The Film (4/5)

    I am trying to restrain myself from calling Ichi the Killer Takashi Miike's masterpiece, because with a filmography of over 100 films including such brilliant fare as Audition, Happiness of the Katakuris, Visitor Q, and the Bird People of China amongst others he is director of many, many masterful works.  However, his 2003 film Ichi the Killer is a oddly subversive and violent work. It became known in underground cinema circles for the extremes of its violence (and it is a pretty damn violent, and grotesque film at times), but the film has a story and characterizations that offer reasons to rewatch it multiple times to peel away the films many layers, and discover certain subtext hidden underneath it's gory surface.

    The film opens with the offscreen (eventually shown later) brutal murder of the boss of the Anjo gang, and his prostitute girlfriend by the mysterious killer Ichi (Nao Omori), who got off shortly before committing the brutal act. Soon after he dispatches the pair, a cleaning crew lead by Jijii (Shinya Tsukamoto), does a spotless clean up of the room, leaving no trace of death behind. The next morning the remainder of the Anjo gang lead by the masochistic Kakihara enter his room, and declare him missing, having probably  gone with his girl and 3 million yen. Kakihara, himself, doubts that, and declares it his mission to find the boss, and bring him back amongst their ranks. 

     In the process, he begins to find rival gang members, and torture them with sadistic glee, making the Anjo gang outsiders in the local Yakuza Syndicate.   He does find out one thing, that Anjo is dead, and the killing was undertaken by a particularly brutal and effective killer named Ichi. What he doesn't know is that Ichi is actually a young man, whose mind has been manipulated by the memory of a false rape event, and doesn't actually want to kill, but does under the guise that he is killing people reminiscent of his high school bullies. He is more likely to cry before his acts, then to be straight up brutal, and is very confused about his approach. Before the film ends Kakihara will seek out Ichi, in an attempt to find the ultimate pain he truly seeks.

   Ichi the Killer is adapted from the manga of the same name, and having looked through the manga some years ago it appears that Miike did try to commit to an accurate visual adaptation of the work. The visuals here are bright and colorful, and very comic book in tone, with very kinetic action moments befitting the source material. The film as mentioned earlier is highly violent, and it does not shy away from that, but oddly some of the films most violent moments are off screen, though there is a lot of on screen brutality that many will find hard to watch.  The film does blend moments of the dreamlike and surreal into its gangster storyline, and does not always choreograph these moments for the viewer, as such it takes a few viewings to discern moments of reality from fantasy.

   One take away from the film, that is rarely mentioned is how darkly humorous it is. The characters in the film most notably Ichi spend most of their time in a state of confusion. We have a brutal, sadistic killer in Ichi, but he's always crying as he kills. Further, in one moment he is willing to save a prostitute and take her on as a girlfriend. As such "he will beat her up now" or some variation on that line.  As if she would find this token brutalism romantic, of course she ends up trying to fight him off, and dies in the process.

    Ichi the Killer gets its reputation for its unrepentant violence, and that's where its reputation will surely stay. However, the film offers much more to the discerning viewer than that, and with Well Go's new release it offers a fantastic time to reevaluate the film for another generation.

Audio/Video (3.5/5)

    Ichi the Killer was shot on 16mm before being edited on HD video, and transferred to 35mm for theatrical presentation. The 35mm source elements were restored by Emperor Motion Pictures in 4k for this re-release and Blu-ray edition. The Blu-ray has a 1080p AVC encoded transfer that is quite solid, but considering the limitations does have some minor issues. Colors look quite nice for the most part throughout, and reflect the nature of the film quite well, but I noticed some minor blooming on reds during the third act.  Blacks are nice and solid, and detail is fine. We do have a mostly organic grain structure throughout, however, on occasion either some noise or issues with compression do show up. Neither of which really take away from the fact that this is the best Ichi has ever looked on home video to date, and overshoot that horrible Tokyo Shock transfer by miles.

    Audio is handled by a DTS-HD MA 5.1 track in Japanese. Dialogue and score come through nicely. I did not detect any issues here.

Extras (2/5)

   Extras included a commentary by director Miike and manga artist Hideo Yamamoto, a still gallery, and a trailer.

Overall

    Ichi the Killer is a shocking blast of brutal, wild, and entertaining yakuza cinema. The Blu-ray is the best Ichi has ever looked, but has some minor issues, and only limited extras. RECOMMENDED.

Contest

    Well Go USA has kindly agreed to sponsor a giveaway.  1 lucky winner can secure a Blu-ray edition of Takashi Miike's ICHI THE KILLER, and all you have to do is send an email to Scott@eurocultav.com with your name, address, and favorite Takashi Miike film.

Contest Ends 3/8/2018 Open to US and Canada residents only.