Cheap Ichi the Killer: Episode Zero (DVD) Price

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Customer Reviews of Ichi the Killer: Episode Zero

Just plain awful.
If the Japanese film ICHI THE KILLER had wetted your appetite for more awesomeness, you WON'T be impressed when you watch this so-bad-it's-good-again short. <
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>This is a direct anime prequel to the film ITC. I love anime, but I hate it when people make short "prequels" to films. <
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>The story is how Ichi became a killer. It's a boring, tedious anime short that is filled with "WTF-was-that-supposed-to-be" action and gore scenes, and after the good beginning, the film gets worse and worse, filled with plenty of pointless sex scenes (like when Hajime's (Ichi's real name) parents are talking about why he's getting criticized, then out of the middle of nowhere, they start engaging in S&M) and boring story elements that have nothing to do with Hajime or his background. <
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>AVOID THIS AT ALL COSTS!

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Pretty cool, but surprisingly cheap
As already written below, this anime is pretty cheap. There are some really stylish pictures indeed - sometimes it looks like the KILLER7-look, (the game that will hit the stores this year), but around 50 % times of the whole thing looks too cheap (too few colors, too less details), and some scenes are even confusingly cheap: in one scene we see two guys from behind, walking down a corridor, but they're just moving their legs without really going forward, they don't get smaller due to perspective roules, which is not only for some few seconds so it can't be ignored. In another scene we see Ichi walking along the city streets while in the background the whole street life is plain frozen, there are people running by, laughing and talking, but they're not moving. This isn't exactly a problem, but it's definetly confusing. It seems like someone didn't exactly want to spend too much energy into this flick. <
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>While the quality and production values do not exactly outstand, the story itself is pretty cool. Ichi (don't remember his normal name) is living together with his parents. His father very often brutally rapes his mother, which is not cool, but explains a lot. Ichi gets rebuked a lot at school, one specific "friend" often lurs him to places where others can hit him down for fun, paying money for the short fun they had. While at first Ichi seems to swallow all the bitter pills, apologizing for everything happening around him, his anger and frustration grows untill the moment Ichi's alter-ego is born, the nr.1 killer. From this moment on there's no holding back anymore. It all is getting out of control when another raping scene at home is forcing the boy to take matters into his own hands. <
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>There's brutality and perversion in this movie, like in Miike's film. But as in Miike's film, there's a lot (or some) humanity in here too (actually, there's more in Miike's film). The raping father isn't characterized in an all too entertaining way, it all somehow adds to the explanation as for how it came to happen that a shy boy slowly turned into a desperate killing machine. Some violence lovers won't see these things, I figure that to them Ichi is just plain sick by nature, commiting the crimes they would like to perform themselves ;). I found it very interesting how some people got characterized in this movie. Pretty strange imaginagion: a boy during puberty is getting a lot hard-ons but cannot release his tension as everybody keeps pushing him around, there's not enough engagement to this boy to get into a teenager relationship, and off course, his sexual point of view is totally deranged due to the sexual abusing he witnesses at home. Best thing to me were the 'human details': the fact that he himself keeps denying what he is ("I'm NOT pervert... I'm NOT crying! (while crying)"), because in the end, he's almost right as he was made to be this way. The idea of a boy discovering his sexuality in a sick environment, linking the high tension and the release with a disgusting experience at school (autopsie of a living frog) is not only weird but somehow understandable, or is it just me being plain sick? He does not want to get sexually satisfied by dismembering the living, but, tragically, it seems the only solution. You really have to feel pity for the poor guy. In the end (maybe I'm overdoing things now) I believe the whole dynamics inside the family and between the characters is absolutly realistic, althought presented in an over-the-top costume. A human questionizing himself and the reasons why he is the way he is and by whom he was made the one he is. To me, it's a basic question that's haunting a lot of people. I wouldn't say this flick has a philosophical background but the creator of all of this is much more clever and interested - by all weirdness - in the human side of the weirdos. They're weird and sick, but they're human. (which is the reason why Miike's film so much appeals to me, believe it or not) <
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>An entertaining anime, just don't expect the quality that would seem appropriate, regarding the success and quality of miikes film. But then, I really don't know what came first. I guess miike's movie was done afterwards. The other way round could have resulted in a much better anime.

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Live action version was better.
I saw this and thought it was mediocre at best, the story is there, and ties in nicely to Ichi the Killer, but for some reason I thought the live action version was alot better. Im not talking about Ichi the Killer im talking about the prequel starring Tei thats so rare it might as well be the holy grail. If you can watch the live action version but if you can find it, watch this. It serves as a nice supplement to the Ichi storyline.