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For those of you who have seen the Peter Jackson gut-fiesta, Ichi the Killer tries in the same way to add gore that will make you toss your cookies to a loose plot that doesn't have to be taken seriously. Unlike Dead Alive, Ichi's plot does deserve a second look. Set in modern day urban Japan, the movie offers a highly stylized (this is Asian cinema) look at modern Japanese gangs- (We learn they corrupt the police and rule with just as much authority), and pokes around a bit for answers to that age old question, Why in the world are some people so hell bent on torturing others? The recurring themes of bullies and sexual perversity are treated in the extreme and by the end there is little room left for semi-Freudian conclusions about motive: Kids who are bullied like to get off by causing pain. But I have not put this as delicately as I should have. Ichi is not heavy handed with it's characters and, without a bit of thought, (which is really an activity only for the hyper-analitical during this one...I mean, really, ya don't have to think about pop-psychology to enjoy flying cut-off faces splatting against the wall), one might never notice the depth and delicacy of backstory given to each person. It's only somewhere between wondering if you will ever flinch again and whether or not you will forget all your morals after seeing this film that you might think "Why is Ichi a killer?" At first glance, it's a tasteless (yet uber-chic!) story of gangsters, hookers and pimps that would make Quentin Tarantino or any horror movie fanatic giddy with excitement and any other average Joe wondering if they should be offended by the extreme violence, tastelessness and mysogony. But the second look really opens up some of the psyche behind all that, and that's the only thing that could ever help solve those problems. Condemning it certainly wouldn't do the job. Good job Miike!

Corrections takes you behind the scenes of a complex, confusing and corrupt modern American institution: the prison industrial complex. Before seing this film, I wouldn't have known what that term really meant. Corrections sorts out all the political and commercial rhetoric and shows how people are making money, lots of money, by putting people in jail. Maybe you've heard that prison's are profitable, but it doesn't hit home until you are taken into a "correctional corporation's" convention, and hear sales people pitching their special restraining devices, or their long-distance plan, or their FILMS. Yes-one of Hollywood's fastest growing markets is the prison population.

Sadly, it's no surprise that all this "healthy" business would go under if crime decreased or less non-violent offenders were put in jail.

The filmaker of Correction has done an important job in creating an accurate picture of the whole situation, one the average person can't get from normal media. It's vital people start learning more about things happening like this in their communities, and Corrections is an important step in that direction.