Movie

Ichi the Killer

2001 · 129 min

A relentless, grotesque plunge into sadomasochistic violence and warped psychology, laced with pitch-black absurdity and visceral shock.

Tagline: Love really hurts.
Overview: 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.

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In the UKNo streaming, rental or purchase options known.

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How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone: darkstrength 3 of 3
absurdstrength 2 of 3
cynicalstrength 2 of 3
tensestrength 2 of 3
Pacing: brisk, 3 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention: demanding, 4 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes: violence
obsession
madness
corruption
trauma
Places: big city
Era: contemporary
Audience: adult
Form: nonlinear
ensemble
Content intensity: Gore strong
Language strong
Violence strong
Sex strong

All scales, 0 to 10

Scales, 0 to 10
Scale	Value	0 to 10
Action	8
Horror	8
Humour	6
Realism	5
Romance	1
Tension	8
Darkness	10
Complexity	7
Emotional weight	7

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Where to watch in the UK

No UK streaming, rental or purchase options are known.

Streaming data from JustWatch.TMDB

Details

Genres: action, crime, horror
Directed by: Takashi Miike
Written by: Sakichi Sato
Starring: Tadanobu Asano, Nao Omori, Shinya Tsukamoto, Sabu, Paulyn Sun, Susumu Terajima, Shun Sugata, Toru Tezuka
Music: Seiichi Yamamoto
Cinematography: Hideo Yamamoto
Runtime: 129 min
Country: Japan
Languages: English, Japanese, Cantonese

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Ichi the Killer

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Where to watch in the UK

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