Koroshiya 1[殺し屋１]
Foreword:Might contain some minor spoilers.
Reviews by
hlkari
Directed by
Takashi Miike
Writing credits
Hideo Yamamoto (comic)
Sakichi Satô (screenplay)
Genre
Action/Comedy/Crime/Drama/Horror/Thriller
Original Music
Karera Musication
Seiichi Yamamoto
Cinematography
Hideo Yamamoto
Film Editing
Yasushi Shimamura
Casting
Mitsuyo Ishigaki
Production Design
Takashi Sasaki
Costume Design
Michiko Kitamura
Makeup Department
Yuuichi Matsui;special makeup effects artist (as Yuichi Matsu)
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Kimiyoshi Adachi as first assistant director
Masato Tanno as second assistant director
Sound Department
Yoshiya Obara
Visual Effects
Misako Saka(visual effects supervisor)
Produced by
Yuchul Cho (co-producer)
Akiko Funatsu (producer)
Toshiki Kimura (associate producer: Excellent Film)
Sumiji Miyake (executive producer)
Dai Miyazaki (producer)
Elliot Tong (co-producer)
Albert Yeung (executive producer: EMG)
Toyoyuki Yokohama (executive producer)
Awards
6 wins & 1 nomination
Year Release
2001
Official Site
http://www.ichi-the-killer.com/(UK)
Credited Cast
Tadanobu Asano as Kakihara
Nao Omori as Ichi
Shinya Tsukamoto as Jijii
Paulyn Sun as Karen (as Alien Sun)
Susumu Terajima as Suzuki (as Sabu)
Shun Sugata as Takayama
Toru Tezuka as Fujiwara
Yoshiki Arizono as Nakazawa
Kiyohiko Shibukawa as Ryu Long (as Kee)
Satoshi Niizuma as Inoue
Suzuki Matsuo as Jirô/Saburô
Jun Kunimura as Funaki
Hiroyuki Tanaka as Kaneko
Moro Morooka as Coffee Shop Manager
Houka Kinoshita as Sailor's Lover
Hiroshi Kobayashi as Takeshi
Mai Goto as Sailor
Rio Aoki as Miyuki
Noko Morishita as Pub Patron
Setchin Kawaya as Pub Proprietor
Yuki Kazamatsuri as Yakuza Girl
Sakichi Satô as Man Kicking Ichi
Kaori Sugawara
Hideo Sako
Mako Takeda
rest of cast listed alphabetically
Masataka Haji
Synopsis
KOROSHIYA 1 is the shocking story of Japan's number one hitman - a crybaby killer with razors in his shoes and hair on his palms.Someone has killed the Yakuza boss,festooning a hotel room with his guts.Masochist psycho #2 man,Kakihara(Tadanobu Asano),is mighty and absolutely pissed because no one ever beat him up as good as the boss did.So when he discovers that the legendary Ichi is the killer,he decides to hunt him down,hoping to receive the ultimate orgasm:a nice,hot,lethal beating but Ichi is actually a blubbering crybaby who can only kill when his hypnotist-handler,Jijii,works him up into an emotional lather.Question is,will the sniveling Ichi manage to kill his biggest arch-nemesis of all time,Kakihara?
Review
This is,without much doubt,one of my personal favorite films of all time but beware,one should only watch this if he/she is able to cope with extremely graphic sado-masochistic violence.For me,it is worth sitting through and having all my senses brutalized for the sake of what the director have to offer to his audience.Koroshiya 1 is very beautiful underneath,and you need to have your sensitivity ripped away in order to really feel for the sadness and despair of the characters.They are all searching for fulfillment but they have become so desensitized to everything that now only pain can really touch them.It's almost as if Miike is reflecting an exaggerated vision of his audience themselves (us), who have become so hardened (or perhaps jaded) by popular culture that they increasingly turn to extreme cinema for their kicks.
The tag line for the film's release in Japan was "Ai wa, kanari itai",meaning,"Love really hurts",and that is what it is all about here;Miike examines the idea that if love is pain,then perhaps pain can be love and indeed for Kakihara and the others the greatest expression of love is pain or so as they portray it.Kakihara is so terrifying in his sadism for most of the film that it comes as a powerful shock to realise that he is simply desperate for what,for him,is the only kind of love.
Miike is also a master of humor himself.Alright,I know you have to get past the general sickness of a film with such graphic scenes of torture,rape,brutality,macabre and violence, but it's only a piece of art after all and the film deliberately emphasizes its artificiality.You can laugh at it and if you allow yourself to laugh it is brilliantly funny,indeed it is.Miike has also shot scenes so beautifully that some stand out very powerfully indeed and help to draw together all these opposing elements that he is trying to marry to each other
ain and love,beauty and ugliness,life and death,humour and horror.Love it or hate it,he is one legend director in the filming industry.
Overall,'Koroshiya 1' is guaranteed to amaze,shock,disgust and intrigue in equal measure,'Koroshiya 1' is one of the most striking films ever made.Unforgettable.By Miike.Enjoy !
Quotes:
Ichi: Did...you really want me to rape you,Miss Tachibana?
Karen: Oh, no.I didn't want it from you.I wanted it from anyone.The only thing that can help me now is despair.
-hlkari
Also Known As:
Ichi the Killer (International: English title)
Koroshiya ichi (Japan) (alternative spelling)
MPAA: Rated R for strong perverse violence/gore and sexuality, language and drug content.
Runtime: 129 min / UK:120 min / Germany:110 min (heavily cut) / USA:117 min (heavily cut)
Country: Japan / Hong Kong / South Korea
Language: Japanese / Cantonese / English
Color: Color
Sound Mix: Dolby SR
Certification:
Germany:18 (heavily cut) /
Portugal:M/18 /
Australia:R /
Canada:18+ (Québec) /
Finland:K-18 (DVD rating) /
France:-12 /
Hong Kong:III (cut) /
Ireland:18 (heavily cut) /
Italy:VM18 /
Japan:R-18 /
Netherlands:16 /
New Zealand:R18 /
Spain:18 /
UK:18 (cut) /
USA:R (cut) /
USA:Unrated
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