Teah is one of Japan's hottest proofs that racial mixture is a good thing. Apparently he's half Japanese and half Brazilian. Originally a model, he has, as far as I know, starred in four of Takashi Miike's films. In The City of Lost Souls, he plays the main character Mario, in Dead or Alive 2: Tobosha, he is one of three slick killers who communicate exclusively through mobile phones, in Izo, he has a very small role as one of the many swordsmen whom the restless avenger Izo fights, and in 1-Ichi, he plays Mr. Dai.

Since there is very little material about him for fangirls and fanboys to find on the internet, I'll post some screencaps from 1-Ichi here. (Anyone who hasn't seen the film should be warned against possible spoilers.)

1-Ichi is the prequel of Ichi the Killer. The main character, high school student Mr. Dai, is used to always being the toughest guy in school.

But lately he's noticed how a certain student, Shiroichi, keeps watching him when he has fights, and this gets on his nerves ... Is Shiroichi laughing at him? Is he challenging his position as the number one?

This Shiroichi kid is really messing up Dai's world. He can't eat, his brain hurts, he feels like he's having PMS or something. This calls for action.

Shiroichi seems to be just weak, timid and a bit retarded, but Dai senses there's more to him than that.

It seems Shiroichi likes to watch Dai fighting, because it ... *excites* him.

But what about his own fighting skills? He trains karate, but is he any good?

Before Mr. Dai can get any wiser, the transfer student Onizame appears in their school, and he most certainly does challenge Dai's position as #1. This guy is not only very well trained at what appears to be hapkido, but he also has some weird ninja skills like being able to create fake doubles of himself to fool his opponent ("sexy no jutsu", or whatever it was they called that in Naruto).

Of course, Onizame is also drawn towards "Ichi-kun" ...

1-Ichi is quite violent, in a pretty realistic way, and a very sick sense of humour is required to be able to fully enjoy it. I also suggest that you see Ichi the Killer first, or at least find out enough about it to understand the very last scene of the prequel (with the karate instructor on the phone). Yet, if you've seen Ichi the Killer, don't expect the prequel to be the same kind of film ...

Another note: This film, unlike Ichi the Killer, was not directed by Takashi Miike, but by Masato Tanno, Miike's frequent "right hand". But the same as with many Miike films goes here - if you just ignore everything involving the female characters, the film is really enjoyable. (The two girls in this film are quite marginal, anyway - after all, it's all about weird-ass homoerotic sadomasochist desires - so that's not such a big problem.)

Read a review of 1-Ichi at the Horror Channel.

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