Japan Synopsis
殺し屋1
“Love really hurts.”
As sadomasochistic yakuza enforcer Kakihara searches for his missing boss he comes across Ichi, a repressed and psychotic killer who may be able to inflict levels of pain that Kakihara has only dreamed of.
Audience Engagement
861 audience reviews — more than 96% of Japan films in our index.
Popularity sits at the 83th percentile among Japan films.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with Ichi the Killer. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
2 sharedDemon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train
★ 8.3 · Japan
2 sharedBerserk: The Golden Age Arc I – The Egg of the King
★ 7.2 · Japan
2 sharedBerserk: The Golden Age Arc II – The Battle for Doldrey
★ 7.3 · Japan
2 sharedTekkonkinkreet
★ 7.4 · Japan
2 sharedCrows Zero
★ 7.0 · Japan
2 sharedMade in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul
★ 7.9 · Japan
Other Titles From Omega Project
Action + Crime in Japan
188 Japan titles in our catalog blend the Action and Crime genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding Ichi the Killer itself).
The 2000–2002 Japan Window
Ichi the Killer holds position #85 of 226 Japan films in the 2000–2002 window, below highlighted by audience rating.
The 2000s Japan Landscape
Catalog density by release year across the 2000s in Japan, 1020 titles in total. Highlighted year (yellow) is when Ichi the Killer premiered alongside 79 others.
Budget & Box Office Efficiency
At a 2h 9m runtime, production spent $11K per minute on screen and earned $625 per minute back.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 79 other Japan films in 2001.
The 1392nd Japan title from Japan we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1899).
Our Japan catalog contains 4,579 titles in total (2,908 films).
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on Ichi the Killer, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- violence against women · 5
- pain · 4
- dominatrix · 3
- blade · 3
- sadistic torture · 3
- piercing · 2
- masochist · 2
- predator turns victim · 1
- drugs · 24
- twins · 12
- anarchic comedy · 8
- based on manga · 297
- yakuza · 93
- gore · 51
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #2,082 of 4,579 Japan films indexed here (55th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Among Japan Action productions specifically: #841 of 1,714 (top 49%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | Japan |
|---|---|
| Original Language | Japanese |
| Spoken Languages | Cantonese, English, Japanese |
| Production Companies | Omega Project, Omega Micott Inc., Excell Film Agentur |
| Runtime | 2h 9m |
| Release Date | December 22, 2001 |
| IMDb | tt0296042 |