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Jul
11
2007

DVD Overview: Takashi Miike’s Ichi the Killer Blood Bag Edition

Posted by Mack at 7:05pm.

Posted in Film & DVD Reviews , Exploitation, Thriller, Cult, Comedy, Martial Arts, Drama, Action, Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Asia.

Ichi-the-Killer-Blood-Bag.jpg

As a reader of this site, with a particular niche as it does, I am going to assume that you have at least heard of the Takashi Miike movie Ichi the Killer. It is easily one of the most notorious films to come out of Japan in this new century. If you’re a fan of international genre film then there’s little chance that you have not heard of this film. It got to the point that the full length cut of Ichi had been played as a movie snob’s trump card, ‘Oh yeah? Have you seen all 129 minutes of Ichi the Killer? No? I have!’ followed by the oohs of onlookers.

Domestically it had been difficult to find a full length, uncut version of this. Tokyo Shock has had the full version out in previous incarnations but not to this extent have they given as much. For the most part, it had been available but only after undergoing many cuts [pardon the pun] to its content and length. But now you can have it full and uncut with all the bodily fluids, extreme violence and explicit sexual material you can handle. And then, when you think it’s over, it throws more at you.

Tokyo Shock has released the Ichi the Killer: Blood Pack edition.

So much has been said and written about this film over the last 7 years that we simply don’t feel we need to offer you an opinion on the film itself. But we do need to let you know that Tokyo Shock has pulled all the stops and the nipple clamps and brought the full and sickening cut of Miike’s genre defying ‘tour de gore’ to R1 format in a truly inspired package- a DVD envelope made up like a blood bag.

As inspired as it is though, it is still a pain in the ass to take the discs out of the bag. That bag simply does not want to release the discs from their vinyl death grip. There have been complaints about the challenge of taking the discs out of the bag. And no, you don’t have to cut the bag to get the discs out, as I have read some say they have done. Silly. Tokyo Shock gets points for package uniqueness, creating something rarely seen from a Western DVD house. But they get a ten minute major penalty and a game misconduct for the package being a pain in the ass and potentially damaging the disc. Do yourself a favor and put the DVDs in a separate sleeve and keep them behind the blood bag.

DISC 1—Along with the feature film Eli Roth, horror film’s current poster boy, made a video introduction for this package. He talks about the influence of the film on him, how he made the cast of Hostel watch it before filming his torture film, and of course he talks about the infamous title sequence: the title of the film rising out of… erm… Ichi’s spilled seed. He speaks very highly of Miike and fans of Hostel know of course that Miike had a cameo in Hostel. Disc 1 also contains the usual string of Tokyo Shock trailers and the original trailer for Ichi the Killer.

Disc 2 has a couple featurettes. The first one, The Cult of Ichi, features a number of folks – writers, producers, directors, actors, magazine editors, authors- from the horror genre. They sat in front of the camera and gave their reactions to the film and scenes like the title shot, tempura oil hot off the grill and the nipple slicing. They combined the words yakuza, horror, dark comedy, a strange love story, a horror with fantasy elements, comical elements and absurdist drama to make a definition for the film. ‘It straddles a lot of definitions and that’s what I like about it’. Another called it a ‘very nihilistic film experience’.

The second featurette could be the original ‘making of…’ featurette featured on Japanese R3 discs? A side note; anything in the original Japanese language has been subtitled in bold yellow subtitles. It is a 49 minute featurette that looks at a lot of the money shots in the film; the alley fight ending with the hand in the Asano’s jaw, Asano’s tongue cutting scene, the nipple cutting, the hook hanging of Susumu Terajima. What is probably the most shocking thing to hear/read is Miike saying about Hideo Yamamoto’s manga, of which this movie is based on, that the ‘violence created by [him] doesn’t lend itself to film that well’. Uh, okay. Now I have to see the manga to see what was so different about the violence in the manga against what Miike did on screen.

The interviews with the cast [Asano, Nao Omari, Sabu, Shinya Tsukamoto and a joint interview with Shinya Tsukamoto and Hiroyuki Tanaka] don’t offer too much insight into either the message or story of the film. In fact it seems that the cast, at time of the filming, didn’t really know what Ichi the Killer was about. However, they all speak very highly [politely?] about Miike and his directing methods.

And for those who still don’t know the depth and diversity of Miike’s work there is a special trailer comprised of snippets from most of his films.

For the sake of argument I decided against posting screen shots from this film. There is a delicate balance between what is informative and what is distasteful. I wanted everyone to be able to look at this overview and not worry about who is looking over your shoulder. The best way to make it work safe is to avoid the temptation to include explicit images in this post. Because really now, all this talk about how freaking gory this picture is and you want to see static shots of guys sitting around a table? No. So better than to be tempted to do it I have chosen outright not to include any. You’re viewing experience is better off not knowing what is coming anyways.

• Directors: Takashi Miike
• Format: Color, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: Japanese, English audio in 2.0 and 5.1
• Region: Region 1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
• Number of discs: 2
• Studio: Tokyo Shock
• Street Date: May 29, 2007
• Run Time: 129 minutes

Find it at Amazon.com

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Reader Comments

  1. Caterpillar 07/11/2007 @ 9:40pm

    The main thing that’s missing from this edition is the second, English language audio commentary that was recorded with producer Elliot Tong, actress Alien Sun and the ubiquitous Bey Logan. That commentary is on the UK DVD from HKL but since the BBFC cut the movie to shreds it’s useless. It’s also on the new Dutch DVD, which has the film fully uncut. No English subtitles for the movie itself so you literally have to buy the thing just for the commentary.

