Ichi the killer (Koroshiya 1) Review


Movie: Ichi the killer (Koroshiya 1)
By: MaNiAc E
Date: March 13, 2011

Japanese gore at its best

It has been a long time since a movie really would intrigue me. Ichi the Killer is one of those movies you either love or hate. Blood, sex, violence, comedy and over the top madness is what fuels this movie. As the movie is made by Takashi Miike what could go wrong with this horrific master piece?

The beginning

Ichi the killer is based on an manga. With this in mind you will see a lot over the top action and gore effects pass you by. The story is isn’t very deep at first, starting with Kakihara (Asano Tadanobu) a Yakuza member is looking for his master and boss Anjo. Anjo disappeared without a trace and is found murdered and chopped up in thousands of pieces in a hotel room. Anjo had a lot of money with but that disappeared with him. Even though Anjo’s clan thinks he has fled with the money, the traitor crew has little time to celebrate... In the Syndicate Underworld of Japan, no enemy is safe for very long. After some time Kakihara (who is the Anjo’s tortured slave) wants to clear Anjo's name and find him. He starts the hunt for the one that made Anjo disappear.

Ichi the Killer image

Alot going on

With this story you might think things couldn’t get really bad, but guess again. It turns ugly fast- in a positive way of course. Ichi is an tormented soul that can’t act by himself any more - therefor he’s being controlled by others to be the perfect killing machine. A man with nothing to gain in his life. And here is where things get interesting since he is being held in his own messed up reality where he sees the people he kills as bullies from his past. He wants them dead for all the wrong done to him. But Ichi isn’t the only one murdering in town. In Kakihara’s search for Ichi, he takes anyone in his way and tortures them with meat hooks, boiling oil, pins, knives- everything is an option for him.

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Being counterparts

chi the killer is an movie that goes beyond the comfort zone of being brutal it goes a step further by adding it in way of being humoristic with the killings. Ichi wants to help people but in the end fails hard. You get a sort of compassion for him, because he does try. For instance- he wants to help a hooker with her pimp who keeps beating her. He literally splits the pimp in half and smacks the hooker but then he kills her by accident. But all of this is done in such a way that you feel sorry for Ichi and forget about the hooker. Kakihara on the other hand lives for pain as pleasure his master Anjo gave him and wants to relive this point of both again. In his search for Anjo he tries everything; gets intrigued by Ichi’s methods of destruction and ultimately sees him as the only one that can bring him to a higher level of pain and pleasure

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Closing comments

This isn’t an movie for everybody, You need to have a good stomach, a filter to see through just the gore. The movie shows us that we should not dwell in our memories since this is the reason why both main characters are stuck in their own reality. You can actually look at Ichi the killer as an moral check, since we do these things in our lives. We live and stare at broken promises and hope that is not coming. The ending of the movie shows us an impression of how fragile morality is and how people look at us when we are gone. As Kakihara finds his own master rush of his side of live only to lose it as quick as it came. Takashi Miike has made a true gem for any horror/splatter fanatic viewer. He really did a great job giving us: Naked girls, blood, bizarre twins, nipple cut-off, humor, and how loyal you can be by giving your tongue. Final statement just go watch the damn movie!


4.5/5




Movie

Ichi the killer (Koroshiya 1)

Title

Ichi the killer (Koroshiya 1)

Director

Takashi Miike

Country

Japan

Year

2001

Cast

Tadanobu Asano, Nao Ohmori, Shinya Tsukamoto, Paulyn Sun, Susumu Terajima, Shun Sugata