Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17468 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-11-18
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Color, DVD-Video, Special Edition, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English, Japanese
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 129 minutes

From the Back Cover
Welcome to a world where violence is a virtue and depravity is a way of life. This is the underside of Shinjuku, and the home of Kakihara, a sadistic yakuza killer. He relentlessly tears apart the underworld searching for the man who killed his boss. The mastermind behind the plot is Jijii, an ex-cop bent on turning the gangsters of Japan against one another. His trump card is a physically powerful lunatic who is constantly on the verge of snapping. This madman is Ichi the Killer, and between him and Kakihara, the streets will run red with blood.

Customer Reviews

A Brilliant Walk On The Dark Side of Rage
While much has been said about the treatment of Women in this film, the director has gone on record stating that women tend to not last long in his films because they bring too much logic to their characters. Sorry. Anyway, if you're renting this strictly for the gore, be prepared to be dissappointed. In addition to having many moments deemed *sick* by most people, you also get a fascinating plot about sadism, masochism, sexual identity and other sorts of fun things. A must see for comic book violence -- Takashi Miike is a master of this type of violent superhero movies.

Even if they removed every drop of blood from this movie you would still be left with an interesting study of fully developed characters that you could study for days...except for Ichi..who luckily isnt in most of the flick. The content is quite strong, so be warned. Though it might not be the gore monster other people would lead you to believe, it does pack a sickening punch.

This film blew me away.

The Hype is just that.
This is an awful movie, pure crap, I am a big fan of foreign films and have been into asian cinema for years so this movie didn't shock, offend or disturb me, it just waisted my time.
Characters you couldn't care about, Directing that made me sleepy and a story that must have had its plots chosen by dice.
Poop

Pretty Awesome
Takashi Miike's Tarantino-like presentation of violent psyches provides a mixture of numbness and hilarity. While there weren't any major plot twists, the story was still very enjoyable. The transition between "real" blood and computer generated blood is noticeable, but isn't a major problem.

The poorly done english dubbing is the only flaw. Forget about the british accents. The voice actors seemed uninterested in copying the tone and emotion of the movie. I would definitely suggest watching with subtitles. As far as violent movies go, this movie deserves status among the greats.