopped off, women who like being beaten to the point of disfigurement and blood spurting often and freely appear often in Ichi the Killer. I don't mind violence in films -- some of my favorite films are the Godfather series, Taxi Driver, GoodFellas, Total Recall, Pulp Fiction, Casino and Kill Bill. However, Ichi the Killer nauseated me. Takashi Miike seems determined to put every sexual fetish, every sick perversion and every violent act imaginable onto film. After seeing this film, I felt unclean and disturbed. And judging from what I've heard about his other work, including Audition, I don't think Miike varies his themes or tempers his bloodlust that much. Like I said, I can take lots of violence in movies, but this is just too much. I hope Takashi Miike gets some serious psychological help -- he desperately needs it.
  
  
• Miike is a brilliant, complex filmmaker...
  By A2UYAFQ40U2PHS on 2006-08-12
  It has always annoyed me that when discussions about Takashi Miike's film occur, everyone talks about the gore and violence and, usually, miss the point of it. Miike is a great filmmaker, and there is intelligence, depth, and sadness at the heart of quite a lot of his films. I have never been one for films which just show gore (like recent "homages" to Japanese horror like Hostel). I've always preferred my films to have some intelligence factor. Miike's films do just this. This is one of his best films. Miike is very good with actors, and this film has some excellent performances. There is a sadness and wearyness that permeates this film, along with other Miike films. The film's pacing is a bit leisurely at times, but most of Miike's films are like that and they really help the film. Of course, there is massive amounts of gore, some of it truly insane. But the film works on many levels. I found it amusing that when this film was shown at the Toronto Film Festival, they handed out barf bags. I didn't need one when watching the DVD, even though some might. Ichi the Killer is a visceral, stunning film, one of Miike's most memorable.
  
  
• over rated gore bore
  By A2FQK92HS6SM44 on 2004-01-25
  read below to find what it's about... as a film this is not enjoyable...however it's set up nicely with all the pretty colours and interestingly dressed characters and so on...yet this movie is so incredibly nihilistic that it becomes boring with no real sense of morality to balance the film's ultraviolence. i appreciate some of the action and gore...yet as said before me, the torture and rape scenes are particularly CAREFUL and DELIBERATE in that Miike goes through great lengths to make sure we are disturbed by it all...

  and the story itself unfolds rather slowly. in short this is a gorey bore.
  
  

• Dissapointing
  By A1Y7JOS3R87K0U on 2004-06-23
  I love the work of Takashi Miike, he can make any story seem new again with his surrealist style of filmaking. But this was just an overated, incoherent gorefest with the most blatant excuse for mutliple stories and events to come together. Some may say I didn't get it but I don't WANT to get it. Lots of violence that goes nowhere, girls get raped and die in some brutal and sick ways, random scenes that add nothing to the film or plot. Just a whole lot of nothing from a director that has made a few of THE BEST films I have ever seen. The acting is actually done very well from the lead guy Tadanobu Asano and some even better acting from Ichi's right hand man in the film played by Shinya Tsukamoto (who made the excellent films Tetsuo the iron man and Tokyo Fist). But other then the good acting, this falls right on its ass with the rampant violence and gore.

  Don't believe the hype.
  
  

• Not so deep as intended.
  By A1BMTF8S1E5ASP on 2004-07-14
  First of all I have never been bothered by excessive gore and violence. I also occasionally enjoy a David Lynch or David Cronenberg film (which as a previous reviewer noted, it does resemble).
  This film while certainly being ultra-violent, and trying to be as esoteric and non-conforming to genre as possible somehow fell short for me. Which is strange because that certainly sounds like my kind of movie.
  The main problem was that this film wants you to have some sort of connection to its characters. Cries out for it in fact. However, this is a problem since the whole film was rather cartoonish in its aspect.
  The characters were all caricatures; exagerrated beyond any real human in their worst traits. Now this can work from an artistic standpoint, but there has to be something or someone firmly connected to reality to give perspective. The closest thing to that was the minor character of a disgraced police officer who never really has enough meaningfull on-screen time, until the characters are all fully established, to have any real bearing on the viewers reception of the film.
  Without that it was a dream-like haze of gore, and depravity with no grounding influence.
  Kind of fun, but not really as deep as it was intended to be.
  I will say there was quite a good deal of humor in the movie though. I'll never forget the scene where Kakihara has just finished cutting off the end of his own tongue as an "apology" in front of a room full of yakuza and then calmly takes a cell phone call: "he-o?". Pure genius.
  Ah well. It could have been better.
  
