Ichi the Killer (2001)
殺し屋1
Action, Crime, Horror • 2h 9m
Overview
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.
Director: Takashi Miike
Cast: Tadanobu Asano, Nao Omori, Shinya Tsukamoto, SABU, Paulyn Sun, Susumu Terajima, Shun Sugata, Toru Tezuka, Yoshiki Arizono, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Satoshi Niizuma, Suzuki Matsuo, Jun Kunimura, Moro Morooka, Houka Kinoshita, Yoshiyuki Morishita, Yuki Kazamatsuri, Rio Aoki, Sakichi Sato, Kaoru Sugawara, Hiroshi Kobayashi, Mai Goto, Manzo Shinra, Masataka Haji, Hideo Sako, Mako Takeda
Director: Takashi Miike
2026 Arrow 4K Blu-ray
2026 Arrow 4K Blu-ray
Original matrixed DTS Stereo mix: 2026 Arrow 4K Blu-ray
5.0 surround remix: 2009 Shout! Factory US Blu-ray
Arrow includes three audio tracks, matrixed stereo, discrete 4.0, and a 5.0 surround remix. Unfortunately, only the first one is usable. The 4.0 desyncs partway through. The 5.0 has incorrect (lower) pitch. Fortunately, the matrixed stereo track sounds great, but it is still a major disappointment.
There has been no replacement disc announced. See nicwood's BR post.
Director: Takashi Miike
2026 Arrow 4K Blu-ray
2026 Arrow 4K Blu-ray
Original matrixed DTS Stereo mix: 2026 Arrow 4K Blu-ray
5.0 surround remix: 2009 Shout! Factory US Blu-ray
Arrow includes three audio tracks, matrixed stereo, discrete 4.0, and a 5.0 surround remix. Unfortunately, only the first one is usable. The 4.0 desyncs partway through. The 5.0 has incorrect (lower) pitch. Fortunately, the matrixed stereo track sounds great, but it is still a major disappointment.
There has been no replacement disc announced. See nicwood's BR post.
Radiance 4K Blu-ray from nic:
Unadvertised HDR10 grade that looks better than the equivalent Blu-ray it's packaged with, grain rendered very clean even when it's heavy. FiM encode so surely it's better than the Media Blasters UHD, but there are still issues with frame stability, some shots have this jitter that kinda hurts to look at. Not a night and day upgrade over the Blu, but it's better and despite its issues, probably the best it'll ever be.
Radiance 4K Blu-ray from nic:
Unadvertised HDR10 grade that looks better than the equivalent Blu-ray it's packaged with, grain rendered very clean even when it's heavy. FiM encode so surely it's better than the Media Blasters UHD, but there are still issues with frame stability, some shots have this jitter that kinda hurts to look at. Not a night and day upgrade over the Blu, but it's better and despite its issues, probably the best it'll ever be.
Director: Takashi Miike
Director: Takashi Miike
Director: Béla Tarr
Curzon 4K Blu-ray see caps
Director: Béla Tarr
Curzon 4K Blu-ray see caps
Director: Bert Stern
Director: Bert Stern
Director: Delmer Daves
Criterion 4K Blu-ray see caps
All audio tracks originate from the same DVD-era master, no real audible differences between them, but Carlotta is least filtered out of all
Director: Delmer Daves
Criterion 4K Blu-ray see caps
All audio tracks originate from the same DVD-era master, no real audible differences between them, but Carlotta is least filtered out of all
Director: Alan J. Pakula
Director: Alan J. Pakula
Director: Edward Yang
France Carlotta 4K Blu-ray is FiM encoded and superior to Criterion 4K Blu-ray see caps but the Carlotta release is not English friendly
A user writes: 'the 5.0 mix does not closely resemble the matrixed stereo track included on all prior releases (save for a 2003 French DVD which had 5.1). There is significant dialogue emphasis in the 5.0 mix while the older stereo mix has ambient sounds and dialogue mixed at nearly the same loudness. Additionally, the 5.0 mix has minor limiting in select loud sequences and a strange distorted quality on occasion (one notable example is the sound of a plane taking off which plays during a static shot of clouds in the sky). The stereo mix included on the FRA UHD/BD is a downmix of the 5.0 track.'
