Ichi the Killer

Due to the catastrophic events in Japan, Takashi Miike is no longer able to attend the upcoming series. He sends his sincere regrets.

Based on a very adult comic, Miike’s notorious Ichi the Killer is the shocking story of Japan’s number one hitman—a crybaby killer with razors in his shoes and hair on his palms. After the disappearance of his boss from a slaughterhouse of a crime scene, well-dressed but psychotic, pierced and scarified yakuza Kakihara (Tadanobu Asano, Vital and Last Life in the Universe) goes on a hell-bent search for the culprit. Not out of gang loyalty per se, but rather because Boss Anjo was the pure sadist to Kakihara’s perfect masochist: a match made in S&M heaven. So when Kakihara discovers that baby-faced assassin Ichi (Nao Omori, Vibrator) has killed the boss, he decides to track him down, not for revenge, but so that Ichi can become the new dominant partner Kakihara desperately seeks. Featuring Tetsuo the Iron Man director Shinya Tsukamoto as Ichi’s controller Jijii, and with a brilliant and blackly comedic screenplay by Sakichi Sato (director of Tokyo Zombie), and pitch-perfect direction by Miike, this is the macho gangster movie taken to its logical conclusion: if these guys beat each other up so much, then they must be getting off on it. Controversial upon its release due to the astonishing level of sadistic violence portrayed (albeit in a cartoonish way), Ichi has begun to look less and less confrontational in the wake of “torture porn” and 21st-century outrages. Nevertheless, you won’t be able to tear your eyes away from the screen while watching. So please, let Ichi do it for you.

Series: Shinjuku Outlaw: 13 From Takashi Miike

Venue: Walter Reade Theater