Ichi the Killer
So I just watched a movie about insanity.
It wasn't set out and detailed as a movie about insanity. In fact, the word "insane" is never once mentioned in the film itself. But it's definitely about insanity. It's called Ichi the Killer, and it's a movie made in Japan. I won't go into specific details - my brain became saturated with the images after awhile, and the movie began to just roll over my eyeballs like hot oil. But the main character, a mob boss, is seeking to find and kill the man who killed his former boss. The new mob boss wants to find him and seek revenge because he had a crush on the old mob boss, because he beat him better than anyone else ever did.
You see, the new mob boss is a sado-masochist, in a big way. To an extent that it makes him psychopathic. And the man - Ichi - who killed the old mob boss is psychopathic too. He's a man with the emotional development of a young child. He cries when he gets angry, or freezes in confrontational situations, and then he lashes out in a blender of stupendous gore, killing all who are even near him.
He isn't that way naturally. Ichi's strings are being pulled by a Machiavellian man named Jiijii, who manipulates and literally hypnotizes Ichi into believing he had a scarred and traumatized past in order to use him. This has the effect of extreme sadism in Ichi - he can only ejaculate when he's causing death or extreme violence towards someone else, for example. Jiijii, after twisting Ichi into a monster, sets him loose against a syndicate of yakuza by telling him that they are all just like the bullies who allegedly tormented him in his high school past.
I'm struggling to understand my reaction to this movie. It is easily labeled - revulsion - however, I need to understand why and how it had such a tremendous hold on me throughout the entire movie.
I was fascinated and repelled at the same time. An incredibly powerful force was pulling me away from that wretched movie, at the same time as an equally powerful force was keeping me rooted. I watched, unblinking, from start to disturbing finish.
A part of me liked it. My inner Hyde. And I've always known that I have this darker side to me. The music I listen to, the daydreams I have, the movies I willingly watch and even pay money to see - they all point to the ignoble aspects of my personality.
I guess my true anxiety is existential. I don't truly know myself, no matter how many hypotheses I may devise about what I would do in a given situation. How strong exactly is my monstrous side when held against my conflicted, torn self? Or my good side?
I don't have an answer. I doubt I ever will, unless for some reason the carefully structured parapets of society crumble and leave me facing post-apocalyptic challenges to my spirit. I will almost certainly die not even knowing who I was.
Matthew Hill, we hardly knew ye.
It wasn't set out and detailed as a movie about insanity. In fact, the word "insane" is never once mentioned in the film itself. But it's definitely about insanity. It's called Ichi the Killer, and it's a movie made in Japan. I won't go into specific details - my brain became saturated with the images after awhile, and the movie began to just roll over my eyeballs like hot oil. But the main character, a mob boss, is seeking to find and kill the man who killed his former boss. The new mob boss wants to find him and seek revenge because he had a crush on the old mob boss, because he beat him better than anyone else ever did.
You see, the new mob boss is a sado-masochist, in a big way. To an extent that it makes him psychopathic. And the man - Ichi - who killed the old mob boss is psychopathic too. He's a man with the emotional development of a young child. He cries when he gets angry, or freezes in confrontational situations, and then he lashes out in a blender of stupendous gore, killing all who are even near him.
He isn't that way naturally. Ichi's strings are being pulled by a Machiavellian man named Jiijii, who manipulates and literally hypnotizes Ichi into believing he had a scarred and traumatized past in order to use him. This has the effect of extreme sadism in Ichi - he can only ejaculate when he's causing death or extreme violence towards someone else, for example. Jiijii, after twisting Ichi into a monster, sets him loose against a syndicate of yakuza by telling him that they are all just like the bullies who allegedly tormented him in his high school past.
I'm struggling to understand my reaction to this movie. It is easily labeled - revulsion - however, I need to understand why and how it had such a tremendous hold on me throughout the entire movie.
I was fascinated and repelled at the same time. An incredibly powerful force was pulling me away from that wretched movie, at the same time as an equally powerful force was keeping me rooted. I watched, unblinking, from start to disturbing finish.
A part of me liked it. My inner Hyde. And I've always known that I have this darker side to me. The music I listen to, the daydreams I have, the movies I willingly watch and even pay money to see - they all point to the ignoble aspects of my personality.
I guess my true anxiety is existential. I don't truly know myself, no matter how many hypotheses I may devise about what I would do in a given situation. How strong exactly is my monstrous side when held against my conflicted, torn self? Or my good side?
I don't have an answer. I doubt I ever will, unless for some reason the carefully structured parapets of society crumble and leave me facing post-apocalyptic challenges to my spirit. I will almost certainly die not even knowing who I was.
Matthew Hill, we hardly knew ye.