    PS: Eli Roth, poster boy? Haha, not after HOSTEL 2 bombed, I don’t think so. Actually it has been nice and quiet from his front recently. Let’s hope it stays that way for a long time.

  2. PhoneyB 07/11/2007 @ 9:55pm

    The ending still confused the hell out of me...no matter which version it is packaged in

  3. Caterpillar 07/11/2007 @ 11:41pm

    If the movie ending confuses you, you should read the original manga. Of course no American publisher has the balls to translate it officially, so fan scanlations will have to do. The manga makes several things clearer than the movie, including the ending. For another example you will understand why Tsukamoto’s character is so freakishly buff.

  4. Ardvark 07/12/2007 @ 3:35am

    Nice review.

    But I don’t agree with all the people ranting about the packaging. Come on guys, this is brilliant!

    The discs are certainly not too difficult to remove if you have half a brain. Granted, it would be a lot easier if the opening was a bit larger (a few millimeters more would have sufficed) but the main problem is the disc clinging to the bag material.

    So this is how you solve it: you stick your hand in the opening and work your way round the edge of the disc with your fingertips until it comes loose. Then you can gently pull it out without difficulty.

    Presto! I’ve done this dozens of times (showing people the blood bag) without scratching or fingerprinting the disc. I still keep them within the blood bag.

    I think the packaging is so cool and spot-on for this movie, I’d hate it if all this ranting would make Tokyo Shock think twice about doing this in the future. It’s like complaining about the chocolate cookie you get with your coffee because it gives you sticky fingers.

    If you want to see more pictures of the blood bag, look into the “Which DVD-edition is the most beautiful of them all?” topic of the DVD section in our forum:

    http://twitchfilm.net/forum/index.php?topic=1587.135

    And another thing: I’m surprised to hear the new Dutch edition has the Sun-Logan commentary, it was the most noted glaring omission in the earlier Dutch releases (HKL had delivered the commentary but the Dutch distributor assumed it was made for the cut version and didn’t include it).

  5. Ardvark 07/12/2007 @ 6:07am

    Did Hostel2 bomb by the way?

    It made almost twice the production cost domestically alone, is that still too little nowadays?

  6. collin a 07/12/2007 @ 7:45am

    Compared to the first film, HOSTEL 2 did pretty poorly ($50 mil for the first film, $20 for this—around what CABIN FEVER did—all domestic numbers). It still made money, and Roth will (thankfully to me anyway) continue working for a long time—he works cheap, and (when he chooses to work) moves fast, both big pluses in this industry.

    Not sure if I can quadruple dip(!) on ICHI—I’ve had the Universe HK disc, the 1st US two-disc release, and a release of suspicious origins. This set does look might snazzy, though…

  7. Dylan 07/12/2007 @ 8:01am

    I have no idea why you guys are discussing a rubbish film like Hostel, let alone Hostel 2 on the same page as Ichi the killer. Miike and Roth are worlds apart in talent and vision. Miike is an artist, where Roth is clearly a rich kid with a Xerox machine that makes movies. I will however grant him one thing; Cabin Fever was gloriously yucky and fun to watch. I saw it when I was in college, they did a test screening and Roth was present handing out bloody face masks and giant bandaid stickers as promotional material. Good stuff. Miike embodies the Japanese work ethic in his movies, and making as many as he has in one year is no small feat. I would like to see Roth stray away from the over glorification of violence/sex and focus on new and exciting things like plot and character development. Just a thought.

  8. Ardvark 07/12/2007 @ 8:45am

    Hostel is being discussed because… well, if there is one thing this edition will be known for it’s the spectacular packaging, and Roth’s name is very visible on the front of it.

    And he’s also on the DVD, praising Miike to heaven and back. And Miike had a cameo in Hostel.

    So it’s hard NOT to discuss Hostel nowadays when discussing Ichi…

    I haven’t seen any of Roth’s movies and don’t know why he’s being hated so much, but I bought this DVD for Miike not Roth. So seeing Roth mentioned on the very front of the bloodbag (along with his entire “oeuvre") irks me a little.

    It’s the only bad thing I’ll say about the packaging.

  9. collin a 07/12/2007 @ 9:32am

    I don’t mean to sound flippant but if you don’t like Roth why not find an appropriate place to vent about it and not do it within a discussion you feel SHOULDN’T be about Roth.

    As for Miike, for everyone who loves everything he does there’s someone out there who finds half of it “blah” (like me). I’ll always watch his work because even if turns out I don’t like it there’s usually one or two interesting moments or ideas contained within—same with Roth, same with a lot of filmmakers.

    I agree with Ard to an extent—for whatever reason (probably in large part Roth’s frequent public adoration of Miike) these two filmmakers are often mentioned together. They have little in common other than occasional extreme elements in their films.

  10. krakatau 07/12/2007 @ 5:11pm

    oh, manga is much, MUCH MORE EXTREME! and brilliant. trust me. or don’t —read it yourself, it’s one of my favourites....

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