Review of Ichi the Killer (2001) by Lucious A — 30 Sep 2011

To begin this list of horror films that I will be reviewing in order to make your Halloween a little less Kiddi-fied, I will review this film from Takashi Mikai, who is mostly known from his gore-fest called âAuditionâ?, and the GOOD One Missed Call. It takes place within the realm of the Yakuza, which is presumably the Japanese Mafia. One of these members named Anjo, is brutally killed and another member called Kakihara, must find the murderer to get the 3 million Yen that Anjo apparently had. It turns out that the murderer is indeed Ichi, who wears black armor and is equipped with blades at the bottom of him shoes that he uses to slice people. Now, this is where the goriness and bloodiness of this film begins. First of all, there are just weird, creative ways throughout this film to create such violent scenes. One includes torturing a man by hanging him by his back skin by fishing hooks and stabbing him through the cheeks with a thin blade. Another great not-gore scene but actual makeup part is of what was used for Kakihara; he happens to have cuts running up his cheeks from his mouth, and he uses pins to keep his mouth closed. With this, he could pull the pins off to open his mouth wide enough to take a punch to the face, and blow smoke through them when he happens to be smoking a cigar. So therefore, all the gore and makeup effects are great. The actual CGI, not so much. The acting and dialogue is alright, and it is acceptingly convincing. The cinematography is great, and even some of the sets are interesting.

So if you want to watch this, you need to have a decently strong stomach for this gore, because there is enough to have a food & wine party. It is sickening and disgusting, but it is entertaining at the same time.