Ichi The Killer (2001)

Credits / Details

76%
Overall Rating

Ranked #2,218
...out of 20,698 movies

Genres: Crime Crime Drama

Connections: Ichi The Killer

When a Yakuza boss named Anjo disappears with 300 million yen, his chief henchman, a sadomasochistic man named Kakihara, and the rest of his mob goons go looking for him. After capturing and torturing a rival Yakuza member looking for answers, they soon realize they have the wrong man and begin looking for the man named Jijii who tipped them off in the first place. Soon enough Kakihara and his men encounter Ichi, a psychotic, sexually-repressed young man with amazing martial arts abilities and blades that come out of his shoes. One by one Ichi takes out members of the Yakuza and all the while Kakihara intensifies his pursuit of Ichi and Ichi's controller Jijii. What will happen as the final showdown happens between the tortured and ultra-violent Ichi and the pain-craving Kakihara? --IMDb

Review by Chad
Added: February 21, 2004

This was quite different that what I was expecting. I didn't really read much about it before purchasing, only watched the trailer and took IIHOKII's advice. I was under the assumption that the blonde was Ichi, which led to some confusion in the beginning. Silly me.

Regardless, this movie is quite amazing. The effects are top-notch, very realistic... no idea on the budgets for this flick, but in terms of how well some of those effects were done, it rivals most American deals. There's also lots of good usage on the camera angles and such, which is always a good thing.

Did I mention gore? Wow, there's lots of it. Lots of it. I've seen a few movies with more simultaneous on-screen blood-n-guts, but none that were quite as realistic. Definite thumbs up on that aspect.

The storyline was very well thought-out, with plenty of twists-n-turns to keep it moving. Some of it had me lost in the beginning, but it all came together in due time. Kakihara was great in his role, and quite the nasty guy with his needles and such. Ichi was a bit of an over-acter, but it kinda goes in with him being nuts, so it all works out in the end... and he was quite the badass when pushed. Definitely nice.

I was going to gripe about the ending... well, the next-to-last scene... but as I'm typing this and rethinking it, it makes more sense how it worked out anyway, so props on not taking the easy way out with it.

Definitely a 10/10, definitely a must-see.

#1: Clarence Bodicker - added July 30, 2004 at 2:19am
Whoa, I thought this movie was complete trash. Then again, I did see the edited version. Hopefully the seeing the un-edited version makes a big difference.

#2: Chad - added July 30, 2004 at 2:22am
If you saw the edited version, you must have missed a good twenty minutes worth of scenes that explain the storyline a lot better.

#3: Sho - added September 29, 2004 at 1:53am
Yea, definitely give the movie another go around. You had to at least get a little kick when Jijii took his shirt off.

#4: Edd - added August 2, 2005 at 11:58am
My most favorite Japanese movie of all time. I can't wait to see the prequel now.

#5: Ginose - added September 7, 2005 at 2:46pm
One of the best movies I've ever seen... I should leave it at that. Don't want to ruin the demented ending for you... and when I say demented... I mean it.

#6: Kari Byron's Sex Cyborg - added September 12, 2005 at 9:59pm
My first impression of this much talked about movie is that it's awkwardly gaudy and pretentious. I want to believe that that's not true, so I will give it another chance. When I initially watched it I had the English dubs on (I don't know why I didn't change it) and the whole time I was irritated with them, distracting me from fully enjoying my viewing. But one small thing that I know I definitely didn't care for particularly were the special effects. I did like half of what I saw and was able to get into, but the other half... I don't know. This movie altogether seems right up my alley though. I suppose next time I watch it, my opinion will be a turn around for the better, hopefully.

#7: . - added September 13, 2005 at 8:49pm
I reccommend this over the anime version. Great film

#8: Tristan - added April 5, 2006 at 12:45pm
Amazing movie. Utterly amazing.
I had heard about it for awhile, but had never gotten around to looking for it. I downloaded it off of torrents, and was very impressed.

#9: Deadwired2 - added May 7, 2006 at 5:28pm
This movie is brilliant, incredibly disturbing and ironicly funny at moments.

#10: Kari Byron's Sex Cyborg - added December 13, 2006 at 10:36pm
Heh, ok... I finally got around to watching this again - yep, it does kick ass. I think the hype got to me the first time around, that's all.

#11: grain of sand - added January 5, 2007 at 4:23am
I feel like ichi was definitely overacting sometimes, but it didn't hurt my view on the film whatsoever..

the torture scenes are amazing here, such brutality and creativity.. I LOVE when the brother is challenged on whether or not he can pull someones arms off with his bare hands.

miike is a god.

#12: Ginose - added April 12, 2007 at 6:56pm
The anime wasn't a prequal to this film, it was a prequal to the manga. the only actual prequal to this movie is "Ichi -1"... I'll admit, it suprised me too.

Recommended Movies