Ichi the Killer
Media Blasters | Release Date: May 19, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 10 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
6
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Slant MagazineChuck Bowen
Unhinged even for Takashi Miike, Ichi the Killer suggests a bloody and ejaculate-stained Rorschach inkblot, reveling in ultraviolence that can be interpreted to flatter any adventurous audience's sensibilities. Read full review
75
New York PostV.A. Musetto
One of Miike's most violent and sadistic movies, filled with squirting blood, throat-slashing, limb-hacking and other forms of mutilation too gruesome to describe here. Read full review
70
Village VoiceTanner Tafelski
Underneath the spillage and flow of this gonzo activity, Miike layers a blood-stained commentary on a toxic world in which men offer protection to men but really end up dooming them to exist within a spasmodic, shambolic, and hypermasculine sphere of violence. Read full review
60
Film ThreatEric Campos
Takashi knows how to make a great, sleazy Yakuza film, but what I’m missing here is that sense of something brand new. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Takashi Miike's frenetic comic yakuza thriller embodies the best and worst this notorious Japanese genre auteur has to offer: It's endlessly inventive, consistently intelligent and sickeningly savage. Read full review
50
The New York TimesDave Kehr
The direction occasionally rises to the level of marginal competence, but for most of the film it is hard to tell who is chasing who or why. Read full review
50
VarietyDennis Harvey
Completely over-the-top yakuza actioner -- featuring nonstop mayhem, gore, torture and S&M -- duly reflects its comic book origins in both style and barely coherent narrative frenzy. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneJohn Petrakis
Any serious message has been sacrificed on the altar of excess, making us realize why the stylish story probably worked better as a graphic comic book than as a film. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
The torture is strictly for kicks, which spoiled this for me, but less skittish viewers may enjoy this as a stylish and tightly wound genre piece. Read full review
37
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
This time around, the cult director dispenses with the feminism, the satire, and even the issues, so he can concentrate on his true passion: the dissecting. Read full review
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