Cebalord Very best movie i ever watch

Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Bluebell Alcock Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Mark Turner Director Takashi Miike is a director who breaks the mold and creates movies that don't hold back. Having already made a name for himself in his home country of Japan it wouldn't be until 2001 that he was noticed by a larger audience here in the US. One could say that happened 2 years earlier with the release of his film AUDITION which stunned audiences with its depiction of torture. But it was ICHI that drew more attention and got him noticed around the world.Let me start by saying that the modern day Yakuza films that were popular in Japan were being made before ICHI was released and Miike had his hand in a number of them. His BLACK TRIAD SOCIETY films are sought after now as well as well as DEAD OR ALIVE. But it was ICHI that cemented his name among fans of the unusual and cinema lovers worldwide.Based on the Manga of the same name, ICHI is the story of a yakuza gang in turmoil. When sadistic mob boss Anjo is brutally killed after beating a prostitute nearly to death by Ichi, a cleanup crew is sneaks in to take care of the scene. The gore strewn room is covered in blood and viscera but the team led by Jijii handles it with ease. When they leave the room is spotless and Anjo's crew has no idea what has happened.With Anjo gone his mob believes he has been kidnapped. The hunt is on for the killer and is led by underboss Kakihara. Kakihara is an unforgettable character, a man seemingly obsessed with sadism and masochism at the same time. It is the image of Kakihara that is most associated with the film, his smile increased by 2-3 inch slits on either side of where it should stop and held together with pins.Finding that Jijii and his crew are in town, Kakihara approached the older man and tells him if he learns of anything to contact him. Jijii passes along information to Kakihara that it might be possible rival boss Suzuki was behind it all. Capturing and torturing Suzuki it isn't until after that this lead proves to be false. To pay penance Kakihara cuts off the end of his tongue and presents it to Suzuki's boss.Realizing the lead was false, Kakihara and his men begin searching for Jijii and his crew. As they begin to follow leads, capturing each man, their standing with their boss comes into jeopardy and the Anjo crew is banished. This leaves Kakihara and his men open to trying to take over the mob they once worked for.As all of this is transpiring Jijii continues to use Ichi to stir things up, killing various people along the way. Ichi is tormented by memories of the past when he was bullied as a child. Now he seeks to right the wrongs of his past by killing these men that Jijii points out are the same as those bullies of the past. It is Jijii who is controlling what is going on. Before the film ends just who is responsible for what as well as who will remain standing is revealed.The movie is visually arresting with a huge color palette used by Miike. The garish clothing worn by Kakihara makes him stand out from the rest of his crew, was if the facial scarification weren't enough. The bright lights of the city explode on screen and the dark alleys offer hidden shadows. It is a city most would not associate with Japan but it puts on display the fact that they too have their locations that run rampant with crime.The two central characters of the film are polar opposites. Kakihara in his bright clothing delights in his sadomasochistic tendencies. Ichi on the other hand is dressed in black and fears the outburst of anger that push him into a psychotic stage. Kakihara is playing a game in his attempt to increase his power, Ichi is just subdued and quiet, sitting alone until instructed to do otherwise by Jijii. Kakihara controls people while Ichi is controlled. A final confrontation between the two is only natural and does happen near the end of the film, saved for the final moments.The film is bold in its depiction of brutality among the different gang members. If AUDITION showed that Miike was unafraid to turn an eye towards torture in his films ICHI shows he would embrace it. He embraces the violence on display and forces the viewer to look as well, depicting it as something that happens, that takes place, even if we aren't aware. While showing someone hanging from hooks located throughout their bodies, the cutting of Kakihara's tongue and the murder of Anjo are brutal for me they didn't compare to the beatings on prostitutes that left them bloodied, black eyed and with swollen faces. Those scenes felt more real and thus more gut wrenching.But for all of that there is a certain beauty to the film. The story telling aspects make it one that you don't want to turn away from, that you want to watch until the end credits roll. On top of that as the film moves forward you begin to realize that the character of Ichi is perhaps one of the saddest characters to ever appear onscreen. I won't say why as it would be too large of a spoiler but trust me, among a vast number of characters who are either gangsters or killers it is Ichi, a killer himself, you feel for by the end of the film.The first time I saw this movie I was only able to see if on a bootleg edition picked up at some convention. Since then it has been released over the years in this country but never like the current format that Well Go is offering now. To begin with the film was originally released in the US at only 117 minutes long to get an R rating from the MPAA. This is the full-length, original 128 minutes cut of the film. A full digital restoration of the film which was done by Emperor Motion Pictures in 2017. The new transfer was done in 4k resolution from a 35mm inter-negative found at L'Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, Italy. Since then it has been digitally restored and colour graded in 4k resolution. What this means is that this will be the most definitive version of the film with the entire film in the most brilliant picture it's ever been offered in. Extras are sparse but that shouldn't matter. It is the film that is important. With Miike just releasing his 100th film (BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL reviewed her a few weeks ago) and with a number of his films finding their way here via Arrow Video, those who appreciate the films he has to offer will want to make certain that this one ends up in their collection. If you've purchased the film in the past, sell off that old copy and invest in this one. It's the only way to have the complete film in the best format possible. Congratulations to the folks at Well Go for insuring that this film finds a renewed life.

