If you've heard of "Ichi the Killer" then you've heard about it. Before watching it, I was told that it will be, `absolutely the most violent, grotesque film you have ever seen.' It was for this reason, sick I guess you could say, that I was compelled to know more.
What few reviews I was able to find did nothing to give me more insight. Ok, it's gross.ok it's violent.ok, I watched the trailer.but how bad could it be? I looked all over to try and find it, but this won't be at your local video store, for obvious reasons. So, I broke down and purchased it online. I don't know if it's available stateside, but I found mine overseas, the `uncut version;' which is kind of strange to say considering the graphic nature of the movie.
The movie has English subtitles, which are distracting and hard to keep up with at times. Too many lines too quickly, I found myself rewinding frequently to catch the dialog. This certainly has a plot, and you find yourself wanting to understand it. Some of the subtitles are misinterpreted and on occasion do not make sense, but that is typical and infrequent enough to deal with.
I won't give you any spoilers on the plot, violence or gore.but I will say this, it is because of the plot that the violence, rape and gore are, to say the least, striking. Perhaps the rape and extreme violence to women is the hardest to view. To watch a `slasher' movie in the States is nothing, we find it mindless and many times comical. However this movie is certainly a big step above. The other person who reviewed this movie referred to it as a, `hysterical comedy' but for me it was a barrage on the senses. He may refer to it as such because he has seen others of comparison and hence desensitized; not unlike many Americans are to the aforementioned `slasher' movies. Although there are places where comedy is inserted, for me it was lost as I attempted to swallow the violence, gore or rape that had just preceded it.
I would say this movie would be like seeing `Texas Chainsaw Massacre' if it had been viewed in the 1940's. Imagine seeing TCM in 1974 when it came out, it was messed up to most people who saw it THEN, much less how it would be perceived 20 or 30 years earlier.no matter how hokey it might seem now. Actually, to combine a couple of movies, I would say that if you took the violence and gore of TCM and mixed it with the violence and plot of `A Clockwork Orange' and put it out in the 40's or 50's, you would get the same reaction that I got, in present desensitized 2004, to Ichi. If you are sensitive to violence, rape or gore, stay far away.
Takashi Miike is Sam Peckinpah, Stanley Kubrick, Oliver Stone and Quentin Tarantino wrapped into one. This movie would never be made in present day USA, but I could see the likes of it in the years to come as directors or Hollywood push the envelope in an effort to be "trailblazing" or cutting edge. It's scary to take a peek what will essentially be our slasher films in 20 years, if not sooner.
Someone may say I am silly for such comparisons, but I would ask, could you have made TCM or Clockwork in the 1940's? Could you have made Natural Born Killers in the 1950's? Kill Bill in the 1960's? None of these movies, when I saw them, shocked me.Ichi did.
What few reviews I was able to find did nothing to give me more insight. Ok, it's gross.ok it's violent.ok, I watched the trailer.but how bad could it be? I looked all over to try and find it, but this won't be at your local video store, for obvious reasons. So, I broke down and purchased it online. I don't know if it's available stateside, but I found mine overseas, the `uncut version;' which is kind of strange to say considering the graphic nature of the movie.
The movie has English subtitles, which are distracting and hard to keep up with at times. Too many lines too quickly, I found myself rewinding frequently to catch the dialog. This certainly has a plot, and you find yourself wanting to understand it. Some of the subtitles are misinterpreted and on occasion do not make sense, but that is typical and infrequent enough to deal with.
I won't give you any spoilers on the plot, violence or gore.but I will say this, it is because of the plot that the violence, rape and gore are, to say the least, striking. Perhaps the rape and extreme violence to women is the hardest to view. To watch a `slasher' movie in the States is nothing, we find it mindless and many times comical. However this movie is certainly a big step above. The other person who reviewed this movie referred to it as a, `hysterical comedy' but for me it was a barrage on the senses. He may refer to it as such because he has seen others of comparison and hence desensitized; not unlike many Americans are to the aforementioned `slasher' movies. Although there are places where comedy is inserted, for me it was lost as I attempted to swallow the violence, gore or rape that had just preceded it.
I would say this movie would be like seeing `Texas Chainsaw Massacre' if it had been viewed in the 1940's. Imagine seeing TCM in 1974 when it came out, it was messed up to most people who saw it THEN, much less how it would be perceived 20 or 30 years earlier.no matter how hokey it might seem now. Actually, to combine a couple of movies, I would say that if you took the violence and gore of TCM and mixed it with the violence and plot of `A Clockwork Orange' and put it out in the 40's or 50's, you would get the same reaction that I got, in present desensitized 2004, to Ichi. If you are sensitive to violence, rape or gore, stay far away.
Takashi Miike is Sam Peckinpah, Stanley Kubrick, Oliver Stone and Quentin Tarantino wrapped into one. This movie would never be made in present day USA, but I could see the likes of it in the years to come as directors or Hollywood push the envelope in an effort to be "trailblazing" or cutting edge. It's scary to take a peek what will essentially be our slasher films in 20 years, if not sooner.
Someone may say I am silly for such comparisons, but I would ask, could you have made TCM or Clockwork in the 1940's? Could you have made Natural Born Killers in the 1950's? Kill Bill in the 1960's? None of these movies, when I saw them, shocked me.Ichi did.