Post by Dino on Dec 26, 2010 7:29:54 GMT -5
ICHI THE KILLER [KOROSHIYA ICHI 殺し屋１] (2001)
Directed by Takashi Miike
Written by Sakichi Sato
Based on the manga by Hideo Yamamoto
The film opens on a cleaning crew run by a man named Jiijii (Shinya Tsukamoto) coming into a room in the aftermath of an assassination. Boss Anjo, the leader of a yakuza gang, and a prostitute are gruesomely murdered by an assassin named Ichi (Nao Omori). Jiijii's crew erase any trace of the hit and everyone assumes Anjo and the prostitute fled town with 300 million yen of the gang's money.
But Kakihara (Tadanobu Asano), Anjo's sadomasochistic enforcer, doesn't buy the story and suspects something else. Jiijii points Kakihara to a rival yakuza clan member named Suzuki (Susumu Terajima). Kakihara viciously and gleefully tortures Suzuki with hot frying oil and metal skewers while Suzuki is suspended naked by hooks. Suzuki's boss (Jun Kunimura) intervenes and proves Suzuki's innocence. As penance, Kakihara voluntarily slices off half his tongue.
Through the use of brainwashing, Jiijii has turned Ichi into a homicidal maniac who is an emotional trainwreck when he's not killing. Through Jiijii's manipulations, Kakihara is exiled from the yakuza syndicate, but his gang defects with him. Once Kakihara learns Ichi was responsible for killing Anjo, he becomes obsessed with the assassin. Kakihara's masochism was really exploited by Anjo and since Anjo's death, Kakihara wants to find someone else who can hurt him in the same way and believes Ichi is that person.
This movie is every bit as fucked up as it sounds and I mean that in a good way. If you don't like exploitation or violence or gore, you should stay far away from this movie. And Miike does something really interesting with the way he depicts the violence in the film. You'll have a scene with violence depicted so over-the-top that you can't help but laugh. But then the next scene will have the violence depicted in a very disturbing way.
The cast is great but without a doubt, Asano is the stand-out. His Kakihara is a vicious scumbag, but he's so entertaining to watch that you can't help but cheer for him. Even in the presence of massive talent like Kunimura and Tsukamoto, Asano still steals every scene he's in. In fact, many elements of Asano's Kakihara were adopted for Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight (most-notably the Glasgow smile).
Of course, you can't overlook Omori's depiction of the eponymous character. This is kind of like a very, very warped superhero film. Ichi walks around in a rubber suit with the number 1 on the back (ichi is the Japanese word for 1) and the heels of his shoes conceal razors. He's going around brutally murdering yakuza but you aren't really sure if you should root for him. Omori is able to seamlessly transition between shy, scared weakling to violent, enraged killer at the drop of a hat.
This along with Audition is probably the film Miike is most famous for, at least in the west. It's a cult film from start to finish and Miike never once makes any apologies for what he's doing. He fully embraces the lewdness of Yamamoto's manga series. And bringing in the famed cult director Tsukamoto to play the role of a master manipulator was a stroke of absolute genius.
But this is not a movie that should be approached lightly. If you're a fan of violent exploitation films, there are few that are superior to Ichi The Killer.
Directed by Takashi Miike
Written by Sakichi Sato
Based on the manga by Hideo Yamamoto
The film opens on a cleaning crew run by a man named Jiijii (Shinya Tsukamoto) coming into a room in the aftermath of an assassination. Boss Anjo, the leader of a yakuza gang, and a prostitute are gruesomely murdered by an assassin named Ichi (Nao Omori). Jiijii's crew erase any trace of the hit and everyone assumes Anjo and the prostitute fled town with 300 million yen of the gang's money.
But Kakihara (Tadanobu Asano), Anjo's sadomasochistic enforcer, doesn't buy the story and suspects something else. Jiijii points Kakihara to a rival yakuza clan member named Suzuki (Susumu Terajima). Kakihara viciously and gleefully tortures Suzuki with hot frying oil and metal skewers while Suzuki is suspended naked by hooks. Suzuki's boss (Jun Kunimura) intervenes and proves Suzuki's innocence. As penance, Kakihara voluntarily slices off half his tongue.
Through the use of brainwashing, Jiijii has turned Ichi into a homicidal maniac who is an emotional trainwreck when he's not killing. Through Jiijii's manipulations, Kakihara is exiled from the yakuza syndicate, but his gang defects with him. Once Kakihara learns Ichi was responsible for killing Anjo, he becomes obsessed with the assassin. Kakihara's masochism was really exploited by Anjo and since Anjo's death, Kakihara wants to find someone else who can hurt him in the same way and believes Ichi is that person.
This movie is every bit as fucked up as it sounds and I mean that in a good way. If you don't like exploitation or violence or gore, you should stay far away from this movie. And Miike does something really interesting with the way he depicts the violence in the film. You'll have a scene with violence depicted so over-the-top that you can't help but laugh. But then the next scene will have the violence depicted in a very disturbing way.
The cast is great but without a doubt, Asano is the stand-out. His Kakihara is a vicious scumbag, but he's so entertaining to watch that you can't help but cheer for him. Even in the presence of massive talent like Kunimura and Tsukamoto, Asano still steals every scene he's in. In fact, many elements of Asano's Kakihara were adopted for Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight (most-notably the Glasgow smile).
Of course, you can't overlook Omori's depiction of the eponymous character. This is kind of like a very, very warped superhero film. Ichi walks around in a rubber suit with the number 1 on the back (ichi is the Japanese word for 1) and the heels of his shoes conceal razors. He's going around brutally murdering yakuza but you aren't really sure if you should root for him. Omori is able to seamlessly transition between shy, scared weakling to violent, enraged killer at the drop of a hat.
This along with Audition is probably the film Miike is most famous for, at least in the west. It's a cult film from start to finish and Miike never once makes any apologies for what he's doing. He fully embraces the lewdness of Yamamoto's manga series. And bringing in the famed cult director Tsukamoto to play the role of a master manipulator was a stroke of absolute genius.
But this is not a movie that should be approached lightly. If you're a fan of violent exploitation films, there are few that are superior to Ichi The Killer.