Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

--The opening is awesomely done and is a good sample of some cool directing moments that happen throughout the movie. You can expect good editing and exciting camera angles during action scenes. Kakihara's character is very well designed, with the scars, piercings and choice of flashy clothing. It is visually a pretty well made movie.--That said, the plot is kinda all over the place. The main characters, Ichi and Kakihara are superficially interesting, but the movie doesn't ever really dig in to them or make them anything more than cool-looking cardboard cutouts.--Overall, watching this movie was a peculiar experience. But I wouldn't do it again, the plot just doesn't hold my interest. Keep in mind that there's literally blood and guts flying around in a few scenes, and the movie gets very perverse here and there. If you're squeamish, I don't recommend watching this movie.

Takashi is truly A Master and A Father Of The Extreme Genre. He has the guts to do anything that is the most violent, messed up, sickest things, that will make you squirm like a worm. As for me, I do not find it disturbing at all. I love watching movies like this and I live for this stuff, cause we all know : it's only a movie. The reason I love watching extreme stuff is because it's something new that you don't usually see in an ordinary movie and if you look at it in the positive way like I do, it's actually kind of amazing that all of these visions are brought into a film. My favorite character in this movie, who I believe is one of the most talked-about characters in the extreme genre world till this very day, is Kakihara, played by the Incredible Tadanobu Asano, who is simply perfect and powerful in his performance. He plays a sadistic, cruel, yakuza gangster with a sick twisted slit-mouthed smile, searching for his missing boss. If you are an extreme movie lover and you have never seen this remarkable feature, get ready to be blown away by this ultra violent masterpiece from one of my favorite controversial directors of all time!!!

This 2001 movie is a typical Takashi Miike movie. Now that may sound like a bad thing, but trust me, it is not. Takashi Miike is a very gifted Japanese director with an eye for the absurd and outrageous.And "Ichi the Killer" (aka "Koroshiya 1") is indeed a strange movie, especially if you are not familiar with Japanese cinema and the works of Takashi Miike.The story is about a sadomasochistic Yakuza enforcer who is looking for missing boss. He happens to cross paths with Ichi, a troubled young man and a ruthless killer.Tadanobu Asano (playing Kakihara) really were memorable in "Ichi the Killer", and the make-up on his face was really interesting and left a lasting impression. And Nao Ômori (playing Ichi) was also memorable in the role of the psychotic killer. And Paulyn Sun (playing Karen) did bring a touch of odd charms to the movie in her role.What works for "Ichi the Killer" is the weird ensemble of odd and off-beat characters who were portrayed throughout the movie. And director Takashi Miike is really adept at coming up with such memorable characters, and it is what makes his movie so interesting.The story is very easy to follow, but does have some deeper layers and director Takashi Miike is skilled at presenting such story lines and manages to connect the dots and tie up all loose ends masterfully.All in all a very enjoyable and watchable movie. A movie that even sustains more than a single viewing.

It has been a while since I watched this movie, used to have it on DVD, but didn't know what to think of it. Anyway just bought it again, unrated this time. Anybody familiar with Takashi Miike's work should not be surprised by this movie, it is his usual shocking, gruesome and controversial movie, that delivers on violence gore and just been plain weird. This was the first movie I watched by Takashi Miike's, Maybe that's why I didn't know what to think of it at first. Ichi the killer is a great movie if you know what to expect, it's got a good, but weird story, that focuses on a psychopathic yakuza member, looking for his boss and a very disturbed and misled serial killer that goes around in a black sort of suit, with blades on the heels that he uses to slice people in to pieces. All in all it is a violent, disturbing gory gore fest of a movie with a story about a psychopathic, sadistic yakuza member, who likes to inflict pain and also receive it, and a serial killer who is just plain weird. I rate this movie 10/10 for weirdness and entertainment.