Ichi the Killer

A yakuza enforcer who enjoys pain is looking for his missing boss. A weeping, sexually confused killer in a rubber suit is doing the removing.

Adapted from Hideo Yamamoto's manga and shot with a total absence of restraint, this is the film people mean when they say Miike is unwatchable, and it is considerably more calculated than that suggests: Kakihara's masochism and Ichi's arousal are the same joke told from two ends, and the film is about how badly both of them want a specific kind of attention.

Tadanobu Asano is superb, playing a man with a slit mouth held together by piercings.

It was banned outright in several countries and cut heavily in the UK on release.

Not a starting point for Miike and not a starting point for anything.