  
• A big disappointment but still a good movie.
  By ADQQE8RSV6KFP on 2004-12-24
  I heard that Takashi Miike was an extreme director and I read the reviews of his movies on Amazon. It appeared to me that Ichi the Killer and Visitor Q were the most extreme and the ones to see.
  
  I really didn't know what to expect from Visitor Q, it didn't sound violent but perverse. It sounded like a serious drama (I like serious dramas too but I am talking about my interest in finding good extreme movies) so I was not sure I would like it that much.
  
  To me Ichi sounded like a total bloodbath and the one I was most interested in. I planned on checking out Ichi and decide if I wanted to try Visitor Q after that. So when I was at the cult movie rental store, I requested to rent Ichi. I am very glad it was already rented out, because if I saw Ichi first, I might have lost interest in seeing Visitor Q, which is a movie I loved and immediately added to my collection.
  
  Ichi the Killer was good but it has some elements that I really hate.
  
  It has a lot of CGI. Not only do I hate CGI to begin with, this had some of the worst CGI I have ever seen. In one scene, Ichi cuts a guy in half the long way with his stupid blade shoes. The guy splits and the 2 halves fall. These effects were extremely poor. Apparently the guys body was a solid red all the way through with no brains or organs.
  
  Another scene shows blood flying out of a door as Ichi is mutilating the people inside the room. The flying blood is CGI. The blood moves totally unnaturally without momentum and speed to carry it as it is shown.
  
  In other scenes blood is CGIed on walls that looks entirely fake as well.
  
  To tell about myself, I hate horror slashers like Friday the 13th, Halloween, or Nightmare on Elmstreet. What I do like is outrageous comedy gore such as Dead Alive and Troma extremes like Citizen Toxie and Terror Firmer.
  
  Ichi had only one good "Troma" style scene and that is where the guy featured on the cover (Kakihara) cuts off his own tongue as an apology to a rival gang leader. (This was his own idea not the idea of the other guy)
  
  Another good scene was when they cut the nipples off the woman. This scene was more in the style of "Emmanuelle in America" and not "Troma". I thought "Emmanuelle in America" did it better though.
  
  I didn't like the scene with the guy hanging from hooks and having the tempura oil thrown on him, which appears to be most other reviewers' favorite and most extreme scene. To me, it was rather boring and obviously touched up with plastic looking CGI.
  
  Also Ichi's character was poorly developed in the story. It was well explained why he was killing and that he was being manipulated by someone else but the movie has no explanation as to why he is so good at killing. It doesn't make sense to manipulate Ichi this way unless you first know he has the incredible talent it takes to kill like this.
  
  Overall the story and characters were interesting but it was a good movie rather than a great movie. I will continue checking out more of Miike's other films but with lower expectations than after I finished Visitor Q.
  
  
• Over-rated... nothing shocking...
  By A16D31EI0HH6LR on 2006-01-09
  Based on the reviews here, I was really expecting something shocking and amazing. Let me just say, this does *not* deliver. I'll grant that there is some gore here- characters walk into rooms literally drenched in blood- but most of the real violence takes place off-camera. Given that the movie description talks about rival gangs, and fighting and such, I was expecting to see some great, over-the-top action fighting. Unfortunately, there isn't really any fighting. Most of the violence is either Kakihara torturing someone, or Ichi killing or maiming them in a single hit. Boooring. Also, Ichi is *so* annoying and whiney. It's all a big, over-hyped mess, and the ending is ridiculous and nonsensical.
  There are some really funny moments, to be sure, and it's a definitely a movie that knows not to take itself too seriously, but after seeing what the director is capable of with Audition, Ichi was a huge letdown. There's nothing here that you can't find done elsewhere, and done better. If you want to see gore and action, you can get both done better in Riki-Oh. If you want to see what Takashi Miike is capable of, check out "Audition" or "Dead or Alive."
  
