Ichi-1 is the prequel to Ichi The Killer. It's not the best movie in the world, but it's a lot better than I thought it would be. It's about Ichi in high school. He gets bullied and that's when he starts to go nuts. It's got some great fight scenes too. It's also of course got a few nasty scenes. The baseball scene was pretty disturbing. The main problem I had with this movie though was the fact that there were no teachers at the school. I can't believe not one teacher stopped any fights at school all those kids had. I didn't see one teacher at all at the school period. I guess all the kids scared them off or something. Ichi-1 is a low budget movie, but much better than most low budget movie I've seen. It's also got a bit of comedy in the movie too. The movie is all in Japanese though, so unless you can speak Japanese you'll have to read the English subtitles. It's worth checking out if you liked Ichi The Killer, but it might disappoint some people. I recommend renting it first.I give Ichi-1 a 7/10

I did not like this movie at all. I feel that the digi cam directing was limited especially in the hands of these uninspired directors. How Dull they were! And the Dai character...what terrible acting. Where is my Japanese tradition of extreme tragedy? This actor had no clue just always revealing his own insecurity as an actor - Bleech! And the Ichii character? Another case of bad casting - Phew! Couldn't stand him. And the fight choreography...Pass! Unrealistic. Obviously the director didn't know squat about camera angles for fight sequences and if he did get it right it was a fluke. The special effects were amateurish and used when obviously they had no other ideas of how to convey an idea. I say go back to directing school fellas. You are missing the boat. But I do have one good thing to say which is why I am here. The Koji Chihara who played the joint twister guy. Now that was a step in the right direction...the guy was so great. You need to take a tip from this actors confidence and use people like that in the future without exception. Really it was a director asleep at the wheel but some of the cast knew what to do when a movie is being made.

A good prequel to the GREAT Ichi the killer, only a few bad things such as NO KAKIHARA!!!! which is a shame, even if he just made a small cameo it would have been great. the story is simple and violence OTT (which is a sign of MIIKE ) there doesn't seem to be as much style put into this film as Miike was only the assistant director but there are still signs of him in it.i wouldn't recommend you see this before Ichi the killer as it may not want you to watch Ichi the killer as much, SO watch it as a prequel and not before.But If you have seen Ichi the killer and liked it give this film ago as at then you can make your own judgement.

I am a big fan of Miike's film so I had to see this aswell as the average anime and I was not disappointed. 1-Ichi is a great intro into the world of Ichi and you can see what happens for him to become the deadly assassin figure in 'Ichi the Killer'. Fans of Miike's Ichi will not be disappointed seems it contains alot of violence but none of it is as graphic as in 'Ichi the Killer'. The only downside is that the great Kakihara is not in it. Nevertheless I recommend this because it is very entertaining and if you like this try the anime which is not great but basically a animated version of 1-Ichi.