Attack of the B's!

Koroshiya 1 (2001), Takashi Miike
Ichi the Killer


One of Miike's finest movies, Ichi the Killer is seriously twisted. Twisted in the sense that there are many plot twists, and twisted in the sense that everyone is a sadist, a masochist, or sometimes both. The main character (surprisingly not named Ichi), is Kakihara. Kakihara is probably the most badass movie character of the last decade. I loved his bleach blond hair, flamboyant suits, and mouth held together by lip rings. Very 2001, sure. But a total badass nonetheless.

Kakihara is the right hand man to his yakuza boss, Anjo. When Anjo goes missing (along with 300 million yen), Kakihara goes on a mission to find him (and the money). An innocent enough looking old man feeds Kakihara one hell of a red herring when he suggests that a rival yakuza killed Anjo. Kakihara realizes that the tipster is behind everything, and the mistake costs him greatly, as you can see above. He will stop at nothing, and I mean nothing, to find the old man. Soon Kakihara and his henchmen cross paths with an awkward, sexually confused/repressed martial arts expert named Ichi. Unbeknownst to Kakihara, the old man, Jijii, has been training Ichi for a long time, through both martial arts lessons as well as memory manipulation, to dispose of Kakihara and the rest of his fellow yakuza. Ichi takes them all out one by one until only Kakihara is left. Their final showdown is not to be missed.

I love Miike, and this is an epic film, in terms of length. (It's over 2 hours long.) I have the shortest attention span in the world, and although this film is very action- and gore-packed, it took me awhile to finish it. That is to say nothing of the quality of the film, merely that I should have taken some Ritalin or something before watching it. The gore is more than sufficient, even I was completely grossed out at times. Tadanobu Asano's performance as Kakihara, the pain-addicted yakuza, was absolutely outstanding. Miike is something of an accidental genius, and I feel that his work can only get better.

Grade: A