Ichi The Killer
A film by Takashi Mike
An exercise in sadism, misogyny, masochism and various assorted perversions, Ichi The Killer is not for the faint of heart. The plot is quite simple. Jiji a small time thug plays two rival yakuza clans with a mixture of disinformation and his primary weapon, Ichi. Ichi is a sexually repressed murderer who comes up with various incredibly brutal methods of killing people. A post hypnotic suggestion by Jiji helps him gain control of the seriously fucked in the head Ichi and use him for his purposes which to me were never quite clear. The movie isn’t really about the plot, nor does it contain displays in histrionics to rival Lawrence Olivier. The movie is an outlet for the viewer to get off on all his dark deeply guarded fantasies. If you’ve never had a sadistic thought in your head then chances are you’ll switch off this film in the first 30 minutes. If you have thought about causing grievous bodily harm to your fellow man, you will watch this film in its entirety and might even go back for seconds.
Ichi The killer is like a car wreck. Ever stuck your head out your window to peer at the scene of a car wreck in the hope of seeing blood ? Well, you know its wrong and you’re even a little disgusted with yourself but you can’t take your eyes off yeah ? That’s
like watching Ichi The Killer.
Ichi under instructions from Jiji eliminates gang boss Anjo following which Jiji and his clean up crew get rid of the body.. This in turn sets his underling Kahkihara on a quest to find Anjo or at least to find out what happened to him. Kahkihara played by Tadanobu Asano is the centerpiece of this film. Obsessed with finding his boss, Kahkihara is a masochist who wants to find his boss simply because he cannot bear to live without the pain his boss Anjo would inflict on him. Kahkihara is the poster child for BDSM clubs all over the world. Tadanobu has enormous screen presence and his childlike smile of pleasure during the torture of Mr. Suzuki is probably the most cringe inducing smile in all of cinema. Though the character of Kahkihara overshadows Ichi, it is Ichi and his fucked up mind that is at the center of the movie. While Ichi comes across early on as a repressed individual and reluctant killer, it is in his butchering of Karen that he displays his true feelings and enjoys it when his own mind convinces him that he’s just giving Karen what she wants. Right here, you can feel nothing but revulsion for this weak twisted little fucker. Any hope of extracting sympathy is lost. Infact sympathy is one thing that none of the characters in this film evoke. The only slight hope of redemption for Ichi comes in his brief encounter with the son of Kaneko, another member of the Anjo gang. This one hope though is also cruelly snuffed out in the climax of the film.
Takashi Mike has an incredible amount of style and visual flair. The camera through a car window going through the streets with the frame rate set on fast forward before finally closing in on Kahkihara’s severed tongue is a brilliant piece of film and it isn’t the only one. Mike displays style in every shot. Here is my basic problem with the movie. It displays sadism, torture and graphic representations of cruelty to women and it does so in a manner that is cool. Kahkihara with his flamboyant sense of style, is all chic while the rest of the Yakuza are super cool tough guys in designer suits. Ichi is dressed like a superhero of some sort when he sets out to do his killing. Its almost like Mike has made the film cool to appeal to Japanese adolescents. Ichi the Killer could be another Kill Bill. With Kill Bill, you figured it was all fantasy and the style added to the movie. Ichi The Killer is all style but the subject is far too disturbing and perverse. I may change my mind about this film if I ever sit down for a second helping, till then though, Mike makes graphic displays of sadism, rape and torture look very real and also very cool. That is what’s wrong with Ichi The Killer.
A film by Takashi Mike
An exercise in sadism, misogyny, masochism and various assorted perversions, Ichi The Killer is not for the faint of heart. The plot is quite simple. Jiji a small time thug plays two rival yakuza clans with a mixture of disinformation and his primary weapon, Ichi. Ichi is a sexually repressed murderer who comes up with various incredibly brutal methods of killing people. A post hypnotic suggestion by Jiji helps him gain control of the seriously fucked in the head Ichi and use him for his purposes which to me were never quite clear. The movie isn’t really about the plot, nor does it contain displays in histrionics to rival Lawrence Olivier. The movie is an outlet for the viewer to get off on all his dark deeply guarded fantasies. If you’ve never had a sadistic thought in your head then chances are you’ll switch off this film in the first 30 minutes. If you have thought about causing grievous bodily harm to your fellow man, you will watch this film in its entirety and might even go back for seconds.
Ichi The killer is like a car wreck. Ever stuck your head out your window to peer at the scene of a car wreck in the hope of seeing blood ? Well, you know its wrong and you’re even a little disgusted with yourself but you can’t take your eyes off yeah ? That’s
like watching Ichi The Killer.
Ichi under instructions from Jiji eliminates gang boss Anjo following which Jiji and his clean up crew get rid of the body.. This in turn sets his underling Kahkihara on a quest to find Anjo or at least to find out what happened to him. Kahkihara played by Tadanobu Asano is the centerpiece of this film. Obsessed with finding his boss, Kahkihara is a masochist who wants to find his boss simply because he cannot bear to live without the pain his boss Anjo would inflict on him. Kahkihara is the poster child for BDSM clubs all over the world. Tadanobu has enormous screen presence and his childlike smile of pleasure during the torture of Mr. Suzuki is probably the most cringe inducing smile in all of cinema. Though the character of Kahkihara overshadows Ichi, it is Ichi and his fucked up mind that is at the center of the movie. While Ichi comes across early on as a repressed individual and reluctant killer, it is in his butchering of Karen that he displays his true feelings and enjoys it when his own mind convinces him that he’s just giving Karen what she wants. Right here, you can feel nothing but revulsion for this weak twisted little fucker. Any hope of extracting sympathy is lost. Infact sympathy is one thing that none of the characters in this film evoke. The only slight hope of redemption for Ichi comes in his brief encounter with the son of Kaneko, another member of the Anjo gang. This one hope though is also cruelly snuffed out in the climax of the film.
Takashi Mike has an incredible amount of style and visual flair. The camera through a car window going through the streets with the frame rate set on fast forward before finally closing in on Kahkihara’s severed tongue is a brilliant piece of film and it isn’t the only one. Mike displays style in every shot. Here is my basic problem with the movie. It displays sadism, torture and graphic representations of cruelty to women and it does so in a manner that is cool. Kahkihara with his flamboyant sense of style, is all chic while the rest of the Yakuza are super cool tough guys in designer suits. Ichi is dressed like a superhero of some sort when he sets out to do his killing. Its almost like Mike has made the film cool to appeal to Japanese adolescents. Ichi the Killer could be another Kill Bill. With Kill Bill, you figured it was all fantasy and the style added to the movie. Ichi The Killer is all style but the subject is far too disturbing and perverse. I may change my mind about this film if I ever sit down for a second helping, till then though, Mike makes graphic displays of sadism, rape and torture look very real and also very cool. That is what’s wrong with Ichi The Killer.
4 comments:
Intriguing. Could I join you for that second view?
Sure da.
Terrific review - but the movie did not affect me as profoundly as it seems to have you. As in, everything (torture sequences included) seemed a bit too clinical to be real and the only honestly cringe-inducing part was when Kakihara lops off his tongue.
I was far more affected in the sense of having a revulsion OD in this brief clip from a Marathi film I saw pn TV where these thugs burst into a house where a woman's having one of the ceremonies that precede the birth of the first child, and kick her into having an abortion. That sequence with its almost fantastic change of mood and intense brutality compacted into some 45 seconds on screen was I think the most vicious thing I've ever seen - Ravi
Oh yeah you told me about that Marathi film. Thats the same shit they manage to pull of in Kannada films too.
..and yeah, Ichi The Killer fucked with my head big time.
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