Ichi the Killer
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| Ichi the Killer | |
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Original Japanese poster |
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| Directed by | Takashi Miike |
| Produced by | Akiko Funatsu Dai Miyazaki |
| Written by | Screenplay: Sakichi Satō Manga: Hideo Yamamoto |
| Starring | Tadanobu Asano Shinya Tsukamoto Nao Omori Alien Sun |
| Music by | Karera Musication Seiichi Yamamoto |
| Cinematography | Hideo Yamamoto |
| Editing by | Yasushi Shimamura |
| Distributed by | Media Blasters (USA) |
| Release date(s) | (Toronto Film Festival) |
| Running time | 129 min. |
| Country | |
| Language | Japanese |
Ichi the Killer (殺し屋1 Koroshiya Ichi) is a 2001 Japanese film directed by Takashi Miike, based on Hideo Yamamoto's manga series of the same name.
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[edit] Plot
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This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (June 2010) |
While alone with a prostitute, crime lord Anjo is brutally murdered. As an expert cleaning crew run by Jijii (Shinya Tsukamoto) removes any trace of his body, Anjo's gang and the other crime lords assume he and the prostitute fled town with 3 million yen of the gang's money. Only Kakihara (Tadanobu Asano), Anjo's sadomasochistic enforcer, believes Anjo is still alive. Jijii feeds Kakihara rumors that suggest Suzuki (Susumu Terajima), a member of a rival clan, has kidnapped Anjo. Kakihara captures Suzuki and tortures him, but when Suzuki turns out to be innocent, Kakihara slices off the end of his tongue and offers it to Suzuki's boss (Jun Kunimura) as penance.
Jijii, it is revealed, is secretly orchestrating events in order to pit Yakuza clans against one another, with the help of Ichi (Nao Omori). Though a normally unassuming and cowardly young man, Ichi becomes homicidal and sexually aroused when enraged. Jiji is able to manipulate Ichi's weak personality by implanting several false memories, a high school rape in particular, and uses the unstable Ichi as an assassin. Other than killing Anjo, Ichi also kills a pimp who regularly brutalized a prostitute named Sailor that Ichi patronizes. When Sailor attacks him, Ichi kills her as well. Later, Ichi helps a boy named Takeshi by saving him from bullies; Takeshi is the son of Kaneko, one of Kakihara's henchmen.
Using Suzuki, Jijii manages to have Kakihara kicked out of the syndicate but the entire Anjo gang defects with him. When he learns that Anjo was killed by Ichi, Kakihara kidnaps and tortures Kano, a former member of the Anjo gang who is helping Jijii. Kakihara also becomes fascinated by Ichi, imagining him to be someone who can truly fulfill his masochistic urges.
Kakihara enlists the help of a pair of corrupt twin police detectives, Jirô and Saburô (Suzuki Matsuo), to find Myu-Myu, a prostitute connected with Ryu Long, a member of Jijii's gang. Unable to get information from her through torture, Saburô sniffs her to get Long's scent and tracks him down. Though Long attempts to outrun the brothers, he is captured by Kakihara.
To turn Ichi into a complete killer, Jijii has Karen, Anjo's woman and Jijii's friend, seduce Ichi by pretending to be the woman in his false memory. When Ichi becomes confused by Karen's claims that she desired for him to rape her, he kills her. Jijii calls Kakihara to let him know Ichi is coming to kill him.
Kaneko, Kakihara and Ichi chase each other to a rooftop. Due to Jijii's psychological manipulation, Ichi believes that Kaneko is his brother and confronts him. Kaneko shoots the side of Ichi's leg, causing Ichi to slit Kaneko's throat in front of Takeshi. Takeshi attacks Ichi as he lies on the roof begging for forgiveness. Kakihara realizes Ichi cannot hurt him and inserts skewers into his ears to drown out Ichi's cries. Suddenly he sees that Ichi has chopped off Takeshi's head. Ichi charges Kakihara, embedding one of his razor-bladed boots in the center of his head. Kakihara falls from the roof to his death. However, when Jijii finds him, Kakihara has no wound in his head; he hallucinated Ichi's attack as he jumped to his death while Ichi cried.
Years later, Jijii's corpse hangs from a tree in a park. A young man resembling an older Takeshi leaves the park with a group of schoolchildren.
[edit] Cast and roles
| Actor | Role |
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| Tadanobu Asano | Kakihara |
| Nao Omori | Ichi |
| Shinya Tsukamoto | Jijii |
| Alien Sun | Karen |
| Susumu Terajima | Suzuki, of the Funaki gang |
| Shun Sugata | Takayama, of the Anjo gang |
| Toru Tezuka | Fujiwara |
| Yoshiki Arizono | Nakazawa |
| Kiyohiko Shibukawa | Ryu Long |
| Satoshi Niizuma | Inoue |
| Suzuki Matsuo | Jirô & Saburô, twin corrupt detectives and Anjo gang members |
| Jun Kunimura | Funaki |
| Hiroyuki Tanaka | Kaneko, Anjo's bodyguard |
| Moro Morooka | Coffee shop manager |
| Houka Kinoshita | Sailor's lover |
| Hiroshi Kobayashi | Takeshi, Kaneko's son |
| Mai Goto | Sailor |
| Rio Aoki | Miyuki |
| Noko Morishita | Pub Patron |
| Setchin Kawaya | Pub Proprietor |
| Yuki Kazamatsuri | Yakuza Girl |
| Sakichi Satô | Man Kicking Ichi |
| Kaori Sugawara | |
| Hideo Sako | |
| Mako Takeda | |
| Masataka Haji |
[edit] Production
| This section requires expansion. |
| This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2008) |
[edit] Pre-production
Director Takashi Miike intended for the author of the original manga, Hideo Yamamoto, to write a script entirely in manga form, but the idea fell through when Yamamoto felt he could not complete it due to writer's block.
[edit] Filming
The director was Takashi Miike.
[edit] Music
The soundtrack was written and produced by Japanese band Boredoms, credited as "Karera Musication", under the direction of ex-guitarist Seiichi Yamamoto and percussionist/band leader Yoshimi P-We.[citation needed]
[edit] Promotion
As a publicity gimmick, vomit bags were handed out at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) to those attending the midnight screening of this film. Similar bags were handed out during the Stockholm International Film Festival.[1] Reportedly, watching the movie caused one person to throw up and another to faint.
[edit] Prequel
This film was followed by a prequel, titled 1-Ichi, which was directed by Masato Tanno in 2003 for a direct-to-video-release. The film follows a young Ichi contending with violent bullies in school, and eventually realising his strengths. The prequel was written by Sakichi Sato, who also wrote this film, as well as an animated prequel, titled Ichi the Killer: Episode Zero. (Episode Zero follows the continuity of the manga series on which the films are based. This is apparent, as it has several scenes that contradict the continuity of Ichi the Killer and 1-Ichi.)[2]
[edit] References
- ^ http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiffbelllightbox/2011/201104270051105/
- ^ 1-Ichi at the Internet Movie Database
[edit] External links
- Ichi the Killer at the Internet Movie Database
- Ichi the Killer at AllRovi
- Ichi the Killer at Metacritic
- Ichi the Killer at Rotten Tomatoes