4K/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Reviews

Blu-ray Review: Takashi Miike’s Cult Classic “Ichi The Killer” Is A Bloodbath Masterpiece

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As sadomasochistic yakuza enforcer Kakihara searches for his missing boss he comes across Ichi, a repressed and psychotic killer who may be able to inflict levels of pain that Kakihara has only dreamed of.

Takashi Miike’s “Ichi the Killer” has been on my watch-list for what seems an eternity. It’s one of those cult classics that you hear about for a decade but the urge to watch “right now” is never strong enough, since you figure it’ll still be around the following decade. But I finally did and it did not disappoint. While the high-school horror fangirl in me would have reveled in the blood, guts, and the purely disgusting, the older and softer me gagged a few times and was high on all the ’90s & ’00s feels I was getting from the flick. The yakuza enforcer Kakihara’s (Tandanobu Asano) wardrobe is everything my tween-self aspired to and I’m sure would make a No Doubt-era Gwen Stefani weep. The vibe of the film is definitely a mix between Tom Tykwer’s “Run Lola Run,” Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction,” and Peter Jackson’s gore-fest “Dead Alive,” and it’s truly a masterpiece.

Miike’s “Ichi the Killer,” is fast-paced and dynamic, jumping from past to present and perspective to perspective. It’s dizzying at first, but once you get your bearings you can’t tell if you’re nauseated by the pace or sadomasochistic gore. It’s uncomfortably thrilling and the disconnected dynamic between the title character Ichi (Nao Ohmori) and sadistic enforcer Kakihara is what makes the film feel like an ongoing existential crisis and yet also very solid with a very twisted harmonious current pulling through the characters. It’s eerily romantic.

The plot is fairly simple: a yakuza boss of the Anjo gang goes missing along with a significant amount of cash and Kakihara has determined that the boss is alive and must be found. Kakihara seeks out information and is unknowingly misled by Jijii (Shinya Tsukamoto), and therefore captures and tortures a man who has nothing to do with the disappearance. And the torture is by no means simple. It involves hooks and suspension, hot frying oil, and long needles finding their way into the victim’s face. Kakihara is very blasé during the whole ordeal. There’s an unwieldy stillness to Kakihara’s character that amplifies the severity of his actions. And it’s unnerving to see he can also take just as good as he can give with the same blasé attitude.

Alongside Kakihara’s hunt for the boss, a string of brutal murders has happened by a strange costume adorned Ichi, who happens to be sexually repressed sadist. The highlight of his costume is the hidden blades attached to his shoes which glide across throats and slice off limbs with ease. As much as Kakihara is unnerving for his stillness, Ichi is unnerving for his sad-boy “crybaby” frenetic energy. And while it’s obvious there is something wrong with Ichi, it goes deeper than imagined.

“Ichi the Killer” goes from a quest for revenge to an obsession to find Ichi, not because he’s responsible for the death of the boss but rather Kakihara desires a fight and death worthy of his own perversions and brutality. Ichi is the perfect contender. And the result is wonderfully comical. And I wholeheartedly recommend this newly remastered cult classic to lovers of gore and the squeamish alike, as it deserves to be revered as the masterpiece it is.

Available on Blu-ray Tuesday, March 20th

 

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