A Yakuza boss named Anjo takes three million yen and goes into hiding so his gang members start searching for him to bring back the money. Kakihara who's the leader of the gang has methods which are too brutal and violent and the other Yakuza gangs start to worry about him and disapproves of what he's doing. Kakihara is then expelled and since he's a sado masochist he has some kind of deathwish and is looking for someone worthy of killing him.
Takashi Miike has made some great movies and of course some less better movies too but out of the movies that the man has made I consider Ichi to be the second best, first one's Audition, no doubt.
But Ichi the Killer is a very strong and original movie based on a manga by Hideo Yamamoto and is full of sadistic violence and black humour and should appeal to a lot of people, but might also be too different and weird for some.
I also feel that Ichi the Killer is a movie that grows on you, first viewing it was good or really good but second time even better and you kinda get hooked to it and after that it just keeps getting better and better. It's also a movie that actually might require a second viewing since this movie is, like I said before, very different and has a lot of things going on in it which might be hard to handle on the first watch.
 
It's kinda hard to explain the story, it's about these two persons, Kakihara and Ichi, who are both very colorfull characters. Kakihara is a kind of sado masochist that seems to enjoy to hurt people and even to get hurt himself. He has this girlfriend that beats him but he feels that it's not enough to satisfy his needs.
Ichi is a totally different character who lives on bad childhood memories and also has a tragic love story going by the side. Although he's still a psychopathic killer.
The story itself is very dark but is done with a sense of humour that lightens it up a little. There's a lot of stuff going on in the movie and it might be hard to keep track of everything, (therefore that second viewing could maybe do some good). It's sad but still humorous and is definitely different from all other films you've ever seen, and even if you won't like it, it's still gonna be different.
Great acting, great directing, great story and with a good score, Ichi the Killer is a definitely must see.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Koroshiya 1
Koroshiya Ichi
MOVIE YEAR: 2001
DIRECTOR: Takashi Miike
WRITING CREDITS: Sakichi Satô, Hideo Yamamoto
GENRE: Action, Horror, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Thriller
CAST: Tadanobu Asano, Nao Omori, Shinya Tsukamoto
COUNTRY: Japan
RUNTIME: 129 min
RATING: 9/10
Ichi the Killer Website/IMDB Click here
Ichi the Killer Trailer Click here
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