Dizmalmazes I've seen reviews that talked about having to turn this film off every 20 min to catch their breath, how it's gag inducing, or the hardest film they ever watched. I ate dinner while watching this. It is not a cinematic masterpiece. It's simplistic, dumb, and show almost none of the violence people talk about. The most violent thing in the film is a girl that accidently gets her throat cut and bleeds out. I have seen films way more violent than this. For crying out loud kill bill is more violent. 99% of the violence in this film is simply implied or all you see is a bit of the aftermath. What is the big freaking deal with this film. There is nothing overly deep here. I expected way more than a guy with 2in blades in his shoes somehow slicing people in half. The film isn't the stylistic masterpiece it's made out to be. If this is a 7 on style scale then Crank is an 11 it has infinitely more stlye the story is just as bad. The hype around this film is dumb.

CinemaClown Overflowing with stylised but extremely graphic violence & featuring enough flinch-inducing moments of bloodshed over the course of its runtime, Takashi Miike's Ichi the Killer remains one of the most controversial films ever made & is still banned in many nations but despite the gruesome cruelty depicted here, it was nothing but a hilarious ride for me.Based on the manga series of the same name, Ichi the Killer follows the feud between two rival gangs which erupts when the crime boss of one of the gangs disappears & is believed to be kidnapped by the other mob, thus prompting the sadomasochistic yakuza enforcer of the former to carry out his sadistic investigation which leads him to Ichi, a psychologically damaged killer who's the real culprit.Directed by Takashi Miike (best known for Audition & 13 Assassins), Ichi the Killer presents the prolific filmmaker parodying the depiction of violence in media by taking this particular element way over the line and into a realm that turns the picture into a mishmash of playful & painful brutality. Miike's direction takes a no-holds-barred approach and while it carries an unsettling vibe, the poor effects also make it look funny, whether intentional or not.Although the gore content isn't held back and is going to upset & disturb its audience, the tension is still absent from the movie but it succeeds in putting on screen two of the most deranged characters you can probably think of. One of them is Kakihara, the chief enforcer for the yakuza gang with the missing boss & his love for sadism is explicitly displayed here. And if you think the level of violence Kakihara inflicts is as far as it can get, then there's Ichi to prove you wrong.On an overall scale, Ichi the Killer is as excessive, absurd & insane as films can go but the bizarre humour of it all nonetheless lowers the tone a little. There are sequences that'll have you turning away from the screen but within those scenes are also moments that you may find absolutely hilarious. For me, early into the story, Ichi the Killer became a long wait for two of its violence-friendly characters to face-off against each other and was disappointing on account of its notoriety, it's still an experience that won't fizzle out from memory soon enough.

lois-lane33 I knew of the actor who plays the part of Ichi The Killer from another film called Fallen Angels where he also plays a killer connected to organized crime in Asia. Aside from that actors performance, the film is pretty much a dud and is also probably the grossest and bloodiest film I've ever seen in my entire life and that is really saying something. Typically bad acting is here aplenty-a thing that often mars Asian cinema in films like Old Boy and a number of other pseudo martial arts epics that have come out of Asia in the past decade or so. There isn't much special or even good about this movie-in many ways it is the personification of 'hack cinematography.' Nobody survives in the film or learns anything at all making it a real black journey in the true sense of the concept. Don't waste your time with this crap. In case you are interested the guy on the poster isn't 'Ichi The Killer'-he's is a crime lord of some type in the film who is being targeted by Ichi's rival organization.