ICHI THE KILLER

Directed by Shinji Ishidaira
Screenplay by Sakichi Sato
Based on the manga by Hideo Yamamoto
Cast (voices): Takashi Miike, Sayaka Oohara & Chihiro Suzuki

2002/46 mins/Color/5.1 Dolby Digital
1.33:1/Japanese/Japan/PAL Region 2

Review from the Premier Asia DVD

Bullied everyday at school, humiliated at work and tormented by the wild sex games of his parents, Ichi becomes addicted to pain and pleasure. At first he doesnt seem to notice but whenever there's violence around him, he is sexually aroused by it! At a karate class, he meets a beautiful young girl who's infact a masochist. By beating her to death he gets an orgasm... and so is she. But it is after he his bullied by one of his supposed friend and that his own blood is spilled that he goes crazy, beating him to death. At the same time, an old man is following all of Ichi's activities...

Much like 1-ICHI, this anime is a prequel to Takashi Miike's masterpiece. We learn more about the roots of Ichi, his connection to Jijii and how they managed to control him. This is an interesting film but it is way too short, we need to know more about the character and why he became what he is. The animation is very raw and rudimentary, don't expect anything spectacular... a shame really 'cause it could have been much cooler. Still its a great addition to the two films based on Ichi. Also it is interesting to note that Miike's is doing the voice of Kakihara who we see at the beginning of the film... which in fact is the ending.

Premier Asia did a nice job on this disc. First of all the film is presented in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. The image looks as good as it could... to tell you the truth, this ain't the best looking anime out there. The colors are nicely rendered and satured with no artifacts or compression. We get the very good 2.0 Dolby Surround original Japanese track along with an awfully English dubbed 5.1 Dolby Digital track. There is optional easy to read English subtitles. The film is separated in 14 chapters, comes with no booklet or inlay card but there is informations on the back of the cover which you can read because of the transparent keep case. The animated menus are very cool, they are like an animated page of a manga.

There's a couple of extras like a very cool UK promo trailer for the anime, behind the scenes from Miike's film, the UK promo for the live action and a 16 minutes interview with Takashi Miike and Tadanobu Asano (Kakihara). We also get trailer for other Premier Asia releases like THE WARRIOR, BANG RAJAN, BICHUMOO, DRAGON FROM RUSSIA, CITY HUNTER and NAKED WEAPON.

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Review by Kim Dubuisson. All Right Reserved. 2004. ©

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