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.

REVANCHE (2008)

This is an outstanding movie.

Austria.  Ex-con Alex is in love with Tamara.  Their relationship is forbidden since they both work for the same crime boss.  Alex as muscle and Tamara as a prostitute.  Tamara is deep in debt and they both dream of escaping.  One day while he's out visiting his grandfather, who lives in the country, Alex comes up with the idea to rob a bank.  That's not the best idea ever, but nobody said these people were smart.  The fateful day comes and things don't go quite as planned.  Now Alex must find somebody to blame for why his life has turned out so poorly.

REVANCHE is a quite movie.  There is no score, the only sounds or music are the ones also heard by the characters.  The pace might even be described as "slow", but to me the entire thing was riveting.  I was actually shocked (after I had finished the film) to discover the runtime is 121 minutes!  The time flew by so quickly I would have sworn it wasn't over a 100 minutes.  

Interesting story, award caliber acting, beautiful scenery, very nice nudity, strong direction, impressive editing and the cinematography...wow!!  Even if you're not a fan of the slower pace I can't see anybody disagreeing that this was a very pleasing movie to look at.  I have more to say, but I think the less you know the better.  Just watch it.  Highly recommended.

VICIOUS LIPS (1986)

I don't know what's going on in that poster but it sure as hell ain't what happening in the movie.  That poster looks awesome with four hot chicks getting ready to fight a giant muscled-up gargoyle creature.  Instead, in the movie you have one attractive girl and three plain ones standing around doing a bunch of nothing...for the entire movie!

Set in the future or the past or whenever, but somewhere when spaceships are commonplace, there's a 80's all-girl rock group.  They're invited to play at a club tomorrow night called Radioactive Dream.  It's located on another planet far away.  Their manager steals a spacecraft, but unknown to them there's a guy locked in the storage hold who's killed "over 5,000" women.  Naturally, they crash into a desert planet and the killer dude escape.  Nothing happens.  Nothing happened before and nothing happens afterward.  The majority of the movie is just these four women and their male manager talking and talking and talking.  It's lame.  The End.

After seeing the poster I was excited to watch VICIOUS LIPS, but the whole thing was a disappointment.  It wasn't torture to get through, just tiring.  Sloooow pace, three-titted woman four years before 1990's TOTAL RECALL, lots of cheap sets, fog machines working overtime, very brief female nudity, okay acting, forgettable 80's rock.  Skip it.