Product Details

• Actors: Nao Omori, Tadanobu Asano
• Directors: Takashi Miike
• Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dubbed, Subtitled
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: Tokyo Shock
• DVD Release Date: February 23, 2010
• Run Time: 124 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (157 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001OBBR42
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #7,822 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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• For more information about "Ichi the Killer [Blu-ray]" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

When a yakuza boss is murdered and his money is stolen, both truth and revenge are brutally sought. Leading the charge is Kakihara (Tadanobu Asano), the bleach-blonde pain junky whose interrogation methods are fetishistically sadistic. As the layers of the sordid tale are peeled back, it appears that someone is trying to turn rival gangs against each other. The centerpiece of this strategy is Ichi the Killer (Nao Omori), a mysterious and completely unhinged master of slaughter. When the final showdown comes, it's a psychologically cataclysmic event. This one-of-a-kind, over-the-top, stomach-churning, live-action cartoon from Takashi Miike (VISITOR Q, IZO) remains an extreme and influential modern classic.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

112 of 131 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive film from Takashi Miike, January 15, 2004

By	Jeffrey Leach (Omaha, NE USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (VINE VOICE)

This review is from: Ichi the Killer (Unrated Edition) (DVD)

After watching Takashi Miike's powerful "Audition," I thought following up with "Ichi the Killer" an excellent idea. I don't see much of a comparison between the two films unless you wish to look at the disturbing scenes of gory violence and the fact that "Audition" has more of a social message than this gore extravaganza. I have come away with the impression that Miike is a brilliant filmmaker capable of forcing extreme reactions from his viewers. Hollywood should take note of this guy and bring him over here for a project or two. But doing so probably wouldn't work out; Miike's warped visions would send American censors scrambling for a sedative, and most mainstream viewers would recoil from the graphic nature of this director's films. A word of warning for those thinking of indulging in "Ichi the Killer": the movie is loaded with sadism, gore, black comedy, and all around unpleasantness. It's as though this movie turns upside down everything we associate with cleanness and decency. It's a tough watch, even for a gore fan like me, so prepare thoroughly--how, I cannot really tell you because I do not know--before diving in. Good luck.

"Ichi the Killer" is based on a "manga," a Japanese comic strip of a type often embodying grotesque images and disturbing themes. The film follows several Yakuza gangs as they do what they do best: murder, torture, plot, and generally cause lots of unpleasantness. I am unfamiliar with the structure of the Yakuza, but I gathered from the film that there are numerous gangs (or families, as the mafia would say) each headed up by a boss. These bosses then report to a committee composed of other gang leaders and a sort of "boss of bosses"--played here by a wheezy little runt who pops up to mediate disputes every now and again--designed to keep everything from getting out of hand. When an anonymous killer named Ichi takes down a yakuza leader, the boss's underlings, including a bleach blond thug by the name of Kakihara, seek revenge. At first, Kakihara thinks rival groups had something to do with the disappearance, so he kidnaps some thugs and tortures them in an effort to get information. These gruesome antics go so far beyond the pale that the yakuza overlords send Kakihara and his fellow gang members into exile. Instead of putting an end to the out of control violence, this judgment only encourages Kakihara to even more extreme acts of nastiness. It turns out that this blond goon worshipped his boss because the leader possessed the ability to fulfill Kakihara's S&M cravings. This is sick stuff, to be sure, but it only gets worse as the movie progresses.

Kakihara seeks out Ichi to avenge the boss but also to challenge the enigmatic assassin to a showdown. We soon learn Ichi is far from the icy killer we have come to expect. He's actually a meek sort who witnessed a brutal incident as a child and has since become a victim to his own guilt. A guy named Jiji expertly manipulates Ichi's psychological problems in order to carry out assassinations. All Jiji needs to do is tell his friend that certain people were involved in Ichi's childhood trauma and mayhem rapidly ensues. Clad in a black suit bristling with razor sharp blades, Ichi can turn a room full of people into sushi in about thirty seconds. After the murders take place, he often sinks into a weeping, cringing depression over what he has wrought. Jiji, completely indifferent to his friend's remorse, always has a few more targets lined up for the slaughter. Women, children, and men: all are fair game when Ichi goes on a rampage. As the movie progresses, and as Kakihara comes closer to his final showdown with the hyper violent Ichi, Miike throws in enough plot twists and turns to keep the viewer constantly guessing as to character motivations and the very nature of the reality these people move in.

