'ICHI THE KILLER'

Actors: Tadanobu Asano, Nao Omori, Alien Sun, Shinya Tsukamoto

Director: Takashi Miike

Media Blasters

Rated: Unrated Edition

Takashi Miike is a cinematic dynamo. The Japanese director has been known to produce as many as 15 films in one year. What's more shocking than the amount of movies the man releases though is the fact that the man's work is actually damn good...Better in fact than a lot of the crap American directors who're lucky to make one movie a year are wont to force upon the unsuspecting viewing audience. Miike's dedication to his craft is obviously an even more impressive feat when one takes into account the previously mentioned fact that he pumps these quality flicks out in a manner akin to that which one of the main characters in the film being reviewed here does semen.

Takashi Miike? Semen? What the fuck am I talking about? I'm talking about 'Ichi The Killer,' an almost legendary 2001 film from prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike. For those unfamiliar with Miike's body of work, he's best known for making what have come to be called "Yakuza revenge films." These are movies about Japan's criminal underworld that feature loads of ultra-violent, often gory, and almost always freakily sexual content. More than just shock flicks though Miike's films are also usually backed up by great stories, interesting & engaging characters, weird special effects, fast paced action and most importantly all that aforementioned violence, blood and sex. 'Ichi The Killer' is no exception, as it delivers all that and then some. Or did I neglect to mention the semen?

Have you ever seen a movie where the opening sequence culminates in the title "morphing" out of a puddle of cum? No? I thought not. But I have tough guy! And if you can track down a copy of this movie so will you! The movie begins as we're introduced to a group of slick Yakuza, one of which is worried about the safety of "the boss" who's holed up in his room getting his "groove" on. We also meet a group of masked criminals sitting in a van outside who clearly have it in for the aforementioned Yakuza boss. This is inter-cut with scenes of a brutal rape which is being watched by someone through a window. When the peeping tom makes a noise that startles the rapist he bolts to the window only to find nobody there. The viewer however is shown the floor of the balcony where a puddle of, shall we say "man juice," is gathering. As the goo drips from the leaf of a near-by plant it forms—with a little help from some CGI effects—into the Japanese title 'Ichi The Killer.' Is it brutal? Yes. Shocking? Sure. Gross? You bet your ass. But it's also cool as fucking hell!

From there all hell breaks loose as the Yakuza boss is dispensed of at the bidding of the masked criminals by the mysterious Ichi. The boss's lackey, a bleached blonde, pierced faced, pimp-suit rocking sadomasochist, then becomes interim gang leader. Once in power he goes on a mad hunt for this Ichi and somehow manages to torture a number of people with needles, hot oil and chains & hooks, break all of a woman's fingers, nearly rip off a guy's face, have his woman beat the crap out of him, slice off a broad's nipples, and even cut off one of his own bodily appendages along the way.

In the meantime we're introduced to Ichi who is himself a sadist of the most bizarre order. Raised by a vicious crime-boss as a tool of revenge, Ichi is a child in the body of a man who believes he was abused as a child and is now out to exact revenge on any and all bullies in the quickest, bloodiest and—thankfully for us movie-goers—most visually stunning way possible. Outfitted as if he's some sort of superhero by his criminal puppet-master, Ichi wears special shoes with blades in the heel which he uses to devastating effect. Throughout the course of the film he literally chops a guy in half, slits a couple throats, massacres a room-full of Yakuza, cuts a woman's leg clean off and even decapitates somebody.

The final showdown between Ichi and the Yakuza is a thing of beauty; artistic and sadly meaningful as any ballet or opera, even in all of its blood-soaked glory.

Be warned though, Takashi Miike pulls no punches. There is a level of brutality to the violence in this film that would never be shown in American cinemas. Some scenes purposely reach cartoonish levels of destruction usually only found in an 'Itchy & Scratchy' short on 'The Simspons.' For the most part though the dedication to showing no-holds-barred portrayals of violent acts is not desensitizing or gratuitous, but realistic in that it shows the real consequences that rapes, beatings, stabbings and shootings have on the human body and mind. When the shit goes down people die, in fact they die horribly, and those few that are left alive have mental scars of epic proportions. So while the visuals are without a doubt shocking, Takashi Miike’s work is worthwhile artistically, socially and aesthetically and shouldn’t be relegated to being considered the equivalent of a fictionalized snuff-flick.

This is guerrilla cinema at its finest. Fast, smart, stylish, shocking, but most of all entertaining, 'Ichi The Killer' is a must see for fans of the "Yakuza revenge" genre and anyone—assuming they have a strong stomach—who appreciates an original, intelligent story about interesting characters told in a way that is fresh, exciting and visually stunning. Fans of gangster flicks, the Hong Kong "bullet ballet," surreal horror of films such as 'The Cell' and the 'Hellraiser' series, the early work of Peter Jackson and stylized action movies like 'The Matrix' and 'Fight Club' are especially likely to eat this—and Takashi Miike’s other work—up with a spoon then beg for more. That is, if they haven't puked from all the blood.