Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful mindless violence!
Review: Obviously I haven't seen the U.S. release of this, but as an owner of a Region 3 DVD player I was able to see the version already out in Japan.
While the movie's plot isn't exactly strong, it makes up for it in gory goodness! Just go into this knowing what you're getting. You'll see a person's hand get nearly bitten off, someone slashed in half, a man cut out his own tongue, and that isn't even the half of it.
Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: ichi is a killer who has down syndrome
Review: First of all, the picture is not ichi, its some other wacko who actually is kinda cool unlike ichi who is aretarded twenty year old who is manipulated into killing gangsters and prostitutes by some other weirdo. This cat comes out with blades that come out of the heel of his special shoes. This definitly gets old. He cuts one guy in half which is about the only thing worth watching at all. All the killings just show blood being splattered around and you really don't get to see anything except the after math which is like a mortal kombat cheesy fatality. Stay away from this one. Your better off checking out dead alive.
Rating: 
Summary: Cool Asian gore flick!
Review: This is a story set in Tokyo, a yazuka boss with blonde hair is looking for the one who killed his boss named " Ichi The Killer". Ichi is an anti-hero who goes around Tokyo looking for rapists then slices them literally in pieces with ultra-sharp razors, now the boss of the yazuka clan must find him and kill him.An entertaining, nasty, violent, funny and gory Yakuza flick from acclaimed Japanese director Takashi Miiki ( who did " Audition" and " Visitor Q). It's based on a Japanese manga of the same name, this movie is quite an interesting, sleazy and disturbing movie with loads of good acting, complicated storyline and gore abound, it's definitely not for the faint hearted but it's a gore lover's kind of movie all the way. Can't wait to watch the anime prequel to it coming this fall on DVD. Also recommended: " Riki-Oh The Story of Ricky", " Kill Bill Vol. 1", " Fist of the North Star ( Animated)", " Battle Royale", "Hellraiser", "Scarface", " Freddy Vs. Jason", " Versus", " The Toxic Avenger", " Maniac ( 1980)", " The last House on The Left", " House on The Edge of the Park", " Suspiria", " Phenomena", " Inferno", " Sleepless", " The New York Ripper".
Rating:
Summary: c'mon guys
Review: Anyone who tries to take this film seriously is a fool and they're missing the point. Have you seen Dead Or Alive? Remember the last fifteen minutes of the final showdown and how over the top ridiculous it is? Ichi the Killer is pure entertainment in the same vein filled with scene after scene of gratuitous violence and torture for the sake of shock value. Kind of like those Lucio Fulci zombie flicks from the 70s. Throats slashed, tongues cut off, hot oil, razor sharp needles, the list goes on. The first hour or so focuses more on the violent aspects of the characters and the second hour focuses more on the characters themselves. It could have been a bit better if it did explain more about how the characters became the way they are but it certianly didn't detract from the story: a run-of-the-mill mob revenge flick. The only thing about this film I didn't like was the extreme violence, forced sex and mutilation of women. Perhaps this was a way of expressing how vile these characters really are but it seemed to be the only extreme thing about the movie I felt to be a bit unnecessary. Outside of that a very entertaining film. See this if you're a gore fan.
Rating:
Summary: Psychologically a good study... otherwise, pretty bad.
Review: For the name of the movie "Ichi the Killer"... that's not Ichi on the front cover. That's Kakihara (a completely insane member of the Anjo gang who REALLY enjoys inflicting and recieving pain). Psychologically, this movie covers a lot of the most base of human desire. The stuff nobody really wants to see in themselves if they're halfway balanced. This film also glorifies violence against women, torture, dismeboweling, amputation and more... It sprays more blood than "Kill Bill"; and then takes it a step further with Kakihara using skewers, hooks and scissors to torture his victims as he searches for "The Boss". I'm glad I watched it, but not so thrilled I'm going to watch it again anytime soon. The plot had a lot of potential if they would have stepped back from the massive amounts of violence long enough to actually explain why several characters are the way they are. Ichi (which is Japanese for "one", and explains the "1" on the back of his suit) is almost like what would happen if a superhero went completely insane... it does explain around how Ichi became what he is, but all in all, it doesn't do it so well you feel anything for him as a character except that he has issues... a LOT of issues. Kakihara is a sado-masochist who happens to be the most interesting character in the movie... but it still wasn't enough to really save this movie in my opinion. I'd probably suggest renting this one...
