3/4  Brilliantly violent
Grotesque gangster thriller that has plenty of brilliant moments and memorable characters (including a man with a twelve inch smile); extreme violence is to be expected from this stylish director, but it may be too much for some viewers. ... (read full)

2.5/4  Sick, Twisted, and totally incredible!
"Ichi The Killer" deals with an yakuza Kakihara (played by the diverse Tadanobu Asano) who along with his underlings starts a search for his missing boss. At the same time he finds himself chased by a mysterious assassin known only as Ichi... (read full)

3/4  Ichi the Killer Quick Review
For those who think good old American violence is just too tame these days, pop in Ichi the Killer and in 15 minutes you will have your fill. Graphic, over-the-top violence - as long as you do not take it seriously, you will come out OK.

5/5 Dark movie, but very unique.
  by K. Takaki
Despite it's darkness, or possibly because of it, there were some very beautiful moments in the very unique movie. Five stars. Check out a trailer online to see if this is for you.

3/5 Takashi Miike, amazing director. Ichi The Killer, sub par film.
  by Saint Thomas (Kent, Ohio)
Now I know what Heath Ledger was watching before doing his performance in THE DARK KNIGHT. And if he didn't base his "scar smile" on the character of Kakihara, from ICHI THE KILLER, then he must have at least seen the cover of the movie. Not that I'm dumbing down Ledger's portrayal of the Joker here, it just takes something away from it after seeing the blatant character connections to ICHI THE KILLER. But alas, we are not here to talk about Batman or Heath Ledger. We are all here for the movie at hand, ICHI THE KILLER.

This movie has quite the reputation. Horror fans (not to mention fans of strange cinema in general) have considered it to be a classic and I always hear people say things like, "Have you seen Ichi The Killer!?!" Or comments like, "You have got to see Ichi The Killer!" It's just the type of movie that seems to please even the most hardened Horror / Slasher fan.

Now, I am no stranger to Takashi Miike's work. I loved his movie AUDITION and was a pretty big fan of his "Grindhouse" spaghetti Western epic SUKIYAKI WESTERN : DJANGO. Those two films impressed me and I was quite anxious to finally see ICHI THE KILLER. After all, a lot of my friends boasted it was his best film.

To be blunt, I was a little disappointed. The movie itself is a little hard to follow, but that might have only been me personally because I found most of it to be ludacris. Who knows? Maybe that was the intention of the film itself, but I found it all to be rather hard to get into and the characters to be a tad boring. This was quite a shock to me considering I absolutely loved AUDITION and SUKIYAKI WESTERN : DJANGO. ICHI THE KILLER is messy, over the top, long winded at times and unsatisfying. It doesn't help matters any that it uses some pretty lame looking CGI effects, which usually isn't a problem for me.

The plot concerns a Yakuza leader who is being hunted by a killer named Ichi. There is a lot of strange plot details that follow the exploits of Ichi but nothing resonates with the character because to put it simply, he's kind of a sissy. Ichi has sexual problems and he can't become intimate with women unless he's hurting them. Outside of that, he seems like a reasonable guy. If only he could stop cutting people into pieces. Oh' yeah. Did I mention he wears a black Super Hero outfit with a huge, white # 1 printed on the back? 'Yup, in my opinion this guy is about as far away from menacing as you can get. Maybe that was the point but yet again, I just don't care.

I wasn't disappointed with everything about the film. Kakihara is a pretty horrific gang leader who enjoys torturing people with metal hooks and long sharp needles. He seemed to round things out nicely for an otherwise, pointless and messy film. Some of the death scenes are supremely nasty, adding to the over all sense that this is a heartless and cold movie. Plot wise and direction wise I mean.

In the end, I personally was looking for more from Takashi Miike. AUDITION was such a beautiful and dark movie and it makes ICHI THE KILLER look like a Troma film by comparison. Thats not a bad thing (I love Troma's movies) but it's not what I expected or wanted. Gore Hounds, check it out for disgusting scenes of graphic death, psycho sexual dialogue and strange characters through out. Casual fans of Horror may want to steer clear of this one and just rent something like CHILD'S PLAY, FRIDAY THE 13th or NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD instead. Better yet, just rent his movie AUDITION instead. You'll be glad you did!

4/5 The Torture of Dissatisfaction
  by Jessica Floyd (Santa Cruz, CA)
I'm sure like several viewers I rented this film with a lot of anticipation. I saw Audition last year and vowed that I loved it and would never watch it again. Audition impacted me (not traumatized, but impacted) in a way few movies have. I thought that Ichi would have a similar effect, but I found in Ichi a profoundly different approach to torture and the visual experience of it.

