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All Movie Info
Starring:
Tadanobu Asano, Shinya Tsukamoto, Susumu Terajima, Shun Sugata, Jun Kunimura, Houka Kinoshita, Nao Omori, Yoshiki Arizono, Toru Tezuka, Satoshi Niizuma, Hiroyuki Tanaka, Paulyn Sun, Yoshiki Arizono, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Suzuki Matsuo, Moro Morooka
Directed By:
Takashi Miike
Written By:
Hideo Yamamoto, Sakichi Satô
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Ichi the Killer (2001)
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Movie Review by Jarrod 
July 2nd, 2008
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'Ichi the Killer' is a wickedly stylish, bleak and incredibly bloody film from Japanese director Takashi Miike, and it dips its toes in the waters of every genre imaginable, though it focuses primarily on a wacky blend of horror, action, crime drama, and comedy. This is one of the most gruesome and disturbing movies I have ever seen, and also perhaps one of the strangest. The title character is a young man (Nao Omori), who has been turned into a ruthless assassin through brainwashing techniques first introduced by The Manchurian Candidate, with a dash of hypnosis that drills down into the depths of his subconscious mind and has placed thoughts and memories there that did not previously exist. The psychological aspects of the story are fascinating, and explored in some detail, but not nearly enough. Ichi is haunted by his inability to save a woman who was being raped (presumably by some of his classmates), and he is also bothered by his childhood and adolescent encounters with bullies; that seems to serve as the trigger, his handlers tell him that each of his targets is a bad man, not unlike those mean kids who once picked on him and others like him. Ichi dons what looks like a rubber (or spandex) suit, with a yellow 1 on the back of it and moves with the speed and skill of a ninja, killing people with the retractable razor blades hidden in his shoes. As far as I could see, he did not use any other weapons. His work is distinctive because of its messiness; for instance, the floor is always littered with severed limbs and bits of internal organs(notably intestines), in addition to the massive amounts of blood. A crew comes in to clean up after him, and his identity remains a secret. When not in killer mode, he is a shy lad who looks to be in his early to mid twenties; he rarely speaks, but demonstrates a proclivity for sexual sadism, he is aroused by pain, or, more precisely, by watching pain being inflicted upon others, like the prostitute being savagely beaten by her pimp; Ichi stands outside the window as it happens, and the camera focuses our attention on the white liquid dripping off of a plant on the balcony, Ichi's semen no doubt. He suffers from an apparent assortment of sexual dysfunctions (ejaculation problems, frequent, long-lasting, and inexplicable erections), and eventually expresses a desire not to kill anymore, even if this request is ignored by those who control him. Ichi is primarily used to eliminate members of the Yakuza.
The first character we meet is Kakihara (Tadanobu Asano), a Yakuza enforcer determined to find out what happened to his boss, Anjo. He believes he has been abducted by a rival faction, and uses torture to extract information. Kakihara, like Ichi, is a sexual sadist, and somewhat of a masochist. He is clearly a psychopath, and there is a smile on his face as he tortures people; torture is obviously something he enjoys. His face is scarred, and there are slits on both sides of his mouth, which he keeps pinned shut, but when he removes these pins and opens his mouth to its fullest width, it is a ghastly (and inhuman) sight. Kakihara comes to admire Ichi's killing style, and is also put on Ichi's hit list, so there is an inevitable confrontation between them. Ichi also confronts Kaneko (Hiroyuki Tanaka), a former cop who joined Anjo's ranks, and is one of Kakihara's lackeys. Kaneko has a son named Takeshi; Ichi fights off some older boys who are teasing and tormenting Takeshi. Ichi and Kakihara are thus simultaneously protagonists and antagonists, dual lead characters whose paths are destined to converge, have in fact already converged from the start, albeit unknowingly.
The depravity and excess of the torture scenes (involving needles, hooks, and boiling water) are sure to make you squirm, as will most of the murder scenes (with extended arterial sprays that would make Sweeney Todd cringe in revulsion), and the sexual themes that explore bizarre pain fetishes, and meditate on the abuse and mutilation of women. It is hard to recommend a movie like this; it is visually inventive, technically well-crafted, full of over-the-top violence and flashy effects, yet its story never quite comes together into a cohesive whole. Asano was recently seen in Mongol. Miike has earned a reputation for making controversial, outlandishly gross and gory films, and 'Ichi the Killer' cements that reputation, along with Audition, and his contribution to Three Extremes, called Box. He is an audacious and perversely imaginative artist, and for that, one must give him his due credit. 'Ichi the Killer' is certainly self-indulgent, but it is also mystifying, difficult to forget, and boldly original. And it has a guy cutting out his own tongue, and I am debating whether or not this particular scene is as good as a similar one from the Korean film Oldboy.
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