Director: Edward Yang
France Carlotta 4K Blu-ray is FiM encoded and superior to Criterion 4K Blu-ray see caps but the Carlotta release is not English friendly
A user writes: 'the 5.0 mix does not closely resemble the matrixed stereo track included on all prior releases (save for a 2003 French DVD which had 5.1). There is significant dialogue emphasis in the 5.0 mix while the older stereo mix has ambient sounds and dialogue mixed at nearly the same loudness. Additionally, the 5.0 mix has minor limiting in select loud sequences and a strange distorted quality on occasion (one notable example is the sound of a plane taking off which plays during a static shot of clouds in the sky). The stereo mix included on the FRA UHD/BD is a downmix of the 5.0 track.'
Director: Max Ophüls
French version: Criterion Blu-ray (Carlotta has no English subtitles)
German version: Filmmuseum DVD
French version: 2020 Carlotta Blu-ray
German version: Filmmuseum DVD
Carlotta Films corrects the mistakes of Criterion due to the compression on dark scenes and gives the gorgeous transfer of the restoration a better encode/compression and more bitrate.
The German cut, titled Lola Montez, is considered by Ophüls scholars such as Jonathan Rosenbaum, Dan Sallitt and Tag Gallagher to be superior to the French cut. It has only been reissued on the Filmmuseum DVD.
Director: Max Ophüls
French version: Criterion Blu-ray (Carlotta has no English subtitles)
German version: Filmmuseum DVD
French version: 2020 Carlotta Blu-ray
German version: Filmmuseum DVD
Carlotta Films corrects the mistakes of Criterion due to the compression on dark scenes and gives the gorgeous transfer of the restoration a better encode/compression and more bitrate.
The German cut, titled Lola Montez, is considered by Ophüls scholars such as Jonathan Rosenbaum, Dan Sallitt and Tag Gallagher to be superior to the French cut. It has only been reissued on the Filmmuseum DVD.
Director: Chen Kaige
Director: Chen Kaige
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Director: Stanley Kwan Kam-Pang
Director: Stanley Kwan Kam-Pang
More Action on Blu-ray
Director: Wolfgang Petersen
Arrow 4K Blu-ray Both cuts are excellent in 4K. See caps
For BD:
Theatrical: Czech/Polish/Russian Warner Bros Blu-ray
Director's Cut: Warner Bros Blu-ray
Director: Wolfgang Petersen
Arrow 4K Blu-ray Both cuts are excellent in 4K. See caps
For BD:
Theatrical: Czech/Polish/Russian Warner Bros Blu-ray
Director's Cut: Warner Bros Blu-ray
Director: Sheldon Lettich
Germany Capelight 4K Blu-ray see nic's review and caps
MVD 4K Blu-ray has frame rate skips (encoding error)
Director: Sheldon Lettich
Germany Capelight 4K Blu-ray see nic's review and caps
MVD 4K Blu-ray has frame rate skips (encoding error)
Director: Deran Sarafian
MVD 4K Blu-ray beautiful remaster but with frame rate skips (encoding error)
Director: Deran Sarafian
MVD 4K Blu-ray beautiful remaster but with frame rate skips (encoding error)
International Cut: Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray
International Cut: Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray, Upscaled from the 2K DI. Caps are here. While not as dramatic an upgrade as Jackie Brown, color reproduction and especially the reveal of additional highlight information that were completely blown-out on the old master make this a great upgrade regardless. See Uma Thurman’s face in the above cap. Japan Cut: Japan DVD
International Cut: Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray
International Cut: Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray, Upscaled from the 2K DI. Caps are here. While not as dramatic an upgrade as Jackie Brown, color reproduction and especially the reveal of additional highlight information that were completely blown-out on the old master make this a great upgrade regardless. See Uma Thurman’s face in the above cap. Japan Cut: Japan DVD
