1-Ichi

I am a big fan of Miike's film so I had to see this aswell as the average anime and I was not disappointed. 1-Ichi is a great intro into the world of Ichi and you can see what happens for him to become the deadly assassin figure in 'Ichi the Killer'. Fans of Miike's Ichi will not be disappointed seems it contains alot of violence but none of it is as graphic as in 'Ichi the Killer'. The only downside is that the great Kakihara is not in it. Nevertheless I recommend this because it is very entertaining and if you like this try the anime which is not great but basically a animated version of 1-Ichi.

I did not like this movie at all. I feel that the digi cam directing was limited especially in the hands of these uninspired directors. How Dull they were! And the Dai character...what terrible acting. Where is my Japanese tradition of extreme tragedy? This actor had no clue just always revealing his own insecurity as an actor - Bleech! And the Ichii character? Another case of bad casting - Phew! Couldn't stand him. And the fight choreography...Pass! Unrealistic. Obviously the director didn't know squat about camera angles for fight sequences and if he did get it right it was a fluke. The special effects were amateurish and used when obviously they had no other ideas of how to convey an idea. I say go back to directing school fellas. You are missing the boat. But I do have one good thing to say which is why I am here. The Koji Chihara who played the joint twister guy. Now that was a step in the right direction...the guy was so great. You need to take a tip from this actors confidence and use people like that in the future without exception. Really it was a director asleep at the wheel but some of the cast knew what to do when a movie is being made.

An interesting, distinctly Japanese low budget flick. The story revolves around the origins of infamous Ichi the Killer. The movie starts with Dai, a de facto high school fighting champion trying to maintain his status as the toughest kid on the block. All the while a weakling, Satoichi, discovers that he gets sexual gratification from violence. The movie doesn't really take off until the appearance Onizame, a sadistic new kid on the block who is more than a match for Dai. This is the point when the whole thing turns into an orgy of violence, perversion, and general creepiness of absurd proportions.

The most noticeable flaw of this movie is unnecessary odd editing and various cheap video effects, a common ailment of many amateur film makers. The director probably felt very self conscious of the movie's shoe string budget and tried to use all possible means at his disposal to "thicken up" the production values. Unfortunately, the only thing that that did was cause an unnecessary distraction from an otherwise decent story line. Nonetheless, 1-Ichi is definitely worth a watch for the fans of the genre, or anyone who is interested in seeing an alternative to the stuff put out by Hollywood. The best thing about this film is Kôji Chihara (playing Onizame), who steals the show as a psychotic bully.

I love this movie. I know it's not perfect and can't really be compared to the great movies that occupy the IMDB top250 list, but it's great fun. It's also disgusting. There are enough face smashing, broken bones and dislocated shoulders for everyone. I really love Teah and the guy who plays the main bad guy.

I don't recommend this to those who hated Ichi the Killer, but I know that that movie has a lot of fans and those fans should see this movie. Just don't expect too much and you won't be disappointed.

It's not quite as good as Ichi the Killer, but I really like it. I've already watched it 3 times so I guess it has some replay value as well.

4/5

It's an OK movie. Decent performances, the make-up FX are fine and the story is interesting. It has all the low-budget film limitations (especially bad edition and ambiance).