Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

--The opening is awesomely done and is a good sample of some cool directing moments that happen throughout the movie. You can expect good editing and exciting camera angles during action scenes. Kakihara's character is very well designed, with the scars, piercings and choice of flashy clothing. It is visually a pretty well made movie.--That said, the plot is kinda all over the place. The main characters, Ichi and Kakihara are superficially interesting, but the movie doesn't ever really dig in to them or make them anything more than cool-looking cardboard cutouts.--Overall, watching this movie was a peculiar experience. But I wouldn't do it again, the plot just doesn't hold my interest. Keep in mind that there's literally blood and guts flying around in a few scenes, and the movie gets very perverse here and there. If you're squeamish, I don't recommend watching this movie.

Takashi Miike has taken an already gory and upsetting manga series of the same name by Hideo Yamamoto and turned it into one of the most notorious gory Japanese films ever made. The story goes that a mob boss has been literally torn apart by a mysterious killer. One of his enforcers, Kakihara (Tadanobu Asano), sets out to find his killer, but given that Kakihara is about as sane as a cuckoo clock factory, and a sadomasochist to boot, things inevitable don't work out nice and neatly.Ichi the Killer was banned in many countries upon its initial release, and I can definitely see why. It's absolutely brutal in a way that steps way outside the realm of good taste. There's guts flying every which way, not to mention blood being pumped around is if from a high-pressure water hose. There's also masturbation, prostitution, drugs, criminal acts of all varieties, et cetera, et cetera. Pretty much all the main characters are mentally ill, one way or another, and the film truly feels like a direct to film manga adaptation in a way few films do. There are multiple scenes, which I could see happening in a manga, but which really should have been cut from the film version.But then again, such honesty to one's source material is almost to be admired. As are the huge brass ones required to even direct a film such as this. Because it is a great experience if you're into gore. Not only for the imagery, but for the fact that the story itself works in the confines of the film. Which is a huge plus for a gorefest such as this one.Ichi the Killer is an acquired taste, but if it is to your liking, then it's definitely worth checking out.

Most people that watch this will group it among other two-bit slasher and shock films, which is a tragedy. Beyond the gratuitous violence (which is more cartoony than horrific) is an examination of the human condition, or more specifically, the extreme hedonist condition. That much is obvious, but the interest lies in the contrast of Ichi and Kakihara not with each other but with Jijii. His motive in all of this, in manipulating Ichi and obsessing with Kakihara, is revealed during the climax: upon finding Kakihara's body his face twists into a sort of butchery of sadness and happiness. It took me years to realize that in truth he does not feel both but neither; he is nothing, and his obsession with the two men that go to such extremes to feel alive results of his own desperate attempts to be; to learn to be. With both men gone he is left without an escape from his suffocating nothingness and hangs himself. In sum we are given a triad: the sadist, the masochist, and the nihilist. Ichi and Kakihara's existences may have seemed hellish and undesirable, the movie proposes, but Jijii's is far worse.

Ultra-violent, and good. The main reason most people will remember this is for the violence and gore. It's pretty weird and extreme, bordering on gratuitous. However, despite all this, it all feels quite realistic and gritty.Plot is reasonably interesting, filled with a multitude of characters whose story you care about. Maybe too many characters - it dilutes your engagement with any one person.Decent performances all round. Tadanobu Asano steals the show as the over-the-top insane and sadistic, yet ice-cool, Kakihara. Nao Omori is maybe too shy and retiring as Ichi - it wore thin after a while. Not a big problem though.