ICHI THE KILLER (2001)

"There's no love in your punches."

I recently watched the excellent "Fargo" season 1 (in one sitting) and thought to myself that Billy Bob Thornton's character might be the most badass crime syndicate enforcer of all time...then I remembered Asano Tadanobu's character from ICHI THE KILLER.  Strangely enough, even though Tadanobu steals the entire movie, he's not the title character.  The Ichi in the title is actually the character that Tadanobu's Kakihara is searching for.

As the film opens, crime family boss Anjo is slaughtered by a psychotic killer (Ichi), but after a professional clean up crew wipe away any traces of the murder, people start to think that maybe Anjo actually split and took 3 million yen of the gang's money with him. The gang's loyal enforcer, Kakihara, doesn't believe this and starts searching for clues. Meanwhile, Ichi is busy dealing with his own demons because not only is he completely insane, but he's been brainwashed by yet another psychopath, Jijii (played by TETSUO: THE IRON MAN director Shinya Tsukamoto!)

There's been a ton of hype and stuff said about ICHI THE KILLER over the years, so I doubt I can add anything new that you haven't already heard.  Plain and simple: it's a great film.  I'm not really sure why it (and AUDITION) are the two most popular Miike films, but they are and they are both deserving of all the praise they get.  In the case of ITK, the story and style are similar to a number of other Miike's yakuza crime dramas, but what really makes it stand out is Asano Tadanobu's portrayal of Kakihara.  I've seen this film probably a half dozen times or more since 2001 and when I watched it again this morning for this review I was completely hypnotized by Kakihara.  The guy is so unstable and dangerous that you have absolutely no idea what he is going to do next.  He's truly terrifying.

Good pace (even at 129 minutes), awesome camerawork, great acting by a cast full of familiar faces, violence, the film's title written in jizz (I honestly cannot think of another film that has done that, I mean, besides FORREST GUMP of course), a guy wearing fluffy dog ears literally sniffing out clues, even more violence, ridiculous computer-generated special effects that were sooo stupid that they were perfect, rape, torture, nipple removing, tongue slicing.

Mandatory viewing for fans of the stranger side of Cinema.

A message from Miike on the DEAD OR ALIVE (1999) DVD.

THE LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE (2003)

Asano Tadanobu, Riki Takeuchi and Takashi Miike all acting in the same movie.  Albeit, both Miike and Takeuchi have very small roles, but still it was cool seeing all three of these massive talents on the screen together.

Asano Tadanobu is a quiet loner.  He seems to think a lot about killing himself, but it doesn't look like he's serious.  It's more of a HAROLD AND MAUDE-style fascination with death and the inconvenience of living.  The biggest inconvenience of his life is his yakuza brother who is constantly crashing at his house.  During one visit an assassin kills the brother.  Asano ends up killing the assassin, so now he has two dead bodies in his apartment.  Later on he is contemplating jumping off a low bridge when he spots a cute girl he saw earlier at his bookstore job.  As he's looking at her a car runs her over and kills her.  Asano ends up bonding with the dead girls free-spirited sister and going to stay at her house since he's scared to go back to his.

There's not much to the story, but all the same I really enjoyed THE LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE.  The main reason is Asano Tadanobu.  A lot of actors, in a quiet role like this, would have overplayed the part and looked foolish or underplayed it and just stood there with a blank look on their face the entire movie.  Tadanobu plays it perfectly.  The main emotional tone of this film rides on his body language and facial expressions.  That said, I wish he had been given a strong female actress to work with.  The girl is this movie does an okay job, but the film would have definitely benefited from a better actress. 

Enjoyable slow pace, beautiful photography, a super delightful reference to a previous Tadanobu/Miike collaboration.  Recommended.