Director: John Ford
Germany Filmjuwelen Blu-ray is AI upscaled https://ibb.co/album/mCJ7RQ
Director: John Ford
Germany Filmjuwelen Blu-ray is AI upscaled https://ibb.co/album/mCJ7RQ
Director: Edwin L. Marin
Warner Archive Blu-ray 4K restoration from technicolor negatives
Director: Edwin L. Marin
Warner Archive Blu-ray 4K restoration from technicolor negatives
Director: Wong Kar-Wai
2010 US Kino Lorber or 2012 UK Artificial Eye
2017 JP Kadokawa Blu-ray has the best encoding out of all the older discs.
Kino Lorber and Artificial Eye Blu-ray use the same master, between the two the PQ on Kino's release is slightly better, but the difference is negligible.
The 4K restoration (Criterion, 4K etc) are cropped to 2.35:1, have revisionistic colour grading and other changes.
Caps: old master, old master vs 4K restoration
Wong Kar-Wai on the framing:
With Fallen Angels, I have changed the format to cinemascope, because it was originally what I had intended to release the film in. When we were cutting the film, we accidentally turned the Steenbeck on anamorphic instead of standard. I felt that the film looked much more interesting because it enhanced the distance of the characters on top of the extreme wide angle that we shot on. Back then, it was impossible to shoot a film in standard and release it in anamorphic. With this restoration, we have successfully fulfilled this wish.
Director: Wong Kar-Wai
2010 US Kino Lorber or 2012 UK Artificial Eye
2017 JP Kadokawa Blu-ray has the best encoding out of all the older discs.
Kino Lorber and Artificial Eye Blu-ray use the same master, between the two the PQ on Kino's release is slightly better, but the difference is negligible.
The 4K restoration (Criterion, 4K etc) are cropped to 2.35:1, have revisionistic colour grading and other changes.
Caps: old master, old master vs 4K restoration
Wong Kar-Wai on the framing:
With Fallen Angels, I have changed the format to cinemascope, because it was originally what I had intended to release the film in. When we were cutting the film, we accidentally turned the Steenbeck on anamorphic instead of standard. I felt that the film looked much more interesting because it enhanced the distance of the characters on top of the extreme wide angle that we shot on. Back then, it was impossible to shoot a film in standard and release it in anamorphic. With this restoration, we have successfully fulfilled this wish.
Director: Mamoru Oshii
Bandai Japan 4K Blu-ray
All the Anime FRA 4K Blu-ray | Caps comparison: Ghost in the Shell (1995) | Slowpoke Pics
All the Anime FRA 4K Blu-ray
The All the Anime FRA and the Lionsgate USA run to the same frame and come from the same source, while the Bandai JPN is a separate assembly, and these three discs do not share a master and are graded differently. The French and the Japanese hold the same hue throughout; the Lionsgate is shifted, and by different amounts from scene to scene. The Lionsgate is the only Dolby Vision Profile 7 FEL (when the All the Anime is Dolby Vision Profile 7 MEL and The Bandai is only HDR10) and the extra coding precision is genuine, but it buys nothing here: the grain dithers the gradients on its own and none of the three discs bands.
What separates them is texture, and it is not close. The All the Anime FRA is very clearly superior to both others: far more fine detail, tighter edges with no sign of sharpening, and real gradation in the shadows where the other two simply go to black. It is a beautiful master, filmic and untouched. Both the US and the Japanese discs have had DNR applied: flat areas and edges are smoothed alike, so a great deal of the texture the French keeps is simply gone. The Lionsgate also falls apart on darker shots, and the Bandai is the softest of the three on top of a very conservative grade.
The French disc is the one to get, by a wide margin.
Caps comparison: Ghost in the Shell (1995) | Slowpoke Pics
Be warned that the All the Anime FRA is not English-friendly at all: it carries no English audio track and no English subtitles while being well served on the Japanese side, with the 6.1 mix from Ghost in the Shell 2.0 and the original 2.0 mix, both retaining the original 1995 end credits music, alongside the modern Dolby Atmos track.
Worth noting: the KSM GER release may carry the same master as the All the Anime FRA, but without a copy on hand I can neither confirm nor rule it out.
