Ichi the Killer

Ichi the Killer
Original Japanese poster
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)	September 14, 2001 (Toronto Film Festival) December 22, 2001 May 30, 2003 September, 2004
Running time	129 min.
Country	Japan
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.

Plot

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.

Cast and roles

Actor	Role
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

Production

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.

Filming

The director was Takashi Miike.

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]}

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. Reportedly, watching the movie caused one person to throw up and another to faint.

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.)

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