Did you get the impression that this movie had...

... some sort of fantasy and supernatural elements to it or that it was set in a highly exagerrated and surreal version of so-called "reality"?

I mean, if men or women, like in this movie, were to be sliced in half by a blade coming out of the boot, will it really come across that way in real life, with them standing for a while and being able to speak and then getting sliced and bleeding before dying?

Also, what is the deal with how those gangs often operate outside and even leave dead bodies out in the open in broken televisions without anyone seemingly batting an eye or alerting the police?

And that ending where that instructor's body is hanging by a tree and people walk by and no-one alerts any authorities for years and plus those flying birds?

And the ways in which Jiji manipulated Ichi into thinking and believing certain things by hypnosis, is that realistic in any way?

Cheers.