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Ichi the Killer (Unrated Edition) Director: Takashi Miike Number of Items: 1 Format: Color Audience Rating: Unrated Running Time: 129 minutes Studio: Media Blasters, Inc Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2003-11-18 Buy from Amazon

Customer Reviews: Total numer of reviews: 86 Average rating: 4.0 "A Haunting Exploration of the Boundaries of Mind and Body." 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!!! "Takashi Miike Needs a Shrink Badly!" Sickening sights like sadomasochism, eyes gouged out, people being chopped in half, noses and ears being chopped off, women who like being beaten 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. "Weirdly......entertaining?" 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. "A big disappointment but still a good movie." 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. "Sodimise my brain please!" Oh my, this is one of the most disturbing and fullfilling films I've seen in the last year. I've stumbled upon this movie purely by chance and I'm glad that I have. The movie takes you down the streets of Japanese gang life, sex, pain, and rape. I was deeply enthralled by this movie and love the creative quirks it has given me. If you're easily disturbed, don't watch this movie. And if you like violence in your movies, you may want to think again. This takes violence into a light that most american's don't see, ART. All I have to say is, I enjoyed having my brain raped, beaten, placed in bondage and continuely sodimized by this movie!