Shintaro Katsu's Zatoichi



Zatoichi is a long-running Japanese movie character, first appearing in 1962. Ichi is a blind man living in 19th century Japan. He's a gambler, a masseur, a curmudgeon, and, most importantly, a peerless swordsman. He's kind of like Daredevil, though he first appeared a couple years earlier.

The original series of films ran from 1962 until 1974. In 1989 star Shintaro Katsu wrote and directed a new episode. This last hurrah for Katsu as Zatoichi follows the formula of the original films exactly, though with a lot more sex and violence.


How to get a head in swordsmanship.

As Zatoichi (1989) begins Ichi (Katsu) is in prison for a little petty theft he committed to prove to a local government official that a blind man can be a thief. Once released Ichi walks to a nearby village to visit a friend of his. The friend suggests Ichi do some gambling at the nearby den of ill repute, which Ichi gladly does. While there Ichi runs a vicious scam on everyone else there, which wins him no friends. There's some sort of intrigue going on behind the scenes, with a couple local thugs and the baby-faced local official all vying for power at each other's expense. As usual, Ichi gets involved in all this despite himself.

The most common scene in all the Zatoichi films is Ichi being surrounded by a group of armed thugs and having to kill them all with a few rapid sword slashes. This usually happens at completely random times, when Ichi is just walking around minding his own business. It happens at least four times in this film, and I have no idea why these people are trying to kill Ichi. At one point someone mentions a bounty on his head, but I couldn't figure out who put it there.


"You will install ramps for the handicapped or else!"

The best part of the movie is the climatic showdown, where every bad guy in a fifty mile radius is dispatched either by other bad guys or Ichi. The ultimate bad guy is played by Shintaro Katsu's son, but he doesn't do much. I remember reading somewhere that most of his sword fighting scenes were cut from the movie because he accidently killed a stuntman on set.

It would have been nice if this last Zatoichi film had ended with some epic moment, like Ichi dying, or miraculously getting his sight back. But no, it ends with Ichi walking off into the distance, just like all 25 movies previous to this one.

You'll be hearing more about Zatoichi later this year when Miramax releases a brand new Zatoichi (2003) in the U.S., this one directed by and starring Takeshi Kitano. It's been doing quite well on the festival circuit.

Posted: Tue - March 9, 2004 at      

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