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I have to preface this review with a disclaimer. I like movies. I
enjoy everything from the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, “Patton,” and “12
Angry Men” to “Blues Brothers” and “Sling Blade.” My DVD collection even has
“BASEketball,” “SouthPark,” and other juvenile tripe. I also have diverse
horror like “Battle Royale,” “Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” and Italian gore
classic such as “Dellamore, Dellamorte” and Dario Argento’s “Suspiria.” The
bottom line is that I’m open to any genre and any type of film making. It
isn’t often that I want to build a time machine and try to reclaim the 90+
minutes I spent watching a movie. Unfortunately, “Ichi” is one of those rare
cases.
At its core, this is a story about the impending confrontation between
two interesting characters. The first is the title character, Ichi. Ichi is
an adult with the mind of a child. That child has been manipulated by the
twisted Jijii to believe that he is a true superhero, complete with costume.
Truth is, Ichi is an unwilling contract killer and very good at what he
does. What he leaves in his wake rooms full of blood and very small body
parts.
The other character is the demented Kakihara. Kakihara is a ruthless
yakuza that adores violence in all manners. His face is grotesquely altered
in an imaginative way: his face has been cut at the corners of his mouth to
allow his jaws to open more than twice the normal size. As a testament to
his insanity, Kakihara even cuts part of his tongue out with little
provocation.
This film is not at a loss for interesting characters. The character of
Jijii proves to be more than initial perceptions. The ranks of the Anjo gang
are quite interesting. The relationship of the shamed policeman and his son
with each other and the title character is also quite deep. There is even a
pair of “detectives” that are fairly humorous. It is unfortunate that these
diverse personalities are not enough to make the time spent watching this
film a worthwhile endeavor.
The main problem is that this film is comprehensively offensive. This
film includes graphic scenes of brutality to women, rape, dismemberment,
entrails, drug abuse, brutality to children, sadism, masochism, and more. As
isolated incidents, these are not unfamiliar to many, many films. All of
these elements in 1½ hours is over-saturation.
Human curiosity has an appetite for the dark and macabre. For proof of
this, drive by any traffic accident. The leading cause of traffic stoppage
at an accident is not the accident itself, but onlookers slowing down for a
quick peek. Taking this curiosity to the next level, imagine passing a
succession of accidents, each with an equal amount of carnage. While you may
withstand a couple of passes, most interest would give way to disgust and an
eagerness for the journey to end. To quote Nietzsche, "When you look into
the abyss, the abyss also looks into you." In a nutshell, this is the
problem of “Koroshiya Ichi”: too much negative stimulus.
There are many that view director Takeshi Miike as a genius. He has a
large number of films under his belt; many of them quite original approaches
to filmmaking. “Audition,” another Miike film, is truly one of the most
disturbing horror films of all time. It is a well conceived spiral into the
dark recesses of humanity. By the time you reach the end of the film, you’re
trapped and not certain what to think. “Audition” is cerebral horror
incarnate. The other end of that spectrum is “Koroshiya Ichi,” which is
Miike trying too hard to touch every last point of offensiveness possible.
- FACT #1 – “Ichi the Killer” has been banned in some countries,
including parts of Japan.
- FACT #2 – In the last 14 years, Takeshi Miike has made 64
films. The most in one year was 2002 when he helmed 8 projects.
For more info, check out the following:
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