1-Ichi

I am a big fan of Miike's film so I had to see this aswell as the average anime and I was not disappointed. 1-Ichi is a great intro into the world of Ichi and you can see what happens for him to become the deadly assassin figure in 'Ichi the Killer'. Fans of Miike's Ichi will not be disappointed seems it contains alot of violence but none of it is as graphic as in 'Ichi the Killer'. The only downside is that the great Kakihara is not in it. Nevertheless I recommend this because it is very entertaining and if you like this try the anime which is not great but basically a animated version of 1-Ichi.

An interesting, distinctly Japanese low budget flick. The story revolves around the origins of infamous Ichi the Killer. The movie starts with Dai, a de facto high school fighting champion trying to maintain his status as the toughest kid on the block. All the while a weakling, Satoichi, discovers that he gets sexual gratification from violence. The movie doesn't really take off until the appearance Onizame, a sadistic new kid on the block who is more than a match for Dai. This is the point when the whole thing turns into an orgy of violence, perversion, and general creepiness of absurd proportions.

The most noticeable flaw of this movie is unnecessary odd editing and various cheap video effects, a common ailment of many amateur film makers. The director probably felt very self conscious of the movie's shoe string budget and tried to use all possible means at his disposal to "thicken up" the production values. Unfortunately, the only thing that that did was cause an unnecessary distraction from an otherwise decent story line. Nonetheless, 1-Ichi is definitely worth a watch for the fans of the genre, or anyone who is interested in seeing an alternative to the stuff put out by Hollywood. The best thing about this film is Kôji Chihara (playing Onizame), who steals the show as a psychotic bully.

Ichi-1 is the prequel to Ichi The Killer. It's not the best movie in the world, but it's a lot better than I thought it would be. It's about Ichi in high school. He gets bullied and that's when he starts to go nuts. It's got some great fight scenes too. It's also of course got a few nasty scenes. The baseball scene was pretty disturbing. The main problem I had with this movie though was the fact that there were no teachers at the school. I can't believe not one teacher stopped any fights at school all those kids had. I didn't see one teacher at all at the school period. I guess all the kids scared them off or something. Ichi-1 is a low budget movie, but much better than most low budget movie I've seen. It's also got a bit of comedy in the movie too. The movie is all in Japanese though, so unless you can speak Japanese you'll have to read the English subtitles. It's worth checking out if you liked Ichi The Killer, but it might disappoint some people. I recommend renting it first.

I give Ichi-1 a 7/10

I did not like this movie at all. I feel that the digi cam directing was limited especially in the hands of these uninspired directors. How Dull they were! And the Dai character...what terrible acting. Where is my Japanese tradition of extreme tragedy? This actor had no clue just always revealing his own insecurity as an actor - Bleech! And the Ichii character? Another case of bad casting - Phew! Couldn't stand him. And the fight choreography...Pass! Unrealistic. Obviously the director didn't know squat about camera angles for fight sequences and if he did get it right it was a fluke. The special effects were amateurish and used when obviously they had no other ideas of how to convey an idea. I say go back to directing school fellas. You are missing the boat. But I do have one good thing to say which is why I am here. The Koji Chihara who played the joint twister guy. Now that was a step in the right direction...the guy was so great. You need to take a tip from this actors confidence and use people like that in the future without exception. Really it was a director asleep at the wheel but some of the cast knew what to do when a movie is being made.

Being a prequel to one of Asian cinemas master works, this film, 1-ichi has a lot to live up to. Directed this time by Takashi Miikes right hand man, Masato Tanno, the assistant director of Ichi the Killer brings a fresh take to the world of Ichi. Apparently closer to the manga than Ichi the Killer was, though I wouldn't know as I haven't seen the manga comic.

The primary setting for 1-ichi is a school, so this is presumably supposed to have taken place before Ichi the Killer. Nao Omori returns as the emotionally imbalanced Ichi, though the main character is really Teah from a Miike film the City of Lost Souls. To many people, Teah probably fills the shoes of Kakihara (Tadanobu Asano), and does an admirable job at it. He retains the coolness and equal sadism that Kakihara possessed. By the way the original music for this film was apparently composed by Tadanobu Asano, showing just one of the mans many talents.

Teah plays Dai, the toughest guy in school. After a short intro of Ichi watching a boxing match we see Dai involved in a fight. He easily wins and spots Ichi watching the fight and smiles at Dai's initial misfortune. (One of his opponents hits him on the head with a flower pot.) Dai notices Ichi watching his fights. This seems to get under his skin.

Dai remains the tough guy until Koji Chihara turns up, playing Onizame. A guy who just transferred and is a real bad ass. Its an interesting fact that Chihara forms one part of a comedy duo, who are famous in Japan. Rivalry flares up and it isn't long before their is a showdown between Ichi and Onizame. Who no one else can seem to beat up....

For much of the film Ichi's rage is suppressed and it takes a lot of bullying for him to snap. There is a lot of fighting in this film and much of it is, in my opinion more disturbing than in Ichi the Killer as it is more realistic.

The movie is also lighthearted as Dai's friends provide some comic relief. One of them has a fixation with part 3's of movies and the other one keeps changing his hair.

Masato Tanno does an excellent directing job, with some great camera work and interesting filming. Slight tinting and fading shots etc. The film evidently has a smaller budget than Ichi the Killer and some of it seems to have been shot on digi cam, though this just adds to the great look of the film.

To conclude I recommend that you see this. Its entertaining and a neat addition to the story of Ichi, who is a superb character. You don't need to have seen Ichi the Killer to enjoy this either.