Our story begins with a man savagely beating a female stripper to near death and being spied on by ICHI. Who is getting off to the violence in front of his eyes. Quite a way to introduce on of the many characters if you will, but you wouldn't expect any less from Miike. Next it's discovered that the boss of the Yakuza gang, Anjo has disappeared with one million Yen close behind him. The masochistic underboss Kakihara decides to search for him. His unorthodox ways of dealing with those guilty has the other Yakuza gangs in wonder of his methods. They decide to ban or kick him and the Anjo out of the circle. This however doesn't stop Kakihara from searching for his boss. Little do they know that there's a third party secretly in the fold, pitting the gangs up a against each other. One that carries the key and the killer, ICHI. Taught to kill those who bullied him when he was a kid, or at least conned into believing they are, ICHI goes on a rampage only living hordes of blood and guts behind. When all the secrets are revealed and Kakihara finds out that ICHI is behind all the killing including their boss, they go head to head and only one comes out alive!
The main element of ICH is Miike's incredible ability to built characters from scratch and let them flourish. This of course is help greatly by the great casting job done as well. Starting off with Japanese hot commodity, Tadanobu Asano as Kakihara. Giving him the blond hair, the two slits on each side of his mouth, being held together with two hoop piercings and giving him the Yakuza power. Asano seems to be in his own environment, playing this part with easy. Sly, sadistic and crude, there's no mistaking him for being one to shy away from pain. Cutting the tip of his own tongue and having a conversation on his cell phone shortly after will have you in stitches. His fetish for giving and taking pain is based displayed in the scene where he is tipped off by Jijii played by Shinya Tsukamoto(director of Tetsuo and Tokyo Fist). The victim being another gang member, his treatment, his naked body being pierced with hooks all over and held up with chains. That's not all, when that doesn't seem to work, Kakihara takes it to the next level, he pour boiling hot water on the gang member's back and head. The giving and taking of pain is evenly distributed throughout the whole film.
Our other main character ICHI played by Nao Omori is again played to a tee. Shy, naive but on the edge, Omori showing tons of emotion in many of ICHI's scenes. Often tearful and scared, he is quick to snap and kill at the drop of this boot. Ah, but that boot isn't just a boot, it has a nice size blade attached. Not to forget, it's responsible for chopping a man in half, slaughtering a whole room full of Yakuza and the gashing of a few throats in the process. Sure, ICHI's got a problem, but it's controlled or shall I say manipulated by the strings of retired Yakuza boss Jijii. Of course the best is saved for last, the show down between our too main characters, ICHI and Kakihara.
In-between our two main characters are a whole arsenal of great support cast. The very beautiful Chinese star Alien Sun (Paulyn Sun) for one is a bonus. Her charismatic sexy, sleazy body language accompanied by her great looks are a break from all the violence and gore being thrown around. Speaking in English, Cantonese and Japanese, she exhibits her talent gracefully. Not too mention her very sleek body features. Miike also propped up his cast with Japanese cult director Shinya Tsukamoto who is best known for such classics as Tetsuo and Tokyo Fist. He plays the very quiet ICHI ringleader Jijii, pulling his strings from a distance. Ratting out other gang members to Kakihara, resulting in severe torture. The interesting attribute of Jijii, is his well hidden rack of muscles the special effects crew blue screen him on to. Funny seeing this rather small ratty looking character who opens up his trench coat and bang out comes this beefed up muscle bound Japanese version of Conan.
With a large budget to work with, Miike makes good use of the computer generated images. Everything from scenery to blood, guts and a very uniquely staged opening credits. Surely, ICHI has to display some of the most effort put into a Miike film to date, not to mention, one of the more gorier attempts as well. One cannot help but be hooked into the addiction fed by the great score. This is one area I still I'm pursuing, the soundtrack, a must after watching this film...the score throughout it becomes nothing more then a tease. This film is best viewed uncut and uninterrupted...
After first watching the Hong Kong Cat 3 DVD and being cut, I was in hot pursuit of the Worldwide Cinema 2 discs upon release. Finally the wait is over and ICHI uncut and in all it's gory glory was not a wait in vein by any means. This 2 disc special edition is jam packed with goodies, interviews, trailers, behind the scenes looks and so much more. Very extended and in-depth interview with Miike gives you just enough to pick his brain on how and why ICHI came about. Also, along with the Miike interview there are several other interviews with Tadanobu Asano, Shinya Tsukamoto and Alien Sun. Two trailers to feast your eyes on as well, the original Japanese trailer and the European promo trailer as well. The extras are like walking into a maze, with other rooms attached, those rooms having more extras includes. A Japanese Press Kit with sectioned Miike interview on several aspects of the film. Storyboard to film gallery and photo gallery tell you almost the whole story of ICHI without even watching the film again. Presented in Anamorphic widescreen 16:9, it offers you to either watch the film in it's original state in the Japanese language (5.1 Dolby Digital) with English subs or you can torture yourself even more with deciding to watch it dubbed in English (4.0 Dolby Digital), now that is a fair early warning! It also carries Dutch subs as well. This is clearly on of the best DVDS of 2003!