Ichi the Killer (Koroshiya 1) review

Chances are if you’re a fan of the “new wave” of Japanese cinema you’ve at least heard of Ichi the Killer. Riding on the heels of the relative successes of Ring and Audition in the west, Ichi created a buzz that extended beyond film geeks and actually made a dent in the previously uninitiated masses, giving non-geeks a reason to endure those dreaded subtitles they’d been avoiding like the plague because “they just go by so fast!” Aside from improving the reading comprehension levels of thousands of cult cinema fans around the world, this film cemented Takashi Miike‘s status as the go-to guy for stylistic violence, gore, and over-the-top yakuza stereotypes. Whether that reputation is deserved, or even fair is up for debate—but there’s no denying he touched a nerve that propelled Japan to the forefront of cult cinema in a way that nobody else could.

The story of Ichi the Killer revolves around the Anjo Gang. It seems that Boss Anjo, who was last seen entering a hotel room for some “alone time” with one of his girls, has turned up missing. Not only that, but 300,000,000 yen is missing with him. The other yakuza in the syndicate just assume he stole the money and ran off with the girl. Everyone, that is, except Kakihara (Tadanobu Asano). Kakihara, the top hitman of the Anjo gang, respects Anjo deeply (due to their secret sadomasochistic relationship) and refuses to believe he would ever do something like that. He starts an investigation and soon gets a tip from a man called Jijii (Shinya Tsukamoto) that a yakuza hitman named Suzuki (Susumu Terajima) from an allied gang was behind the kidnapping. Kakihara believes Jijii because he knew things that he seemingly only could have known if Suzuki were conspiring against them so he brings him in for a little “chat”. Okay, Kakihara’s chats often involve a whole lot of pain and a varying number of puncture wounds… or worse. In this case Kakihara opted for “or worse”. You get the picture. Eventually Suzuki’s boss (Jun Kunimura) catches wind of it and storms in enraged. Kakihara’s underlings try to explain what Jijii had told them about Suzuki but suddenly Jijii is nowhere to be found.

Apparently Jijii is playing everyone in the syndicate against each other and is using others to this end, including Ichi (Nao Omori). Ichi is a fragile-minded guy Jijii has been using as a hitman. He’s no normal hitman, however, and has to be carefully manipulated into doing anything. Jijii managed to plant false memories in Ichi’s head through hypnosis convincing him that he was bullied throughout high school and the only girl who ever protected him was gang-raped right in front of him while he just stood there powerless to do anything about it. The logical conclusion from all that would be that now Ichi must kill all bullies and it’s Jijii’s job to simply point them out and be ready to clean up the inevitable mess. Unfortunately, screwing with fragile minds doesn’t always work out as planned. Now Ichi actually gets off on abuse and sadism and his mind is so twisted there’s no telling what he’s capable of. Kakihara has an idea of what Ichi is capable of though. Now expelled from the syndicate for his actions and resigned to the fact that his boss is actually dead Kakihara sets out to find Ichi under the guise of avenging Anjo, when all he truly wants is to meet someone capable of punishing him in the most violent way imaginable.

This film could have easily become a really bad gore flick had it not been to some amazing and unique acting performances, especially Tadanobu Asano’s Kakihara (the true main character of the story). It would have been really easy for most actors, upon reading the script for Ichi the Killer, to decide to play Kakihara with campy exuberance. Surely a sadomasochistic yakuza hitman who dresses like The Joker from Batman would be pretty excitable. Asano is not most actors, however, and plays the role with a scarily calm demeanor. You really get the impression that when he impales someone with a knitting needle (his weapon of choice) or tortures them in other unspeakable ways he smiles because he genuinely finds the situation humorous, and not because he’s completely insane. Getting Tadanobu Asano for the role was a bit of a coup for director Takashi Miike, who had been turned down by Asano several times in the past due to his aversion to violence. Ironically, and thankfully, Asano finally decided to accept when offered the most violent role of his entire career.

Unlike Kakihara, the role of Ichi had to be played over the top, and Nao Omori was up to the task. Omori probably doesn’t get enough credit because most of his other films are quirky dramas not widely-available outside of Japan but he’s a consistently great actor who deserves more than to be known only as a wailing psychopath with a stiffy. Nevertheless, he plays Ichi perfectly in every respect and even manages to make him a sympathetic character while committing unspeakable acts.

This film is a slick, fast-paced yakuza flick with a heavy dose of the absurd and a heavier dose of the grotesque. If that’s what you’re into, you certainly can’t do better than Ichi the Killer.

View trailer (permalink)

Availability: US distributor Tokyo Shock released a special "Blood Pack" edition of Ichi the Killer on May 29, 2007. For more info, see this post.

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