Koroshiya 1 (2001)

Director:

Takashi Miike

Writers:

Hideo Yamamoto (comic)
Sakichi Satô (screenplay)

Release Date:

25 July 2002 (Netherlands)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Crime | Drama | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

Ai wa, kanari itai. (Love really hurts.)

Plot:

As sadomasochistic yakuza enforcer Kakihara searches for his missing boss he comes across Ichi, a repressed and psychotic killer who may be able to inflict levels of pain that Kakihara has only dreamed of.

Plot Keywords:

Yakuza | Psychotic | Gang | Killer | Mob

Awards:

7 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Tadanobu Asano	...	Kakihara
Nao Ohmori	...	Ichi
Shin'ya Tsukamoto	...	Jijii
Paulyn Sun	...	Karen (as Alien Sun)
Susumu Terajima	...	Suzuki (as Sabu)
Shun Sugata	...	Takayama
Toru Tezuka	...	Fujiwara
Yoshiki Arizono	...	Nakazawa
Kiyohiko Shibukawa	...	Ryu Long (as Kee)
Satoshi Niizuma	...	Inoue
Suzuki Matsuo	...	Jirô / Saburô
Jun Kunimura	...	Funaki
Hiroyuki Tanaka	...	Kaneko
Moro Morooka	...	Coffee Shop Manager
Hôka Kinoshita	...	Sailor's Lover
Hiroshi Kobayashi	...	Takeshi
Mai Goto	...	Sailor
Rio Aoki	...	Miyuki
Yoshiyuki Morishita	...	Pub Patron
Setchin Kawaya	...	Pub Proprietor
Yuki Kazamatsuri	...	Yakuza Girl
Sakichi Satô	...	Man Kicking Ichi
Kaori Sugawara
Hideo Sako
Mako Takeda
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Masataka Haji

Directed by
Takashi Miike

Writing credits
Hideo Yamamoto		(comic)
Sakichi Satô		(screenplay)

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

Original Music by
Karera Musication
Seiichi Yamamoto

Cinematography by
Hideo Yamamoto

Film Editing by
Yasushi Shimamura

Casting by
Mitsuyo Ishigaki

Production Design by
Takashi Sasaki

Costume Design by
Michiko Kitamura

Makeup Department
Yûichi Matsui	....	special makeup effects artist (as Yuichi Matsu)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Kimiyoshi Adachi	....	first assistant director
Masato Tanno	....	second assistant director

Sound Department
Yoshiya Obara	....	sound

Visual Effects by
Misako Saka	....	visual effects supervisor

Music Department
Holeg Spies	....	title music re-mixer

Production Companies

• Omega Project
• Omega Micott Inc.
• Emperor Multimedia Group (EMG)
• Star Max
• Alpha Group
• Spike Co. Ltd.
• Excellent Film

Distributors

• Future Film (2003) (Finland) (VHS) (DVD)
• Firebox (2007) (Finland) (DVD)
• Filmmuseum Distributie (2002) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Media Blasters (2003) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Another World Entertainment (2007) (Denmark) (DVD)
• Contender Entertainment Group (2003) (UK) (DVD)
• Dutch FilmWorks (DFW) (2003) (Netherlands) (DVD) (VHS) (retail)
• Emperor Multimedia Group (EMG) (non-Japan) (non-USA)
• Europa Filmes (2007) (Brazil) (DVD)
• KinoVista (2001) (France) (TV)
• Prénom H Co. Ltd. (2001) (Japan)
• Siren Visual Entertainment (2004) (Australia) (DVD)
• Siren Visual Entertainment (2001) (New Zealand) (DVD)
• World Wide Cinema (2002) (Netherlands) (DVD) (VHS) (rental)

Special Effects

• OLM Digital (visual effects)

Other Companies

• Aoi Studio  
• Arquebuse  
• Fuji Photo Film  
• Goal of Art  
• Hoei Sangyo Co. Ltd.  
• Imagica  film processing
• JAP Kobo  
• Nac Rental  
• Nihon Shomei Co.  lighting equipment supplied by
• SGI Japan Ltd.  
• Step  

Also Known As:

"Ichi the Killer" - International (English title)
"Takashi Miike's Ichi the Killer" - Australia (DVD title)
"Ichi - O Assassino" - Brazil (DVD title)
"Ichi Zabójca" - Poland (imdb display title)
"Ichi el asesino" - Mexico (DVD title)
"Ichi the Killer" - France
"Ichi the Killer" - Hungary (imdb display title)
"Ichi the Killer" - Italy (imdb display title)
"Ichi the Killer" - Greece (DVD title)
"Ichi the killer" - Spain

MPAA:

Rated R for strong perverse violence/gore and sexuality, language and drug content (cut)

Runtime:

129 min | USA:117 min (heavily cut) | Germany:110 min (heavily cut) | UK:120 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese | Cantonese | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Germany:18 (heavily cut) | Portugal:M/18 | Chile:18 | Sweden:15 | Brazil:18 | Germany:(Banned) (uncut) | Norway:(Banned) (re-rating) (2008) | Sweden:18 (DVD rating) | France:-12 | Mexico:B | Malaysia:(Banned) | Canada:R (Manitoba) | USA:NC-17 (uncut) | Australia:R | Canada:18+ (Québec) | Finland:K-18 (self applied) | France:-16 (DVD rating) | 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 | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Company:

Omega Project

Trivia:

As a publicity gimmick, barf bags were handed out at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) to those attending the midnight screening of this film.

Goofs:

Continuity: On the color movie cover, which shows a closeup of Kakihara's face, his scars are shown backwards. In the movie, the cross is over his right eye, but on the cover it is seen over his left. However, on the black and white cover the scars are shown correctly.

Quotes:

Ichi:From now on, I'll beat you up.
Sailor:You will?
Ichi:Yes.
[Kaneko smiles]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Grindhouse (2007)

You can rip someone's arm off with your bare hands!

What can one say about Ichi the Killer? I do have to say, without a doubt, it is one of the most unique films I have ever seen. I was afraid going in, after hearing all of the hype, that it would be gore just for the sake of gore. But the way it is portrayed and the characters are what really drive the movie and make it stand out from other gorefests. It may be my sick personality, but I found myself laughing a lot throughout the movie. There is a lot of black humor in the film, which I enjoy. I would not consider this a horror movie by any means though, as I was not scared at all while watching it and it had none of the tendencies of a traditional horror film. The only thing that kept me from giving it 10 stars is the ending, which is a bit abstract, but I'm sure it was intended that way. But I would recommend this film to anyone, cause it's something everyone should experience. The only movie I could compare this to would be Dead Alive, and that is a very loose comparison. Just do yourself a favor and watch it.