Vi O'Lent

Netflix is working out very nicely for me. Many times I can't get to the theater to see a movie, or don't think it's worth my time or money to go see. But, if someone will deliver it to me, that's another story entirely. I can also indulge in watching lots of awful movies just to see Eliza Dusku on screen. But there's a lot of good stuff to see out there too. I've got a lot of classic films lined up, like The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca. There are also near foreign films, like Returner or Ichi the Killer.

Ichi is a horrible yet fascinating movie to watch, along the same lines of Irreversible. The films are similar in that both of them take a stand as a vehicle for artistic expression, while being insanely violent. I mean it. American films have nothing on the fucked up things you will see in Ichi. What's worse, is that right after you see something horrible you see something that puts the violence in context, or draws your attention away from it. You are alternately appalled and engrossed, over and over.

Films like this make question the lines between artistic visions and gratuitous violence. Is the violence necessary for the story? Is it necessary period? In the end I think it serves the purpose of the story, but it's not the kind of thing you want to see repeatedly. After seeing Irreversible, I never want to see it again. I might be tempted to watch Ichi again. I'll just skip a few parts.