
When a Yakuza boss named Anjo disappears with 300 million yen, his chief henchman, a sadomasochistic man named Kakihara, and the rest of his mob goons go looking for him. After capturing and torturing a rival Yakuza member looking for answers, they soon realize they have the wrong man and begin looking for the man named Jijii who tipped them off in the first place. Soon enough Kakihara and his men encounter Ichi, a psychotic, sexually-repressed young man with amazing martial ... (Full plot summary below)
Enjoy FREE movies and series with your Prime (USA) subscription or when you start a 30-day free trial!
Links compiled using automated software. Availability of offers subject to change / might be region specific / out of date.
When a Yakuza boss named Anjo disappears with 300 million yen, his chief henchman, a sadomasochistic man named Kakihara, and the rest of his mob goons go looking for him. After capturing and torturing a rival Yakuza member looking for answers, they soon realize they have the wrong man and begin looking for the man named Jijii who tipped them off in the first place. Soon enough Kakihara and his men encounter Ichi, a psychotic, sexually-repressed young man with amazing martial arts abilities and blades that come out of his shoes. One by one Ichi takes out members of the Yakuza and all the while Kakihara intensifies his pursuit of Ichi and Ichi's controller Jijii. What will happen as the final showdown happens between the tortured and ultra-violent Ichi and the pain-craving Kakihara?
Leave your thoughts about Ichi the Killer.
| Movie GazetteAnton Bitela bizarre sado-masochistic love story, an unnerving excursion into criminal and sexual extremes, and a comicbook explosion of lurid colours and freakish characters |
| Slant MagazineChuck BowenUnhinged even for Takashi Miike, Ichi the Killer suggests a bloody and ejaculate-stained Rorschach inkblot, reveling in ultraviolence that can be interpreted to flatter any adventurous audience's sensibilities. |
| Time OutGeoff AndrewFunny, absurd, nightmarishly visceral and -- of course -- deeply serious. |
| Bryant Frazer's Deep FocusBryant FrazerJapan's premier stylist of sex and blood hits audiences with what may be his most demented film to date. |
| MovieMartyr.comJeremy HeilmanMuch of what we see is horrible but it's also undeniably exceedingly clever. |
| Chicago ReaderJ. R. JonesThe torture is strictly for kicks, which spoiled this for me, but less skittish viewers may enjoy this as a stylish and tightly wound genre piece. |
| New York PostV.A. MusettoOne of Miike's most violent and sadistic movies, filled with squirting blood, throat-slashing, limb-hacking and other forms of mutilation too gruesome to describe here. |
| Film ScoutsJason GorberLet's start with the fact that we were handed out Ichi barf bags before the film started. Always a good sign. |
| Village VoiceTanner TafelskiUnderneath the spillage and flow of this gonzo activity, Miike layers a blood-stained commentary on a toxic world in which men offer protection to men but really end up dooming them to exist within a spasmodic, shambolic, and hypermasculine sphere of violence. |
| Ozus' World Movie ReviewsDennis SchwartzMiiki holds up violence as a virtue, in this nonconformist cartoon-like ode to ultra-violence, sadism and masochism. |