Ichi the KillerIn this extreme and warped portrayal of Kabuki-cho--the "red light" district of Tokyo--there is no morality; vice is a virtue, and this world is irreparably damaged and demented, a yakuza madhouse. Welcome to the world of Ichi the Killer, a stylized Japanese splatter-horror film where violence is a way of life, and the eponymous antagonist is not a willing accomplice in this bloodthirsty lifestyle, but is manipulated and poisoned into being a participant in this nightmarish game. Watching Ichi the Killer is more than simply watching a bloody action movie--it is a descent into brutal depravity, a truly graphic portrayal of twisted violence, sadistic cruelty, and horrifying sexual assault.
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Ichi the Killer opens with the bloody death of mob boss, Anjo (Houka Kinoshita), following his brutal beating of a woman named Sailor (Mai Goto) in his apartment--that death comes at the hand of the unlikely Ichi (Nao Ômori), who is aroused by the violence due to his personality being intentionally warped like a bonsai tree. Although Ichi is the great enigma and looming enemy of the story, he turns out to be an overgrown child, turned into the personal assassin and puppet of the unassuming mastermind, Jijii (Shinya Tsukamoto). Convinced his boss (and administrator of sadistic pain) is not dead, the flamboyant second-in-command Kakihara (Tadanobu Asano) sets out to discover the true fate of Anjo, even against the warnings of his dismissive superiors, who appear more scared of Kakihara than they care to admit. Kakihara is the real star of the story, a masochist who enjoys suffering pain, and praises the virtues of delivering it with feeling. Anjo's previous "girl", Karen (Alien Sun) falls for Kakihara and his depravity, and the two form a partnership, both seeking out information about Anjo's absence. Karen is a fascinating character, her language dancing back and forth between English and Japanese; the movie carries on as though others can understand her, or are--in this exclusively--to polite to say otherwise. As Kakihara discovers that Anjo was killed by Ichi, he becomes increasingly obsessed with discovering the whereabouts of this psychotic rival, and the thrill of a confrontation drives him to escalate his search. For his excitement at torture, Kakihara rarely seems to allow any moments of the extreme get a rise out of him; he seems not so much collected, but numb to all of the experiences he has felt, and now can only feel when exposed to something truly wild. Characters like Kaneko (Hiroyuki Tanaka)--a former police officer turned mob gunman after previously losing his gun--do not seem to belong to this world, but fulfill an obligation to the gang due to an indebtedness to a rare moment of sympathy by Anjo--and moreso, his bodyguard, Takayama (Shun Sugata)--who saved him literally from being beaten while he was down. His son, Takeshi (Hiroshi Kobayashi), is bullied like Ichi was, and their paths even cross when Ichi inadvertently saves Takeshi from harassment. Dressed in his jumpsuit, emblazoned with the number "1", Ichi looks the part of a superhero when Takeshi sees him again. And though he is compelled by Jijii to "kill the bad guys", Ichi's unresolved psychological damage makes him a dangerous wild card. Moments in Ichi the Killer are told out of sequence, fragmented and shattered like glass, setting the stage for this conspiracy to sow dissension among the gangs in the Tokyo underworld by Jijii and his humble crew. Jijii is cagey and unpredictable, and is willing to bend the minds of his victims in unorthodox ways. A telling scene occurs later in the film when Jijii and another character--who appeared to share no connection up until this point--discuss the idea of post-hypnosis. When Jijii indicates that he has used this to alter the memories of Ichi to make him easy to control, the other character has flashbacks which prompt the question of whether Jijii did this to them. This ambiguity comes back strong in the ending, and intentionally muddies the waters of our expectations about memory's authenticity, and what is real versus what is illusion.
