Thursday, February 12, 2009

Ichi The Killer

Film critic TC Candler called Ichi The Killer "A Dreadful Film Made for the Lowest Common Denominator." Well, he also lists Counting Crows as one of his favorite bands so, as you can guess, Mr. Candler is a tool. Ichi The Killer is a blood red parable about a retarded killing machine and the well-dressed masochistic yakuza who desires only to be destroyed by him. What's not to love about that? Counting Crows didn't do the soundtrack, but The Boredoms did, and here it is...

24 comments:

  1. A blood red parable... I like that! And the yakuza is literally jaw-dropping... ;)

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  2. You probably know about this from living in close proximity to it's recently recurred event (as opposed to finding out about it through the internet six months later), but here it is anyway:

    http://www.eggcityradio.com/?p=310

    JMD
    Royal Oak, MI

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  3. As much as I hate to be "that guy" I definitely prefer the ending to the manga. The film is very faithful up until the very end and then it just changes everything. And Miike's ending isn't bad, it's just not as dismal, which is something I never thought I'd say about him.

    But I'll definitely be checking this soundtrack out. Can't get enough soundtracks lately.

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  4. i don't even remember the music in this movie! the main guy is really good, though. he was awesome in Mongol as a young Genghis Kahn

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  5. Ichi The Killer = brilliant. I didn't realize the Boredoms did the soundtrack, though. Awesome, thanks Aesop.

    PS Counting Crows are pretty rad, too, although I prefer the funky, feel-good vibes of The Spin Doctors.

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  6. oh shit! the DVD movie has the greatest packaging ever, comes in a bag of blood!!

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  7. They handed out barf bags at some of the screenings too.

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  8. The blood bag dvd was a limited edition. Mine, sadly, is just a regular case. Still a great movie, and one of Miike's best. I never read the manga though, but now I want to.

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  9. Ichi The Killer is awesome

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  10. My absolute favorite of Miike's. Also... Tadanobu Asano kyaaaa! Seriously though, it's such an excellent, excellent film. I'm fine with calling it the Japanese Pulp Fiction.

    I read the manga too, and in a way I agree with Eric about the ending. I guess I just like when stuff's more open to interpretation.

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  11. I think my favorite Miike work is still Dead Or Alive, with Ichi, and Katakuris tied for second. Still quite a few of his films I have yet to see.

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  12. yeah - good one. cheers!

    I got my copy of this film years ago from a NZ pal after he did stencils in the offices of some aussie film distro joint or whatever and he said "here , you'll probably like this - they gave me all the movies no one buys..."

    Great blog too - keep up the good stuff!
    m


    www.braddock.com

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  13. This movie was sick! I had no idea that Boredoms did the soundtrack. That just pushed it up a notch in my book.

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  14. VISITOR Q...check that movie out

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  15. I love this movie but hadn't registered that the soundtrack was by the Boredoms.
    When Miike's good he's very good, my personal favorite is Audition. If you like his gangster stuff, in addition to Ichi and DOA, I'd also recommend Shinjuku kuroshakai: Chaina mafia sensô.

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  16. I had the soundtrack before I saw the movie. It was fun creating the movie in my head from the images I had seen and the snippets of info that I had gathered from people's reviews. Still, I can't say I was totally prepared. Mainly because no one had told me how humorous the film is. Yeah, there's some fantastic gore, but the jokes are what makes it for me. The first time I saw the face/fist/fuck scene I nearly peed. Actually I did pee, but only a little, ok?

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  17. visitor q is still my favorite miike film, my girlfriend and i nearly pissed ourselves about 100 times while watching it for the first time! ichi is awesome as well, goku is also great!

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  18. izo is the best miike film.

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  19. ichi soundtrack was the boredoms, minus eye, under the name 'karera musication.'

    doesn't mattter much; still a giant slice of awesome.

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  20. is there a soundtrack to visitor q out there somewhere? I liked the music in that one quite a bit

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