55
Metascore
10 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 88Slant MagazineChuck BowenSlant MagazineChuck BowenUnhinged 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.
- 75New York PostV.A. MusettoNew York PostV.A. MusettoOne 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.
- 70Village VoiceVillage VoiceUnderneath 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.
- 60Film ThreatEric CamposFilm ThreatEric CamposTakashi knows how to make a great, sleazy Yakuza film, but what I’m missing here is that sense of something brand new.
- 50VarietyDennis HarveyVarietyDennis HarveyCompletely 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.
- 50Chicago TribuneJohn PetrakisChicago TribuneJohn PetrakisAny 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.
- 50Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesChicago ReaderJ.R. JonesThe 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.
- 37New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanNew York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanThis 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.