From the director of Audition, Takashi Miike brings us a totally different pace of storytelling in the absolutely insane Ichi the Killer. Get this - the plot is that Ichi, a sadist (one that cries when he goes to kill, and gets a hard-on when he sees rape, nice huh?), kills the boss of a Yakuza gang, who at the time of his death was raping a girl. Little did Ichi know is that the boss was a great friend of Kakihara, a masochist and homosexual, who was beaten by his boss for pleasure. So the search begins for him to find his boss and the 100 million yen that went with him. To do so he does detective work, but instead of asking questions he tortures his victims by using 12 inch metal pins, swords and his massive mouth (which is a cool scene). This all results in a
massive climax (no pun intended).
Sounds pretty messed up doesn�t it? Well to be honest it is, but although there are copious amounts of blood, guts, tongues and faces ripped out, this film is not the gore bath you�d think it is. The scares come from the mind behind this film, and the world he has created, which is really terrifying. This is more of a thinking mans thriller, where you will have to look out for clues for the ending all the time.
Acting is great, especially from Tadannobu Asano, as Kakihara, in which he really shows us the evil and fun this character possesses. Ichi is good also, yet most of his scenes lack speech and rely mainly on guts and gore. Memorable beyond words, great story, classic killings, superb characters and a cool soundtrack. Downsides? People may find this a little too extreme for their tastes, as this is no funny Braindead gore everywhere, or tension-building torture scenes, this is wacky, nasty stuff, which should be viewed with extreme caution, especially the un-cut version, which involves nipple slicing and more! Other than that, a great movie that demands your attention, so go out and buy the special edition DVD and let yourself go for one messy ride! |
