Slash and Burn
If you've seen "Audition" or "Dead or Alive," you'll
know what to expect from this outrageous Japanese director. If you haven't, then
steel yourself. Expect to see movie titles bubbling up through a puddle of semen.
Expect to witness decapitation and maiming sequences that would horrify Monty
Python's Black Knight. Expect close-ups of burning flesh and skewers piercing
skin. Expect some of the most uncomfortable yet comic scenes of graphic violence
you'll ever see in a genre film.
Which isn't to say that Ichi the Killer will give you nightmares -- it's
too zany and over-the-top to be taken as anything but fantasy. Based on the manga
"Koroshiya 1" by Hideo Yamamoto, the story is impossible to describe in tidy terms,
but centers on psychotic sadomasochist gang boss Kakihara (played with unnverving
charm by Tadanobu Asano) and his showdown with the seemingly meek Ichi (Nao Omori),
a shy loner who is being manipulated Manchurian Candidate-style by Jiji
("Pops," played by "Tetsuo" director Shinyu Sakamoto), who has his own enigmatic
goals.
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Needless to say, this isn't for everyone. As a straight
genre film, Ichi is a failure; the story ranges all over the place, the
subplots (particularly one involving a former cop-turned yakuza and his neglected
son) are the stuff of cliché, and the film's more sedate, meandering passages
could have stood a bit of trimming. Some might also complain that Miike doesn't
treat his women characters very well, as evidenced by the numerous beatings and
mutilations (although I would argue that no one, male or female, is spared from
bodily harm in this film). There is no doubt, though, that Miike has cinematic
brio to spare. The opening passage, in which crazy POV shots from a whirling bicycle
spoke compete with jittery stop-motion dialogue between two yakuzas before climaxing
(no pun intended) with the semen shot noted above, is the most arresting beginning
to a film since … well, since Miike's Dead or Alive. His "can you top this"
attitude proves to be quite infectious, and the glee with which he stretches genre
conventions to the limit before puncturing them is breathtaking. Take for instance
a scene in which a young boy witnesses Ichi slice open his father's neck, and
in a fury starts pounding at the hitman … rest assured, what happens next isn't
something you'll see in a Hollywood movie now, or ever.
Is there a message in all this carnage? I'm sure there will be many interpretations.
My personal take is that Miike is commenting on the omnipotency of directors,
the dizzying fun of creating and shattering entire worlds (for the ultimate in
this auteur-as-God approach, see the end of Dead or Alive). In this context,
Jiji is the director figure, hypnotizing and manipulating all the characters from
behind the scenes; in one blatant moment, he calls his rival Kakihara and tells
him calmly: "Your fate is inevitable. I've already arranged everything." It's
no wonder that Jiji breaks down sobbing after the final bloodbath; no one is left
to kill, play time is over, and there's nothing to do but to end the film. A highbrow
interpretation perhaps, but it does add a layer of poignancy to the shenanigans.
Regardless of whether you buy that theory or not, Ichi the Killer is a
startling example of Miike's ability to throw caution to the wind and celebrate
the extreme possibilities of cinema.