  If you keep your expectations lower than the hype, Ichi probably isn't so bad, but it doesn't even come close to the hype.
  
  
• RE: pellington's review
  By APZ8NI2LYRA9T on 2006-07-18
  Pellington wrote, "Also, near the end when a certain character takes one of Ichi's foot blades in his forehead, the wound disappears when he hits the ground..." He writes that this is an oversight on the part of the director.
  
  Just a clarification. Kakihara's wound from the foot blade not appearing is intentional, not an oversight. Kakihara only imagined the last fight with Ichi.
  
  Kakihara, the film's ultimate sadomasochist, had worked up the idea of Ichi being the ultimate sadist. When he finally meets Ichi, he is dissapointed to find that the real Ichi is a cowering wimp. He had hoped to be killed by a true killer, like the Ichi in his mind, not the crying Ichi before him. So as Ichi lies crying on the ground, Kakihara fantasizes that Ichi gets up from the ground and fights him like a the killer he imagined. But the last fight is just in his head. And the wound that Ichi inflicts is not real. That's why when Kakihara appears dead on the ground the scar is missing. He died by committing suicide, a proper attending for the world's biggest sado-masochist.
  
  The film is made up of these psychological points of intersection: the masochist meeting the sado-masochist and they occur throughout the movie. Sometimes the points are subtle (like the scar on the forehead). Sometimes they are not (Miss Tachibana getting sliced up by Ichi). But the film is ultimately about the search for pain and the disspointment that occurs when we find it.
  
  
• Unrated and best
  By A233PCZNF72TMS on 2007-01-09
  As a UK citizen I was unable to find a copy of Ichi the Killer in the UK that hadn't had most of the more extreme stuff cut out so I took a chance and ordered this version from the US. It was well worth the wait and I actually saved money due to the weak dollar. The film itself will never win any awards but is in my mind a masterpiece. The plot though odd is well written and offers a fantastic view of the world of organised crime, brainwashing and fetishism. Not for the weak stomached but one of the best asian movies I have ever seen. Don't bother with the cut versions they disrupt the story and it just doesn't make sence. This is the best version around.
  
  
• HORRIBLE PACKAGING!!!
  By A3T4SJNHKDQ09C on 2007-06-06
  Wow. I've never felt compelled to write a review within 5 minutes of opening a purchase, but you all need to be warned. Be EXTREMELY careful when opening the dye-filled pouch that contains the discs. I gently cut the top of the pouch with scissors (since there's no peel-back opening or anything), and almost immediately the liquid gushed out all over the place. The discs are tucked inside the pouch real deep (to prevent them getting damaged, I guess), but that only made it more difficult to try to pry them out without squeezing liquid all over them.I just barely managed to get mine out (had to wipe them down immediately afterward). It looks cool as hell in the package, but damn...The discs should have been in a seperate pouch within the dye-filled one!
  
  As for the film itself, and this edition, it's 5 star material all the way...IF you can get the discs out of the packaging without the liquid getting all over them first. This film is an absolute classic, and this version is the one to own, but whoever designed this package needs to be slapped silly. Buyer beware.
  
  
• a few comments
  By on 2003-12-08
  I would just like to make a few comments about this film. First, Miike is my favorite director. There is one reason that I love all his films....and that is quite simply because they are fun. Ichi is a violent film, but damn, it's a fun film to watch. I'm not going to go into a study about why his films are great or what they mean, because honestly, I don't care. He is a director that I get excited about and cannot wait to see what he does. Everytime I get a new movie by him I am on the edge of my seat to watch what he has created. In my opinion he has no rules in what he includes and that is what is so fun about him. Never have I found a director that has entranced me as much as he has. Second, someone in a review said that us "older folks (20-30+)" should stop watching Miike's films. I'm 30 and age has nothing to do with liking his films or not. The reviewer was correct, however, when he talked about being open-minded. If you can't be open-minded and have fun with his films; you are going to miss out on an opportunity to see something new and entirely enjoyable.
  
  

• Audition (Uncut Special Edition)
• Oldboy
• Battle Royale Directors Cut
• Visitor Q
• Suicide Club (Suicide Circle)