Although many reviewers have labeled Ichi as gorey and over the top, it fails to enable the viewer to fully partake in its numerous but brief torture scenes. The film never or almost never shows the entirety of a character's torture act and frequently cuts before the actual death of the character. Rather than being a no limits gorefest like a lot of contemporary American horror films (I'm talking about you Saw series. the poorest victim of your torture is the dead horse you're beating), Ichi struggles to, well, get off. None of the characters derive satisfaction from the practice of their sado-masochistic desires. Yet oftentimes when this is the case in a film, at least the viewer can indulge in the visual smorgasbord of blood and guts without guilt or inner conflict. And though there are moments when we finally get to see what we've been waiting for, they are too fleeting or disjunctive to make a lasting impact. Ichi's characters and viewers alike are deprived - and god, don't you have to be to pick up this movie and actually want to watch it?

Ichi the Killer begs many questions about the portrayal of sado-masochistic themes on screen. Is death the achievement of climax or torture's disappointing finale? For the viewer who expects agony, is the concealment of it even more agonizing? Is Ichi a better film because of its total embodiment of psychological torture, or worse? You decide, I'm still unsure.

5/5 Cinomographic Blitzkrieg; Random Declaration of Modern Asia's War against the NWO
  by Asgeir Valur Sigurdsson (Iceland)
The film Ichi the Killer intends to be just about Ichi , and about the Yakuza , and about Kakihara , a sadistic serial killer who enjoys torturing and being tortured to liberate himself from his inner pain which he cannot get rid of somehow.
The director's intention is to bring an innocent and a guilty presentation of the abuse of construction corporations that use futurism as propaganda in their insatiable efforts to remove all things green. Ichi and Kakihara think that their unhappiness is focused on themselves and deny the fact that when they were children there was such a thing as a different Asia in their childhood. With this film , Japan comes to the realization of randomly sucessful anti - NWO movies for the first time that are likely to become enormously sucessful as cult films.
Ichi the Killer becomes more sucessful than any Asian movie about killers and their initiation into the reason for why each one of them kills and why he kills the way he does and why he prefers this victim beyound that victim. Ichi picks up his subjects at the command of a telephone voice which turns to be his older brother. But he is finally faced with making a choise on whether he should keep or take his older brother's life. Kakihara realizes that Ichi is being initiated into becoming a killing machine which is so emotional , compassive and full of empathy that it shatters his mind and destroys the branch of Yakuza that opposed his birth town.
Ichi realizes that the China and Japan of his childhood had been ravaged and that there is still time but that the people are so ignorant of it that they have been hypnotized en masse to follow the party line - such as that of the Yakuza and other Japanese mafia organizations. The still - Japanese and other Asian friends of his began to wake up by the passing of each sucessful kill and Kakihara tries hopelessly to cure Ichi from his ineviteable , final collapse.
As he collapses the viewer realizes that they have not done anything to aid Japan in recovering it's lost natural reservoirs and that China is being inaccurately portrayed as a vast metropolis occupied by billions of brain - dead zombies who can barely speak a few nouns by the passing of each sentence.
Ichi realizes that Kakihara has become a demon and can heal incredibly fast from any attack , frontal and behind that's done against him , including any attempt to put your fist into Kakihara's demonic face.
The demon Kakihara learns too late alongside Ichi that the ravaging of Japan has cut serious wounds inside the Japanese soul. Kakihara must also make a choise - to continue to pursue Ichi , or forget about it , leave the Yakuza and spend the rest of his life in his human body.
Kakihara knows how to heal his body but cannot control his appetite for torture , and Ichi's contempt for Kakihira is really his contempt for the construction companies and how they had raped Japan's nature under lobbyist control.
I have no intention to be hostile against Japan or China by this criticism but the NWO concept .
Ichi the Killer attempted to be a horror , slasher comedy but ended up becoming such a serious criticism of antihuman construction plans in Japan's cities and urban neighbourhoods that the humour got forgotten and sort of blended into the movie almost undetected by the viewer.
There is no word to the NWO to my knowledge in Chinese or Japanese or other Asian language - you just feel it and know that it's being removed in a healing manner by the film's director who intends to keep his movie as apolitical as he possibly can but fails honorably rather than miserably to keep 'safe'distance from overtly harsh criticism of Asian construction politics.
By the climax of this movie , an entire period in art history known as futurism comes to an end , and all the insane construction ideas alongside it such as river dams fused with needless energy power plants , etc.
This film sends in other words such a powerful message of healing and love and the joy & importance of being alive to the world that the whole of Asia wakes up to the serious realization that the age of futurism has ended , and that the current situation with construction requires a return to the uniqueness and spontaneity that once characterized early Asia , where technology is still a major important part of Asia's civilizations but in a Japan or China or Korea or some other Asian country where nature is honoured instead of abused , and where the legacy of the now world famous Ichi the Killer DVD looms around the horizion almost a century from now and beyound. Bravo! What an achievement! Thank you so much directors and producers!!!!


5/5 if you like mob movies, prepare to see one of the best
  by danimal
I finally purchased this movie after renting it several times. I do not believe in seeing a movie more than once unless I feel that I missed something or I REALLY like it.
This movie dives into some serious things along with a story line that will throw you in several directions. Each role is erie and well played.
You will want to cheer for Kakihara near the end.