Satan's Luau

Ichi The Killer: YMMV

I can't remember precisely, but I had wanted to see this film either at this past year's film festival or the one two years ago. I suppose it is somewhat ironic that I saw it in the week where Hostel hit the DVD market.

This movie is not for people who would normally feel uncomfortable with such themes as sadism, masochism, violent gore, torture, rape, violence against women ... and the list goes on and on, I suppose it does appear that my take on it seems leading to the conclusion that this movie should not be seen by anyone.

However, that's not where I'm headed.

This movie is extraordinary in its violence, in fact, I cannot think of a movie that had so much gory violence in recent memory, and violence that has dark psychological undertones. Note also that is movie is based on an adult manga called Koroshiya 1 ... so I think that to some degree, the violence is partly stylistic -- and to some degree, cartoony in that it can be rather fantastic and pushes the bounds of say, realistic violence ... whatever that may be

Thematically, I think that some of the issues relate to Japanese fascination with certain darker topics, such as the yakuza, school girls in uniforms, voyeurism of extreme situations, etc. This is not to say that these are not present in our culture, but that we do not have such cultural icons that are similar in meaning, taboo, or pathology.

And at the end of the day, I think that that is what the point of the movie is ... pathology. Will you see the movie and just be grossed out? Will you see the movie and be disturbed by its topicality or images? Or, will you be willing to explore what lies beneath your revulsion?

I think that that is where the movie is headed ... does it do the best job of getting this across? Not really, it does have its points where it is indulging itself with extreme violence or disturbing imagery. At other times, I did find myself wondering about some of the iconography that was in the film, such as extreme muscularity, extreme piercing and body modification, s/m, video game violence, human guts and blood, etc.

In the final analysis, there was so much pathology in the film that I almost wondered if I would get it if I was Japanese. Maybe the ultimate point related to -- again in the comic book sense, what would happen if the ultimate sadist met up with the ultimate masochist, do you want to know what happens ... well and with killing, black humor, torture, etc. along the way.

I did find the final battle to be ... quite funny because people were finally revealed for who they were. The "bad (ass) guy" really wanted to be scared and be killed in a fantastic way. The (anti) hero Ichi, his psychosis aside, was not a scary guy at all, and was instead scaredy cat that didn't really want to kill anyone. In a larger sense, I finally felt the despair of that this psychotic guy was being manipulated, and so many had to die because of the manipulator's motives ... in some ways, it was pretty sad. At the end of the day, is going through such lengths for revenge ... then having someone do your dirty work for you worth it? ... or beyond that, is it noble?

Lastly, this movie is not for everyone ... I would say that most people will find absolutely no value in this movie at all. I can say that my curiosity about this movie is now satisfied, but I can't really recommend it to anyone ... unless they had a curiosity as well about the film.

I didn't really get it, but I have seen it ... whatever that may mean