I completely agree. Audition haunted me. I watched it alone in a hotel room in Chicago and that first scare (you know the one) actually made me audibly yelp. I don't think I've ever done that in a film before or since.

I was really excited to watch Ichi, watched the unedited version and was completely blown away by how let down I was. The film was unappealing bland and just a general turn off in general. I don't have any problem with gross movies, but it was gore without a point and a film without a compelling story. It felt completely soulless to me. Also as Groucho mentioned, the CGI effects are pretty bad. Hell, I think I enjoyed Gozu more than Ichi but I'm sure I'm in the minority on that.

I think people are saying it's rewatchable because I guess it's a fun movie to try and gross out your friends with. If that's your cup of tea I'd recommend Riki-Oh: The Story of Riki over Ichi anyday.

Said much better than I did. Suprised you didn't mention Fudoh though. I think that was along the lines of what I was expecting Ichi would be like. The first was funny, the second was trying way to hard to be funny but just failed.

hehehehe.. I feel your pain however rather than turning it off on my part, I patiently watched and understand the entire film and geezz the KIRI KIRI KIRI thing creeped me out!

i don't see how anyone can reccomend ichi the killer over audition, unless basing it entirely on shock value alone. the build up to the final scene in audition is just amazing, whereas with ichi i got bored and it just couldn't catch my attention. sure it has it's moments, like the , but it gets old as the plot drags on.

Yeah, as everyone else has said, audition is great. The first half does play like a serious romantic art house movie, and then the end.... well what can you say. Oh and the new lions gate dvd sucks ass, its a pal sourced transfer and looks and sounds like shit.