After being a fan of Asian horror for so long it definitely took me way too long to get to this film. Based on the manga of the same name, this cult masterpiece from renowned director Takashi Miike (One Missed Call), this follows Kakihara on his search for the man who killed his mob boss.

Now this movie is probably well known for the fact is it gory. It is shameless in its cult tropes, including sexual assault, beatings, torture and gory deaths. In fact, when it was first debuted at a film festival, the audience received barf bags with the movie's logo on it as a gimmick. I have no doubts some of those bags were actually used.

Ichi the Killer is dark and twisted. The torture scenes do not leave anything to the imagination in its full graphic imagery. Miike truly outdid himself in this bloody twisted plunge into the yakuza.

But strangely enough, it actually bored me a little bit. When coming into this, if you've seen the trailer for the film, you've pretty much seen all the most horrifying contents of this film - and if you're a gore horror fan this is probably the only reason why you're watching this film. It was disappointing, to a small degree, that the parts of the film that either intrigued audiences to watching or horrified them were already broadcast throughout this film leaving only two or three scenes to truly shock the audience if they've seen the trailer.
That being said, however, the story is intriguing. Although it seems mundane especially at first, the plot line is twisting and surprising at times. I found it enjoyable to go through the story as things began to twist out of proportion, as they didn't make sense before they linked up in unbelievable ways.

Everything about it really keeps the audience captive throughout the movie and I find that's something hard to do in a movie like this. Gore films are usually splatter-horror, disgusting images on the screen to shock the viewer and keep their stomachs twisting with little thought to plot or the plot suffering as an afterthought. Many plot-driven horror films also end up story driven, without much gore or shock-horror within them to make the audience's stomach churn, but Miike truly got the best of both of these aspects into one film.
However, I feel like the storyline became rushed at the end of the movie coming up to the final fight scene and I feel like perhaps they cut some of the script out for timing issues which were a shame. There could have been more to it and things didn't feel quite right when it finally ended. There were also a few loopholes that didn't get closed in the final scenes before the credits which made me hope for a sequel, yet I don't think any plans have been thought up or ever will be.

The acting in this was something special, in my opinion. It must have been hard for the actors to go through these gory scenes without flinching, cringing and such, even with it not being its full content within filming. I can't think how many takes some of the scenes must have taken. Each character is well developed, is completely three dimensional.
Asano Tadanobu and Omori Nao in their respective roles were truly amazing. Each of their characters felt completely real - like these were people who could be living down the street to you or you might pass when walking down to the shops. They truly brought the characters to life in all their sick ways and it was stunning to see.

Overall, I think this is a movie you only really watch once. This movie is a lot for most people and I don't think many people could stomach the thought of watching it again. However, I think this does have a certain rewatch value to it for the gore/slasher horror fans that come across it. It has a certain charm of disgust that chills the soul and sends goosebumps down the spine. It's deliciously wicked in disgusting ways and Miike definitely made a mark in the slasher-horror genre with this. I don't think another movie could ever stand up to the legend this classic has created.