Director: Mamoru Oshii
Bandai Japan 4K Blu-ray
All the Anime FRA 4K Blu-ray | Caps comparison: Ghost in the Shell (1995) | Slowpoke Pics
All the Anime FRA 4K Blu-ray
The All the Anime FRA and the Lionsgate USA run to the same frame and come from the same source, while the Bandai JPN is a separate assembly, and these three discs do not share a master and are graded differently. The French and the Japanese hold the same hue throughout; the Lionsgate is shifted, and by different amounts from scene to scene. The Lionsgate is the only Dolby Vision Profile 7 FEL (when the All the Anime is Dolby Vision Profile 7 MEL and The Bandai is only HDR10) and the extra coding precision is genuine, but it buys nothing here: the grain dithers the gradients on its own and none of the three discs bands.
What separates them is texture, and it is not close. The All the Anime FRA is very clearly superior to both others: far more fine detail, tighter edges with no sign of sharpening, and real gradation in the shadows where the other two simply go to black. It is a beautiful master, filmic and untouched. Both the US and the Japanese discs have had DNR applied: flat areas and edges are smoothed alike, so a great deal of the texture the French keeps is simply gone. The Lionsgate also falls apart on darker shots, and the Bandai is the softest of the three on top of a very conservative grade.
The French disc is the one to get, by a wide margin.
Caps comparison: Ghost in the Shell (1995) | Slowpoke Pics
Be warned that the All the Anime FRA is not English-friendly at all: it carries no English audio track and no English subtitles while being well served on the Japanese side, with the 6.1 mix from Ghost in the Shell 2.0 and the original 2.0 mix, both retaining the original 1995 end credits music, alongside the modern Dolby Atmos track.
Worth noting: the KSM GER release may carry the same master as the All the Anime FRA, but without a copy on hand I can neither confirm nor rule it out.
Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray (damage removed, improved color/HDR, and best audio) or Capelight DE 4K Blu-ray (best compression but no damage removal and LaserDisc audio from Arrow)
Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray >
Capelight DE 4K Blu-ray Kino Lorber US Blu-ray, see caps
Arrow has done additional cleanup work removing nearly all the damage in the transfer. They have massaged the color timing and HDR to try and improve what they could. The Capelight may have better encoding but it does not have these improvements. The Arrow encoding is solid and in motion there are no issues whatsoever. The Kino release has the damage and other issues plus frequent noise due to the lesser encoding.
Some scenes in the Arrow transfer are better, some better in the Capelight.
Original matrixed Dolby Stereo: Arrow 4K Blu-ray or Image Entertainment LaserDisc
(Arrow is a port of the LD track, see spectrograms) This track has the best fidelity of any release but does have some channel bleeding baked in. The 2017 2.0 on the Arrow and Shout BDs was the Dolby Stereo original mix without channel bleeding but that had heavy noise reduction resulting in a very flat and underwhelming presentation. The surround winds up being lessened as well due to the processing. It's a tough choice between the two but the Image LD audio wins out because it hasn't been messed with and the impact is so unrestrained that no other version hits in the same way.
Capelight and old Arrow BD included the original stereo mix, but with excessive noise reduction rendering it much less detailed. Kino only included a painfully defective 2.0 track sourced from somewhere with limited fidelity, volume spikes and screechy high end which frequently ruins the music. The 5.1 remix on most modern release is a processed version that does not sound as good as it once did.
The best and most accurate of the 5.1 mixes is the original version from the 2003 Special Edition DVD in lossy AC3 form.
Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray (damage removed, improved color/HDR, and best audio) or Capelight DE 4K Blu-ray (best compression but no damage removal and LaserDisc audio from Arrow)
Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray >
Capelight DE 4K Blu-ray Kino Lorber US Blu-ray, see caps
Arrow has done additional cleanup work removing nearly all the damage in the transfer. They have massaged the color timing and HDR to try and improve what they could. The Capelight may have better encoding but it does not have these improvements. The Arrow encoding is solid and in motion there are no issues whatsoever. The Kino release has the damage and other issues plus frequent noise due to the lesser encoding.
