Ichi the Killer

Takashi Miike adapts a manga about a sadomasochistic yakuza enforcer and the weeping, easily-led killer being aimed at him, then treats every frame as a test of what a censor will let him keep. Tadanobu Asano's Kakihara, split cheeks held shut with piercings, is one of the great screen grotesques, a man chasing pain because nobody will give him enough of it. Miike shoots torture, mutilation and the odd airborne sensory organ with the bright bounce of a sweets advert, so the jokes and the atrocities land in the same breath and you are never quite sure which one you laughed at. Toronto really did hand out branded sick bags at the screening, which was marketing and also fair warning. Cartoon splatter with a mean streak wider than most films have runtime.