Truly Dreadful Film

disgusting, overrated, pointless

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Zatoichi is a blind masseur swordsman-yakuza created by novelist Kan Shimozawa, whose written works spawned a film series of 20+ films and few reboots, as well as a TV series. Played by Shintaro Katsu (from Lone Wolf and Cub and Tenchu!), the principal character Ichi ("zato" is a title, signifying a lower-ranking blind man) holds the entire chanbara series on his back. This particular movie was directed by cult chanbara director Kenji Misumi.The Tale of Zatoichi, although propagated as an action hack-and-slash film, is more of a meditative, talky character-driven jidaigeki gangster drama which reveals a bit of Ichi's past and deals with his sense of justice and hatred of the ruthless gangster underworld to which he belongs himself. He befriends a sick swordsman from the neighboring yakuza clan, but as the tensions between the two clans mount he's forced to fight his friend. There's also a subplot about this asshole who discarded his pregnant lover, leading to her suicide. This guy also has a sister who falls in love with Ichi, but their romance doesn't last long because of his unsteady lifestyle.This movie is pretty entertaining and has an easy enough plot to follow. The characters are well-written and there's no unnecessary scenes; short, sweet and to the point. It also sports an interesting soundtrack in which traditional music and orchestral pieces collide.Two things I disliked about it are the dim lighting which makes it hard to distinguish what's going on in several scenes, and uninspired action scenes which pop up at the end. It's just random gangsters going all-out on each other, each time obviously missing each other with their katanas.The first two films in the series are B&W, so we'll see how the second movie compares. The highlight so far is Ichi cutting a thrown candle vertically in two equal pieces, without extinguishing it.

I normally wouldn't dare rate a movie a 10. However for the first Zatoichi film (and maybe the second) I make an exception. An incredible tale of a flawed man at peace with the fact that he is a gangster. Zatoichi is forced into situation after situation where honor and compassion make us side with this blind man, not because of his handicap, but because he is doing the right thing. Filmed in black and white the action is superbly choreographed to convey the intensity of each situation without one bright red spray of blood across the screen. If you only watch one Samurai movie, make it this one. If you love it, then the first 25 of these masterpieces are coming to Blu Ray courtesy of Criterion this November.

This Zatoichi movie was the first in the long series. As I had seen MOST of the movies before I saw this film, I think my expectations were a bit too high. This is not to say that this is a bad movie--it certainly is not. However, it seems only average when compared with the others. Also, a few scenes were later repeated and so there weren't that many surprises. One scene in particular, where he is gambling and "accidentally" drops the dice OUTSIDE the cup when he is gambling (i.e., every seeing person there sees whether or not the dice are odds or evens before they bet--so it's an apparent "sure thing") has been used at least three times in his movies. Plus, this isn't exactly one of the better scenes, because it makes Ichi look like a cheater and not the defender of the friendless (as he's usually portrayed). Still, it's a solid film throughout.FYI--if you pay attention, you'll notice that in many scenes Ichi has a shaved head, while in others he has very substantial stubble. Due to editing errors, his hair length goes back and forth during the course of the movie!

Zatoichi (Shintaro Katsu) is a blind masseuse (masseuse was a traditional occupation for the blind in Japan) who took up sword fighting to gain more respect ("Zato" is actually a title--"Ichi" was his name; "Zato" was the lowest title in the traditional guild for the blind). He quickly mastered the art--far surpassing the average sword fighter and even the average samurai--as he seems to have a sixth sense. This film has Zatoichi visiting Sukegoro (Eijiro Yanagi) of Iioka, to "cash in" on some owed hospitality. He begins by slightly conning Sukegoro's gang in a gambling game involving dice. Shortly afterward, he learns that Sukegoro's gang is about to enter a war with Shigezo's (Ryuzo Shimada) rival Sasagawa gang. Shigezo has enlisted the services of Hirate (Shigeru Amachi), a famed samurai. Will Zatoichi help Sukegoro win his battle? This is the first in a series of 26 Zatoichi films (and a television series that ran for four seasons in the 1970s), all starring Katsu in the title role. Remarkably, 25 of the Zatoichi films were made in little more than a ten-year period. This first film was based on a short story by Kan Shimozawa.I haven't seen most of the Zatoichi films yet, and I hadn't seen any of them for a long time, so it's difficult for me to compare Zatoichi 1 with the rest of the series, but I was slightly disappointed with this film. It's a bit too much in the realm of realist drama for my tastes, and as such, moves at a slow clip. There are no big fight scenes until the last 20 minutes or so, and those aren't filmed, directed or choreographed very spectacularly. But the black and white cinematography (which only lasted for one more Zatoichi film) is frequently arresting and the dramatic material does present some intriguing situations, many concerned with various shades of ethical grayness. If you're in the market for an Asian "art-house" drama with a slight martial arts edge, Zatoichi 1 may be just the film for you. If you're looking for something more visceral, or for exciting action, it would probably be safe and wiser to start later in the series.The visual style caught my attention more often than any other aspect of Zatoichi. Director Kenji Misumi, who went on to do five more Zatoichi films after this one, has cinematographer Chishi Makiura shoot in a stark black and white that has a strong, even exaggerated film noirish edge. The whites can be almost blinding and the darks are pitch black. There are a lot of shadows. Much of the film takes place at night and indoors. It's an attractive way to use the minimal sets. The scenes set in different environments are pleasant in their contrast. A scene at a lakeside begins with a Zen Art-styled water through branches shot. The big fight scene near the end has some interesting lake shots and even better village labyrinth shots. The climactic Western (the genre)-like showdown on a bridge is also nicely staged and photographed.The story, using a script by Minoru Inuzuka, focuses on interesting character arcs for the two principals--Zatoichi and Hirate. Especially Zatoichi has a questionable morality when the film begins, but both gradually come to be more concerned with being honorable, just and unselfish by the film's end. This is in contrast to the characters embroiled in romantic relationship dilemmas--Otane (Masayo Banri), Tatekichi (Michio Minami) and Seisuke (Manabu Morita), and even the gang bosses, Shigezo and Sukegoro, who all have little to no character development arc, although Otane is already ethically good (per the conventional wisdom) at the beginning of the film.But Zatoichi and Hirate are initially set against each other as surrogate representatives of warring "families", in what amounts to a yakuza/samurai version of Romeo & Juliet (and by extension West Side Story, 1961). Of course there is no romantic angle between Zatoichi and Hirate, but there is a deep respect and a bonding through a brotherly love that eventually triumphs in its own way over "turf wars". There is an expected end to their relationship, but the appearance of this development (most significantly to the gang bosses) is quite different than what is actually going on between the two of them. The romantic angle is covered instead by Zatoichi's relationship with Otane, which has the appropriate air of being forbidden to cover the Romeo and Juliet/West Side Story analogy, and which also ends up being defined by an intriguing selflessness that rarely rears its head in western (the culture) films.Zatoichi is a fascinating character. Katsu doesn't have a typical martial arts or action star look--already in this film, he appears to be middle aged (beyond his actual age of 30 at the time of shooting) and a bit chubby. His "sixth sense" abilities and cunningness verge on the magical, as do his swordsmanship skills. The character isn't nearly as well explored here as he could be, but given that there were 25 more films to come (and a recent remake with a new Zatoichi), I suppose it's more excusable.It doesn't help that it takes awhile to get up to speed on the relatively large cast of characters with sometimes complex relationships to one another (especially if you're like me and you have trouble remembering character names as well as trouble remembering who is who when characters have similar looks), but once you figure out that it's a kind of West Side Story, it's easy enough to get the gist of events unfolding.