Ichi the Killer (2001)

Director: Takashi Miike
Stars: Tadanobu Asano

Review:

Ichi the Killer is the film adapation of the manga in the same name. I have seen the manga and it is one of the sickest manga/comic/anything I have ever seen.When it becomes a film, it turns sick into just weird.

A major problem with this movie is it tried to put the plot of the manga into 2 hours, cutting a lot exposition and left no time for character development, turning the story into an incoherent pile of shit. In the manga everybody is sick and in this movie everybody is stupid.

The most disgusting title screen ever. The white slime is semen. Yuck.

So a killer named Ichi killed a Yakuza boss, and the boss' right hand man Kakihara go after him. An old man shown up and told Kakihara that another Yakuza boss did that, and Kakihara tortured him for some answers, with boiling oil poured over his naked body dangling from the ceiling. But it turns out the old man lied (Duh?), and Kakihara was expelled from the gang. And....I lost track honestly. The old man made a deal with the tortured Yakuza boss to kill all Kakihara's man, Ichi kill somebody, Kakihara found somebody to torture, Ichi kill some whore, anyway just killings and killings.

Killing aftermath

In terms of violence and gore it do keep pushing the boundary, but the audience found no reason for that to happen, like killing is the whole point of the movie. In the manga it is sick since it tells a story that somebody wants to kill, and somebody wants to be tortured to the point of even being sliced up. You feel the characters are lunatics and disturbed that if such person even exists. In the movie you feel that they are just a bunch of dumbasses. When Kakihara knew Ichi was after him, he went out searching for Ichi like a stupid kid running to a theme park, and when he found Ichi he fleed. Ichi was hynotized by the old man to kill those people, thought that they were the people who bullied he in school. Afterthat he thrown up and said "I dont want to kill anymore", and the old man said "Dont you want revenge to the bullies?" and Ichi said "But they are not the bullies!" Duh? The characters do act the same way in the manga, but we understand their menalities because they are developed, and here the development was sacrificed to squeeze everything into the movie.

It may seem to be inappropriate to talk about plot in this cult movie. If you just want gore scenes, this is the one for you. If you want to know what is what and why everybody is doing everything, go watch the manga. If you want to watch a standalone movie, watch something else.