Hold onto your stomachs, kiddies. Takashi Miike pushes the limits of quite simply everything. I don’t think I’ve seen a more sadistic or graphic film. But it’s also sleek. Blood splatters against the crystalline backdrops of modern Japan. Absurdity mingles with the everyday. The bright candy colors and the super widescreen photography harken back to Seijun Suzuki’s surreal yakuza thrillers. But Miike takes it a step further. Body parts and organs and limbs are splashed all over the screen in wild fury. Colors pop and explode and the camera zooms in and out of strange places. By bringing a manga to life he’s created in cinematic form the real Japan. Maybe even the real modern world. After all, in a world where real life superheroes stalk the streets of Seattle and serial killings take on more bizarre and gruesome dimensions, Miike can’t be too far from reality, can he? Full of style and thrills, but it lacks a heart. That crucial missing component keeps the film from being a masterpiece. Even Miike’s fore-bearers like Suzuki, Woo, De Palma, and Lynch had hearts. This is the future of pop filmmaking, but what a nihilistic future it is. Idealism is dead.
I think I have to agree with you. I really liked the film as a whole, but it was just brutally nihilistic. I think it's most successful as a commentary on how people love to indulge in gore porn, but instead of being "enjoyable" Miike just pulls the rug from right under us. But the characters, man, they are horrible. Do people like this even exist?
I don't even know right now....Well, what I do know is it is wayyy too long for what it is.
Free violence! Poor jokes, pointless script...Not very good acting performances, some good shots and camera movements. The visuals are ridiculous, but some how it works. In a nutshell, disappointing.
I like his style. I like that he mixes hyper-real candy-colored graphics with uber-natural, cinema verite feel. The content here is...disturbing...
A grotesque comic-book Yakuza movie that succeeds so greatly because despite Miike's bombast, he always take his themes seriously.
Somehow this film keeps me curious and coming back, everytime I see it I'm more disgusted and more put off but I still watch it at least once a year. If you can get past the ridiculously overwrought violence and some pretty awful CGI, there's a movie that's fascinating in a morbid way, funny, horrific, well-acted and for some reason, thought-provoking. I for one loved the ending.
So disappointed. Ichi is such a pussy it annoyed the crap out of me. Very few interesting parts.
One of the best films I have ever seen. This film is unique, edgy, dark, and extremely unique. Kakihara is one of the most interesting characters ever created for screen, and he even though he is a dark character, you feel so much sympathy for him.
This movie is a totally awesome, completely f*&#ed experience. Filled with so many disgusting acts and intriguing psychotics one can't help but be carried away by the sadomasochistic insanity! Awesome, but only for the desensitzed and that guy who kills small animals and bury them in the back yard!
'Ichi The Killer' is ultimately a compelling tale of gang warfare and how someone who is not aware they are a killer is manipulated. The violence serves the story, and I don't beleive falls into the 'gornography' category that I would put the later 'Saw' films into and Asioa Extreme exploiotation pictures such as 'Machine Girl.' A tough-going but very great film.
huh whaaaaaat? this movie is awesome/terrible. not like "so bad it's good"...its just equally bad and good. kind of like all of his films. you can't help but love a filmmaker who throws EVERYTHING at the wall and doesn't care if any of it sticks or not
It's nice to see a film that uses extreme violence specifically to critique punters' desire to see mindless violence. I bet much popcorn was left intact.
