Ichi the Killer 4K 2001

This movie is a shock, there is no other way to put it. Just as a complex problem is talked about, this movie cannot be fully talked about without strong words. Like the French, the Japanese are mentally extreme and make movies accordingly. If you are emotional, then 'Ichi' is not even worth picking up. It's made up of scenes like the one in 'Odishon' only at the very end. Seriously take it all hard for the psyche, so after 30 minutes at most you start laughing - a defense reaction is triggered. For this reason, some critics consider this movie a black comedy. Before watching it, you should drink a couple of beers - it will be easier. In one of the scenes, for example, a character's arm is torn off with his hands on a bet - just to see if it's possible. And the scene of the first murder committed by Ichi is such that if I describe it to those who haven't seen the movie, they'll probably think I'm joking.

There's no subtext, etc. in 'Ichi'. - it's just a Japanese movie, and that says it all. Japan has that kind of mentality. They have such a breakneck pace of capitalism that the Japanese can't keep up, and that's why they're stressed. Tsukamoto's movie 'Tetsuo' is about that. In Japan, manga comics are sold on every corner (one of them is the basis for 'Ichi the Killer'), and even the children's issues are so sadistic that in America their authors would be jailed. Japan is a country in which Japanese people stab busts of their bosses at home, specially trained young specialists work in the subway to push people into overcrowded cars, and once a year people go out into the street and naturally yell in the mat to get rid of negative energy. If you have read Amelie Notombe's book 'Fear and Trembling' (or watched the movie of the same name), you have the right idea about Japan. Accordingly, what other movie could there be in such a country?

Well, okay, I won't exaggerate, after all, there are few directors like Miike even in Japan, but there are Kitano and Miyazaki, and let's not forget Kurosawa and Mizoguchi, and in Miike's work the negative sides of Japanese reality were simply sublimated. And why is that? Because he didn't punch the bust of his boss and didn't yell in the street.