Ichi the Killer

Ichi the Killer (2001) is set in the Tokyo underworld. A yakuza boss disappears and his lieutenant Kakihara goes looking for him. Kakihara treats both receiving and inflicting pain as a purpose. The killer he is hunting is Ichi: a young man who cries, is frightened, is sexually damaged, and has blades fitted to his shoes. The source is Hideo Yamamoto's manga. Takashi Miike did not soften it; the violence is extreme, the grotesquerie deliberate, and comedy and horror occupy the same scene. The film was censored in many countries. Some cut minutes from it, others refused it entirely. Sick bags were reportedly handed out at a Toronto screening, and that publicity story became part of its reputation. Tadanobu Asano plays Kakihara, and the metal rings through his cheeks are the film's best known image. Miike was making several films a year in this period, and this is among the furthest he went. It runs 129 minutes. Good for: extreme Japanese genre cinema, manga adaptation, and Miike. Less good for: torture and sexual violence are shown directly and the film aestheticises them. The warning is not overstated; for many viewers this sits outside what is watchable. The narrative is also loose and motivations go unexplained.