Some scenes in the Arrow transfer are better, some better in the Capelight.
Original matrixed Dolby Stereo: Arrow 4K Blu-ray or Image Entertainment LaserDisc
(Arrow is a port of the LD track, see spectrograms) This track has the best fidelity of any release but does have some channel bleeding baked in. The 2017 2.0 on the Arrow and Shout BDs was the Dolby Stereo original mix without channel bleeding but that had heavy noise reduction resulting in a very flat and underwhelming presentation. The surround winds up being lessened as well due to the processing. It's a tough choice between the two but the Image LD audio wins out because it hasn't been messed with and the impact is so unrestrained that no other version hits in the same way.
Capelight and old Arrow BD included the original stereo mix, but with excessive noise reduction rendering it much less detailed. Kino only included a painfully defective 2.0 track sourced from somewhere with limited fidelity, volume spikes and screechy high end which frequently ruins the music. The 5.1 remix on most modern release is a processed version that does not sound as good as it once did.
The best and most accurate of the 5.1 mixes is the original version from the 2003 Special Edition DVD in lossy AC3 form.
Director: Simon Wincer
Kino Lorber Blu-ray
4K is defective with color space issues and poor encoding, disc replacement program for the 4K disc has been setup to correct the color space issue. The UHD has visible artifacts from the bad encoding. The HDR is overdone and the Paramount 4K master has grain management.
The new Kino Blu-ray has none of the UHD's problems and is superior to the UHD in every way though it still uses the same Paramount master.
DVD 5.1 or LaserDisc 5.1 AC3, LD PCM 2.0 for the matrix stereo version. The LD and DVD seem to be the theatrical audio mix untouched with plenty of low end. This low end like a number of 90's Paramount titles was mixed out or tamed on subsequent releases.
The Lionsgate BD and Paramount BD share the same lackluster HD master with DNR and image distortion. The Lionsgate is much better encoded but has a 7.1 remix which messed up the original mix design by lessening all the great Foley work in favor of the score. The Paramount BD had a 5.1 lossless version of the original mix but it's a new version where the bass has been tamed so the track has lost its punch. The Kino Lorber UHD and Blu-ray recycle this same lesser 5.1 mastering. The original mix can still be heard on LD and DVD. The 2.0 stereo on the Kino is matrixed but also does not sound as good as the 2.0 matrix audio on DVD or LD.
Kino has announced a replacement program for the defective UHD but it is highly likely all the other problems will go unaddressed. The Billy Zane interview on the Kino BD has technical issues in the editing and clip quality used.
Director: Simon Wincer
Kino Lorber Blu-ray
4K is defective with color space issues and poor encoding, disc replacement program for the 4K disc has been setup to correct the color space issue. The UHD has visible artifacts from the bad encoding. The HDR is overdone and the Paramount 4K master has grain management.
The new Kino Blu-ray has none of the UHD's problems and is superior to the UHD in every way though it still uses the same Paramount master.
DVD 5.1 or LaserDisc 5.1 AC3, LD PCM 2.0 for the matrix stereo version. The LD and DVD seem to be the theatrical audio mix untouched with plenty of low end. This low end like a number of 90's Paramount titles was mixed out or tamed on subsequent releases.
The Lionsgate BD and Paramount BD share the same lackluster HD master with DNR and image distortion. The Lionsgate is much better encoded but has a 7.1 remix which messed up the original mix design by lessening all the great Foley work in favor of the score. The Paramount BD had a 5.1 lossless version of the original mix but it's a new version where the bass has been tamed so the track has lost its punch. The Kino Lorber UHD and Blu-ray recycle this same lesser 5.1 mastering. The original mix can still be heard on LD and DVD. The 2.0 stereo on the Kino is matrixed but also does not sound as good as the 2.0 matrix audio on DVD or LD.
Kino has announced a replacement program for the defective UHD but it is highly likely all the other problems will go unaddressed. The Billy Zane interview on the Kino BD has technical issues in the editing and clip quality used.
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