Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman



Finally, I’ve seen a samurai film that could be about two guys fighting over the parking space closest to the door at Starbucks. Zatoichi is the blind swordsman who appeared in dozens of Japanese films, and I’ve covered his films in the past. The one-armed swordsman in this movie is Wang Kang, played by Jimmy Wang Yu and presumably is the same character Wang played in The One-Armed Swordsman (1967) and The One-Armed Swordsman Returns (1969). I haven’t actually seen those two movies (I have seen two later takes on the same story) so I can’t say conclusively that Wang Kang is the same character from the Hong Kong films, but he is missing his right arm and uses a broken sword for his weapon. If it isn’t the same character it’s an incredible simulation, much like the yojimbo in Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo (1970).


"Another arm? No... that's a... um... tumor on my stomach!"

Wang Kang (Jimmy Wang Yu) is in Japan to find some peace and quiet after years of fighting for justice in China. He’s on his way to visit a friend of his at a certain temple when he meets Chinese family that has immigrated to Japan. They stop to watch the local lord’s procession, but the family’s young son, Shaolong, accidentally interrupts the procession, a crime punishable by death. Wang intervenes and kills some of the samurai and is forced to flee. The remaining samurai slaughter all the witnesses, including the Chinese family, though Shaolong escapes.


"Horrible... painting... accident!"

Shaolong meets Zatoichi (Shintaro Katsu), who takes the child into town and feeds him. There Zatoichi finds out that Wang Kang is responsible for the massacre, but Shaolong tells him otherwise. On the way out town Zatoichi meets Wang Kang, who takes custody of Shaolong. Zatoichi follows Wang, and helps Wang and Shaolong find refuge with a family that witnessed the massacre. Enraged by the injustice of the massacre being blamed on an innocent man, Zatoichi heads into town to reconnoiter as only he can; this involves gambling and drinking. However, Wang’s hiding place is compromised and the family is killed, except for the daughter Oyo, who is taken prisoner by the local lord. Wang and Shaolong escape. Even more pissed now, Zatoichi shows up at the lord’s house and cuts his ear off. This convinces the lord to hand Oyo over to Zatoichi, but she runs away because she has come to the mistaken conclusion that Zatoichi snitched on Wang’s hiding place.

Wang, Shaolong, and Oyo end up at the temple Wang was heading to when this whole mess started. Wang swears he will kill Zatoichi for causing the death of Oyo’s parents. Their location is compromised again and Shaolong is kidnapped. Wang is instructed to turn himself in to save Shaolong’s life, while Zatoichi prepares to mete out some blind justice.


Played what? Blind man's bluff?

I found the previous Zatoichi crossover (the aforementioned Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo) disappointing, because that movie was low on interaction between the two title characters and action in general. Heck, Yojimbo spent most of the movie sitting around an inn drinking. That isn’t the case with Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman (1971). It’s one of the most action packed Zatoichi movies I’ve seen, and the filmmakers ingeniously use the language barrier between Zatoichi and Wang to set them up for duel to death while keeping both characters’ motives honorable. The Japanese swordplay is excellent, with a bit of the hyper-gory blood spurting more strongly associated with the other films Katsu was producing at the time. The movie also tries to portray Wang Kang’s fight scenes as looking like they were lifted directly from a Shaw Brothers film, but the Japanese filmmakers are clearly at a bit of a loss as to how to do that.


Here's an idea that would increase the Special Olympics' popularity!

And it is a duel to the death, which brings up the film’s ending. I don’t think it’s any mystery which character survives (hint: the one that appears in four more movies and a TV series after this movie), but this movie is famous for having a different ending in Chinese speaking markets. Allegedly the movie was made with the two different endings in mind, but after seeing it I’m skeptical. From the descriptions I’ve read of the Chinese ending, it is the same as Japanese one but cut short by a couple minutes. There is a point where you can cut the Japanese climax and make it look like Wang won the duel, but it would destroy the integrity of the clever ending the filmmakers crafted. I’m pretty sure that if there was a “Wang wins” ending in some countries it was created without the permission of Toho Studios.

Posted: Wed - August 11, 2004 at      

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