Ichi the Killer - Director's Cut

Rating:
Summary: WOW
Review: This guy summed it up perfectly.

A strong contender for the sickest movie of all time, Ichi The Killer exhibits Miike Takashi's freewheeling visual imagination nonetheless. It's an ultraviolent revenge movie based on a Manga cartoon in which a sinister hypnotist manipulates the timid but unstable Ichi to dispatch various mobsters in horrifically violent fashion by invoking false memories of witnessing a rape. His ultimate target is a mutilated Yakuza played by the excellent Asano Tadanobu, sadistic and masochistic in equal measures, inciting boss and girlfriend to beat him savagely and exacting horribly inventive torture techniques on his enemies. At one stage, when he overdoes it and angers his bosses, he volunteers a "sincere apology" and cuts out his own tongue. He claims everyone is part sadist, part masochist and the director explores this theme with disturbing enthusiasm. This could do the job very nicely as the "therapy" film in A Clockwork Orange. [AK]
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N A T F I L M F E S T I V A L

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Violence
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: "Life without pain has no meaning...
Review: Gentlemen, I intend to give your lives meaning..."

I'm not sure if I feel worse that I saw "Ichi the Killer" or that I actually enjoyed it! Probably neither actually. I saw "Suicide circle" a week before, and I feel I may have been somewhat hasty when I said in my review it was the weirdest movie I've ever seen - I think that "Ichi" might just have it beat...
Anyone who saw the humor in the "American Psycho" novel, or enjoyed "Very Bad Things" will definitely want to see this. The plot is fairly ludicrous and poorly explained. Some guys want to bust up some gang so they set a couple of gangs against each other. I think that's it - although there were plenty of mistakes in the subtitles and my Japanese isn't so hot, but I think I got most of it.
Anyway, the real attraction isn't the plot, it's the characters, Ichi and Kakihara. Ichi is a reluctant mass-murderer, while the Kakihara is a willing masochist. Should be fun when they meet, right? The premises and backstories are waaay out there and there's a subtle twist to the denouement and all in all it is a fantastically entertaining ride.
If you have the stomach to sit through it that is...

Rating:
Summary: WTF indeed
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: It's really a love story
Review: Prepare yourself for severe emotional scarification.

If you can muster the fortitude to watch the unedited versions of Ichi the Killer and Visitor Q all the way through you will be taken to the very limit of the cinematic extreme.

Short of a snuff flick a Takashi Miike film is the most sick depraved event you will expirience on you television set (with the exeption of the Olsen twins movies of corse).

Ichi the Killer Rules!
Be prepared!

Rating:
Summary: An abomination of stupidity.
Review: How often can you watch a guy get kicked and slashed (unconvincingly) with a blade on his shoe and blood pour unrealistically out? Why is cutting someone with a blade on your shoe better than a knife? I guess because it's supposed to be "cool" or something.

Miike must have no morals to make a film like, and the entire country of Japan must be totally corrupt to release this film. Watching this vile trash makes me feel a lot better about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that's for sure.

Rating:
Summary: DROP IN QUALITY
Review: I'm not saying don't buy this if you like Miike's work but after Audition I thought he had finally found himself as a film maker and was going to produce more quality product. This film is instead a big step backwards to his earlier cheap Yakuza films and has a slapped together/ improv vibe to it. Massive amounts of violence no doubt but to what end? If you really want to see the best of Japanese cinema than check out the films of Beat Takeshi.

Rating:
Summary: Big Disappointment
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Must have DVD
Review: one of the best movies I have ever seen - very different - classic

Rating:
Summary: Fake violence
Review: I loved 'Audition' and I've been trying to get my hands on Visitor Q, in the meanwhile I stumbled across Ichi. Considering it's by the same director, Takeshi Miike (a sort of Japanese Tarantino), and after reading up on the film's overall hype and reputation, I thought I'd give it a try. I loved the cold, sterile style of cinematography and the narrative in Audition. I was hoping this would be similar. An intelligent yet warped storyline, submersed with dry wit, cynicism and surrealism. I think there's definite elements from the 'Audition' side of things in there (particularly the torture scenes - which I was sorta hoping would be a tiny bit more graphic), but I didn't find it half as intriguing.
I guess the film mainly appealed to me because of my occasional bloodlust. I don't even mind if the gore is senseless and irrelevant sometimes, as long as it's depicted realistically and fits somehow, even symbolically, into the context of the plot. In the end, I found this film was really about pain which fills the empty void in life, illustrated in a sort of twisted s&m/fetish, murder and rape way. I find that the director sorta likes to experiment on the viewers, and his films are the idyllic sort of stimulus medium in which to 'freak us out' and then make us think about why we watched his film and probably why we enjoyed it and want to see another. I found that's the effect both Audition and Ichi had on me.
The only thing that kinda bothered me about the violence was how fake it was, like when Ichi slices through the first guy with his shoe-blade (which is the stupidest weapon, why not just use a knife for f**k sake) and he splits down the middle (although I'm pretty sure that was intended to be comedic as it is so obviously computer animated), or when Kakihara is punched in the mouth and his face wounds spread open. I can see how it was supposed to be satirical in a way. I think the biggest let-down was the ending, it seemed far too unplanned and incoherent. Kakihara's demise was sort of romanticised which held the greatest relevance to the theme. The fight scene was ridiculous though, and at that stage Ichi's nervousness becomes incredibly irritating.
Overall, generally it's an ok film, suitable for trippy late-night loneliness. Some really good parts and an interesting concept, but it tends to drag on and a lot of the latter scenes and violence don't really have any point. The films doesn't offer much in the way of exposition or explanation. If you're looking for a more profound and substantial film which relates to pain and loneliness, Audition is much better.