Ichi the Killer

The infamous Takashi Miike once again proves why he’s the man to top when it comes to excessive violence in this ultra dark, deeply unsettling, extreme psychological Japanese thriller.

When a Yakuza boss named Anjo disappears with 300 million yen, his chief henchman, a sadomasochistic man named Kakihara, and the rest of his mob goons go looking for him. After capturing and torturing a rival Yakuza member looking for answers, they soon realise they have the wrong man and begin looking for the man named Jijii who tipped them off in the first place. Soon enough Kakihara and his men encounter Ichi, a psychotic, sexually-repressed young man with amazing martial arts abilities and blades that come out of his shoes.

“The film operates like its own S&M session, finding that threshold where pain becomes pleasure—and the seemingly gratuitous becomes art.” - AV Club