I am guessing I missed out on a ton of inside jokes and cultural references, probably because I do not speak the language, am not Japanese, and do not live in that country. I have never even seen, let alone read, a manga comic strip. Fortunately, Miike's film boasts plenty of black humor and gory violence to the point that being non-Japanese makes little difference in understanding the picture. You don't have to be an expert on Japanese cinema to laugh at Jiji's "muscular" transformation or the scenes where Kakihara expresses his disappointment at Ichi's subservience when the two finally meet (Kakihara actually attempts to pick his foe up in order to get him to fight! Funny!). And you definitely don't need any inside knowledge to gape at the violence. This is an insanely sick film packed to the rafters with bloodshed and carnage. My mouth dropped open, and stayed that way, when Kakihara administered a hot oil "bath" to a particularly close-mouthed gangster.

Gorehounds the world over will flock to "Ichi the Killer." While you will need an iron stomach to get through this one, the film goes to great lengths to prove this is all cartoonish fantasy. I quit taking the whole thing seriously after the tongue scene, when Kakihara said, "It will get better if I keep talking," and then spoke normally in the following scene. I took this as a wink-wink, nudge-nudge from Miike, a message to the viewer that one should not take the film to heart. As far as the DVD goes, I think it should go without saying that watching the unrated edition is the way to go. If you really want to watch a movie like this one, why waste time and money fiddling around with a cut version?

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ultra Violent Madness, For Better or Worse, May 11, 2007

By	Kasey Driscoll - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    (VINE VOICE)

This review is from: Ichi the Killer (Unrated Edition) (DVD)

Live Action Anime...yes it is an oxymoron, but it's one way to describe what Director Takashi Miike has done with Ichi the Killer. It's like a live action version of Akira or Ninja Scroll.

The film's plot is secondary so I won't dwell on it here, but if you have never seen Miike's films, get ready for a ride through the imagination of a complete mad man. The best part about the film is that Miike and his team are actually outstanding technically, and his sense of humor is both original and in my opinion hilarious.

Ichi the Killer is as glossed over and stylized as it is sadistic and violent, and believe me when I say that this film is violent. It's sexually violent content is out of whack as well and alone might earn Ichi an NC-17 stamp but it's violence is so fantastic it almost seems cartoon-like. If you didn't find humor in films like Dead Alive, Robocop, Evil Dead 2 or Kill Bill pass on Ichi, but if you like those films like I do, give Miike a chance, you won't regret it.

75 of 90 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love really hurts, August 26, 2004

By	Zack Davisson "japanreviewed.com" (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (VINE VOICE)    (2008 HOLIDAY TEAM)

This review is from: Ichi the Killer (Unrated Edition) (DVD)

"Ichi the Killer" ("Koroshiya 1") is a stylistic, well-made film representing a Japanese idea that seems strange to most non-Japanese, the idea that violence, even extreme violence, can be beautiful. As seen in films such as Kenka Ereji's "Elegy to Fighting," violence is an art form and a genre of Japanese movies.

This film is about killing for the sake of killing, by those who love doing it with a sexual passion. Kakihara, the masochistic Yakuza killer featured on the box cover, complains while receiving a beating that "There's no love in your violence." To commit violence without love is like having sex without emotion, and empty physical act. Director Miike Takashi has put love in his violence, and style and art.

Kakihara is the star of the film, being both brash and beautiful, but it is Ichi the Killer who is the true protagonist. Mentally unstable and boyish to the extreme, Ichi is a deranged assassin who wears a superhero costume with a bold Number 1 ("Ichi" means "Number 1" in Japanese) emblazoned on the back. Ichi is an almost-controllable tool of Jijii, who plays the gangs against each other for a mysterious motive. Jijii aims Ichi like a gun, then pulls the trigger. Kakihara deepest fantasy is to be slain by Ichi, the ultimate killer, but not before the time is right.

As you can see from this description, "Ichi the Killer" is a trip into a dark underworld of sado-masochism, lustful violence and other avenues of human nature that most people would not willfully venture into. It is without a doubt the finest film in the genre.