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| Ichi The Killer By Yodasnoog |
| Takashi Miike’s almost instant infamous classic is sure to shock, disturb and sicken many people. However, it will also make a lot just laugh at the pure craziness of the whole thing. Adapted from an uber violent Manga by Hideo Yamamoto, Ichi The Killer really pushes the limits of screen gore, even in its cut form it can still shock you, but as a testament to the skill of Miike, even in its cut form its still a damn fine movie too. To me, the movie is not just lead by the gore and carnage, there is some interesting character development that some seem to miss. The story is this, one night the boss of the Anjo yakuza clan is murdered (well, more like ripped to pieces). Kakihara, his masochist of a right hand man, believes that he is still alive, when its obvious that he is dead. So, he sets about finding out what has happened to him. Kakihara finds out about Ichi, who is the disturbed individual who killed the Anjo boss. |
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| Ichi (Nao Omori) is under the control of Jiiji (Tetsuo’s Shinya Tsukamoto), who has planted false memories into his head and is using them to make Ichi kill off members of the Anjo group. But Ichi is a reluctant killer, crying after each murder. After Kakihara finds out about Ichi, he becomes interested in him and looks forward to meeting him. Kakihara (played in a sadistically cool fashion by Tadanobu Asano) is the main player here, while this may technically be Ichi’s movie, Kakihara steals the show. Other strange and funny characters are the two cops who Kakihara enlists to help him out, its these cops that remind you that this is a Manga adaption. |
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| Now the violence, while most of the violence surrounding Ichi’s character is very OTT and unbelievable (like splitting a guy into two from head to genitals with the razor blades on his heels) the other violence on show can be quite unsettling, for example and the very start of the movie there is a rather brutal rape of a woman at the hands of a pimp; pretty nasty stuff. And there is the scene in which a woman has her nipples sliced off with a razor (this wasn’t in the version I saw, but I’ve heard its pretty bad), and is then kicked to death (this was so sudden the only thing I could do was laugh nervously). There is a strong theme of sexual violence in the movie; the memories implanted into Ichi’s mind are of a rape he did not stop from happening when he was younger. And sometimes Ichi gets erections after he kills, me thinks he should have went to a psychiatrist. A word about the ending too, some have said its really open ended, and I agree. It doesn’t really let you know what has happened (a bit like Audition), but sometimes I prefer endings like this, makes you think. Check the net for explanations and it makes it quite clear and pretty interesting. |
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| All in all though, if you are used to the works of Miike this shouldn’t shock you too much, but if you are used to the cosy comnforts of Hollywood violence, id stay well away if I was you. This ain’t your average “quite sick” movie, I mean I don’t think I’ve ever seen another movie where the title of the movie rises out of a pool of jism. Start at Dead or Alive, then Audition, then maybe try Ichi. If you want to see this uncut, get the (rather expensive but packed with extras) Dutch dvd. Other options are the Hong Kong version (Roughly 13 minutes missing, not just violence but some dialogue scenes strangly) The UK version (about 4 minutes missing) Or wait for the Media Blasters region 1 release which will be fully uncut. |