Rating:
Summary: Weirdly......entertaining?
Review: I've been a fan of the costumed Japanese films for years but THIS was so...so facinatingly compelling. One reviewer said his jaw dropped and stayed that way throughout the whole film and that's pretty much what I did. All that blood was difficult to get past long enough to connect with the story line but there is so much gore that the impact of guts, blood spray, and body parts diminishes after a while--but not entirely.
A very interesting experience.
Rating: 
Summary: Takashi Miike Needs a Shrink Badly!
Review: Sickening sights like sadomasochism, eyes gouged out, people being chopped in half, noses and ears being chopped off, women who like being beated 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.
Rating:
Summary: A Haunting Exploration of the Boundaries of Mind and Body.
Review: 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!!!
Rating:
Summary: It's about pain. A lot of pain. But not only.
Review: Having heard some things about this movie - preferably around its sadomasochistic nature - I first made a detour through some of the other Miike works as FUDOH, GRAVEYARD OF HONOR, DEAD OR ALIVE and whatever there is. ICHI was told to be the hardest and toughest, sickest, most brutal of them all. Now I wouldn't completly deny on that but one has to realize that however unpleasent Miike's movies are, there is a lot of style and beauty to it, not only by how it's been photographed but also by how which elements are given into the movie in which dosis.
Extreme themes as in this movie have something unfavorable: they tend to dazzle the viewer's mind by its graphic presentation that a lot else gets lost. Like with "In the beginning there was fire", an old movie about humans in stone age that are fighting for the posession of fire. There's one scene where some stone-age-girls are doing work in a stream when a male worker all of a sudden is running to one of them, taking her from behind. Everyone was talking about this one scene and how pervert the whole movie was. They seemingly were unable to see further than that.
Now, in ICHI there's too much torturing, pain, S-M and similiar sick stuff to place a similiar statement. ICHI IS a pervert movie in a way. But then there is something almost poetic to this all. That morbid, spiral suction of a suffocating reality in which all the actors are moving has something absolutly stubborn about it that can fascinate some viewers, but will leave others dazzled behind.
We have a lot of pain here, and we have a lot of fun as well. Everyone in ICHI has a specific relationship to pain. For once we have ICHI, a young guy being brainwashed by the use of his traumatic pain in memory which forces him to give pain through wicked revenge motives, which, in the process, is throwing back all traumatic pain to ICHI again as a result of perfidious self-humiliation after having looked at what bloody work he's done. Then we have the sadomasochistic torturer who is giving pain only in foresight of receiving pain with the same intensity (we see him once being beaten by a professional and have to smile by his bored and sobbering reactions as it's just "not enough painful"). We have a yakuza boss that we never get to see as his dissapearence is the very reason for the mess that is going on here. He seems to have been the one and only to sexually satisfy the torturer in the sadomasochistic way that he needs. So his quest to find his yakuza boss isn't actually to traditionally repay a yakuza killer strike but to regain his boss' ability of giving the best pain. Once it is for sure that the boss is long dead, obviously having been killed by another sick weirdo the torturer comes to realize how sick this killer's mind has to be - in fact so absolutly sick, derranged and brutal that his quest for revenge slowly turns into one desperate search for the killers identity in expectation of 1-A-super-quality pain as a reward. But then the viewer knows ICHI who could easily be every mother's cute little sweet son-in-law.
So torturers, victims, culprits, bosses and henchmen are somehow united in the greed of individual relief, in a bizarr court for each other, harnessed in a whirlpool of pain, love and desperation.
To this painful near-poetic viscous circle add some really sick, pitch black jokes and you're pretty close to the cinematic world of Takashi Miike. There is a lof of humour in here, for example shortly after Ichi enters a room, a cascade of blood, body parts and guts is flowing and splashing out of the room he just entered. Or the famous scene where the torturer is being rebuked by another yakuza boss for having one of his henchman tortured by meat hooks, hot oil and needles for no real reason, the torturer - obviously convinced by the rebuking - simply cuts off his tongue for yakuza reparation, only to answer a mobile phone call shortly afterwards, as if nothing's happened.
Rating: 
Summary: A big disappointment but still a good movie.
Review: 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.
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