10 Mean Films For Mean Times

Not content with audiences walking out of his earlier Audition, Takashi Miike returned with what might be the most deranged live action manga adaptation of the 2000s. As is customary with this filmmaker, no subject – be it rape, torture or mutilation – is considered too shocking.

The film follows a series of oddball characters, none more oddball than Ichi (Nao Omori), a hapless loser who’s introduced to the viewer masturbating while a pimp slaps around one of his girls. Ichi later kills them both, in part because of a false memory implanted by Jijii (Shinya Tsukamoto), who’s using him to play two rival gangs off against each other.

The amount of blood shed in the movie places it squarely in the splatter film category: faces are sliced off, a man is cut in half and, perhaps most memorably, a gang boss is tortured by being suspended from hooks. The enforcer responsible later slices off his own tongue as “punishment”, so if you want a traditional gangster picture, look elsewhere.