Ichi the Killer is a decidedly "extreme" horror film, one that behaves as though it has an obsessive compulsion to offend and provoke with its bevy of sex, drugs, blood, and violence. The appeal, though, is arguably not so much as a satisfaction in the grotesque, but in the resolution, the end of it; there is a kind of catharsis when the nightmarish imagery is all over. This movie is not for the squeamish, nor for those who are easily (or even not-so-easily) offended by objectionable content. In this twisted underworld setting, yakuza inflict unconscionable mutilations upon one another, a serial killer/sexual deviant cuts people in half, and more horrors ensue. So what sets Ichi the Killer apart, and makes it more than just torture porn? Ichi the Killer is one of the most famous (infamous?) works of prolific filmmaker Takashi Miike. Miike is a diverse filmmaker, responsible for anything from family films, adaptations of video games onto the big screen, and more; but his ultra-violent masterpieces tend to take center stage. Ichi the Killer boasts some outlandish special effects, as gross and disgusting as they may be, they are also convincingly shocking and disturbing. Many may be familiar with yakuza trope regarding those who have to offer up a self-mutilated finger as a sincere apology--deputy gang leader/masochist Kakihara takes this one step further when he offers up his severed tongue in a scene that is both disgusting and transfixing. (The reactions of the wronged yakuza at this display are priceless.) Ichi the Killer has a talented cast of actors, including many yakuza-movie character actors--and even a mutual filmmaker in the role of the puppetmaster, Jijii. To say Ichi the Killer is violent is an understatement; but the violence in the film is so overblown, so absurd at times, that it is evident that the violence is not meant to provide any great resolution or rationality--the violence comes as a by-product of the abuse suffered by the title character, Ichi, the man-child devoid of maturity, bullied and browbeaten, but possessed of a terrible capacity for violence. Jijii has ruthlessly turned the simple-minded naïf into a walking weapon in his vendetta against the yakuza, by casting the Anjo gang as the bullies who tormented him in school. The message of the rippling effect of abuse may be all as subtle as a tsunami, but the shocking plot and unsettling tone make for a psychologically jarring movie experience. And in the unorthodox climax of the film, Kakihara's obsession with Ichi has turned him into the equivalent of Captain Ahab, hunting the "white whale" that is Ichi. Their inevitable confrontation subverts our expectations from the film, so that Kakihara's sentiment about the resolution is intended to ironically mirror ours, forcing us to assess our level of involvement in the ultra-violence portrayed in Ichi the Killer.
Recommended for: Only audiences capable of accepting extreme portrayals of violence and mature situations, those looking for a stylized slice (sorry) of the Japanese underworld. Absolutely must watch this with the original Japanese audio.
Ichi the Killer is a decidedly "extreme" horror film, one that behaves as though it has an obsessive compulsion to offend and provoke with its bevy of sex, drugs, blood, and violence. The appeal, though, is arguably not so much as a satisfaction in the grotesque, but in the resolution, the end of it; there is a kind of catharsis when the nightmarish imagery is all over. This movie is not for the squeamish, nor for those who are easily (or even not-so-easily) offended by objectionable content. In this twisted underworld setting, yakuza inflict unconscionable mutilations upon one another, a serial killer/sexual deviant cuts people in half, and more horrors ensue. So what sets Ichi the Killer apart, and makes it more than just torture porn? Ichi the Killer is one of the most famous (infamous?) works of prolific filmmaker Takashi Miike. Miike is a diverse filmmaker, responsible for anything from family films, adaptations of video games onto the big screen, and more; but his ultra-violent masterpieces tend to take center stage. Ichi the Killer boasts some outlandish special effects, as gross and disgusting as they may be, they are also convincingly shocking and disturbing. Many may be familiar with yakuza trope regarding those who have to offer up a self-mutilated finger as a sincere apology--deputy gang leader/masochist Kakihara takes this one step further when he offers up his severed tongue in a scene that is both disgusting and transfixing. (The reactions of the wronged yakuza at this display are priceless.) Ichi the Killer has a talented cast of actors, including many yakuza-movie character actors--and even a mutual filmmaker in the role of the puppetmaster, Jijii. To say Ichi the Killer is violent is an understatement; but the violence in the film is so overblown, so absurd at times, that it is evident that the violence is not meant to provide any great resolution or rationality--the violence comes as a by-product of the abuse suffered by the title character, Ichi, the man-child devoid of maturity, bullied and browbeaten, but possessed of a terrible capacity for violence. Jijii has ruthlessly turned the simple-minded naïf into a walking weapon in his vendetta against the yakuza, by casting the Anjo gang as the bullies who tormented him in school. The message of the rippling effect of abuse may be all as subtle as a tsunami, but the shocking plot and unsettling tone make for a psychologically jarring movie experience. And in the unorthodox climax of the film, Kakihara's obsession with Ichi has turned him into the equivalent of Captain Ahab, hunting the "white whale" that is Ichi. Their inevitable confrontation subverts our expectations from the film, so that Kakihara's sentiment about the resolution is intended to ironically mirror ours, forcing us to assess our level of involvement in the ultra-violence portrayed in Ichi the Killer.
Recommended for: Only audiences capable of accepting extreme portrayals of violence and mature situations, those looking for a stylized slice (sorry) of the Japanese underworld. Absolutely must watch this with the original Japanese audio.