Ichi the Killer - Enzian Theater

4K Restoration

Takashi Miike’s ICHI THE KILLER has endured as one of the most influential pieces of genre filmmaking of the last two decades, and now it returns in a stunning all-new 4k restoration approved by Miike himself.

This visceral, bloody, and often hilarious film follows Kakihara (Tadanobu Asano, Thor: Ragnarock), a notoriously sadistic yakuza enforcer whose search for his boss’ killer brings him into the orbit of a demented costumed assassin known as Ichi (Nao Ōmori, From Up on Poppy Hill).

ICHI THE KILLER has been released in several versions over the years. While Takeshi Miike’s original cut was 128 minutes long; the original US release was heavily edited to receive an R rating from the MPAA. Since its release, the film has also been periodically banned in several countries, including Norway, Germany, and Malaysia. This restoration features Takashi Miike’s full-length, original 128 minutes cut of the film.

2001/2017, 128 minutes, Japan, in Japanese with English Subtitles, Directed by Takashi Miike, Rated R

“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.”
– V.A. MUSETTO, NEW YORK POST
“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.”
– Ken Fox, TV GUIDE
“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.”
– Tanner Tafelski, THE VILLAGE VOICE
“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.”
– Chuck Bowen, SLANT MAGAZINE