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.

Wow, if you're a fan of Miike's work and liked the "original" Ichi, you will probably love this prequel! It's almost hard to believe that it wasn't Miike himself on the director's chair. But as the assistant director in the production of Miike's masterpiece, Masato Tanno for sure knew what he was doing as the director in this prequel. He shows Shiroichi during his time at Highschool, where two other boys lay claim to the status of the best fighter of all Highschools in town. So, almost the whole film is about fighting. And these guys really know how to punch! Tanno's film isn't as strange and dark as its "forerunner", but it doesn't have to hide behind it. You can call it in a row with such great masterpieces as "Ichi" or "Story of Ricky". It's different but brutal and violent as hell. Acting was good, so was the camera work. But director Masato Tanno definitely did the best job of them all. If you have the possibility, you should rent it. If you're a fan of Miike's films, buy it - you won't regret! It'll blow you away!!!

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.

'Ichi-1' was a no budget movie with no plot or point until the very end, and even that is simply to tie it vaguely to "Ichi the Killer". It would have served more of a purpose as source footage for some flashbacks to Ichi's past in "Ichi the Killer", rather than a full length movie. In other words, if you liked "Ichi The Killer", you really don't need to watch this movie. There are a few slightly humorous parts though - the movie seems to waver between twisted comedy and just plain twisted. It did have the actor who played "ichi" in "Ichi the Killer", and TEAH from City of Lost Souls, which helps counteract the otherwise amateurish feel of the movie - a few good actors helped float the movie even among the rest of the bad actors and the lack of purpose to this movie. I'd say watch it if you have nothing better to do and can get it real cheap, or if you just have a need to watch every Japanese movie at least once, no matter how bad (like me).

Ichi-1 is the prequel to Ichi The Killer. It's not the best movie in the world, but it's a lot better than I thought it would be. It's about Ichi in high school. He gets bullied and that's when he starts to go nuts. It's got some great fight scenes too. It's also of course got a few nasty scenes. The baseball scene was pretty disturbing. The main problem I had with this movie though was the fact that there were no teachers at the school. I can't believe not one teacher stopped any fights at school all those kids had. I didn't see one teacher at all at the school period. I guess all the kids scared them off or something. Ichi-1 is a low budget movie, but much better than most low budget movie I've seen. It's also got a bit of comedy in the movie too. The movie is all in Japanese though, so unless you can speak Japanese you'll have to read the English subtitles. It's worth checking out if you liked Ichi The Killer, but it might disappoint some people. I recommend renting it first.

I give Ichi-1 a 7/10