1-Ichi (Video 2003)

How Ichi becomes the Killer. The movie is a pre-quel to Takashi Miike's Koroshiya 1 (Ichi - The Killer).

Director:

Masato Tanno

Writers:

Sakichi Satô, Hideo Yamamoto (comic)

Stars:

Nao Ohmori, Teah, Chihara Junia

Cast

Cast overview:
Nao Ohmori	...	Ichi / Satoichi
Teah	...	Dai
Chihara Junia	...	Onizame (as Kôji Chihara)
Chisato Amate	...	Satomi
Yuki Oikawa	...	Nao
Eiki Kitamura	...	Hiromi
Kazuhiro Mashiko	...	Hide

Storyline

We follow Ichi during his high school years. Mr. Dai is the best fighter in school... whenever he fights Ichi is there and has a huge smile on his face. Mr. Dai thinks that Ichi is laughing at him but in fact he enjoys watching the violence that goes through the fights. Everyone is bullying, taunting and making fun of Ichi... even little kids from his karate class. Yet Ichi refuses to let go of his anger and fight others. Just when Mr. Dai is about to get Ichi, a new transfer student starts to make his own laws... by beating up everyone and breaking their bones! In a fight with the new student, Mr. Dai ends up on the ground, beaten and broken up from almost everywhere. It seems like this new guy wants to fight Ichi because supposedly he is the only one that could give him some challenge.

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Plot Keywords:

fight | high school | anger | violence | beating | 

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

24 January 2003 (Japan)

Filming Locations:

Japan

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

83 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Follows Ichi the Killer (2001)

User Reviews

Should anyone care about Ichi enough to watch this movie?

'Ichi-1' was a no budget movie with no plot or point until the very end, and even that is simply to tie it vaguely to "Ichi the Killer". It would have served more of a purpose as source footage for some flashbacks to Ichi's past in "Ichi the Killer", rather than a full length movie. In other words, if you liked "Ichi The Killer", you really don't need to watch this movie. There are a few slightly humorous parts though - the movie seems to waver between twisted comedy and just plain twisted. It did have the actor who played "ichi" in "Ichi the Killer", and TEAH from City of Lost Souls, which helps counteract the otherwise amateurish feel of the movie - a few good actors helped float the movie even among the rest of the bad actors and the lack of purpose to this movie. I'd say watch it if you have nothing better to do and can get it real cheap, or if you just have a need to watch every Japanese movie at least once, no matter how bad (like me).