Zatoichi is a Japanese movie and i watched the entire movie in Japanese ;-), obviously with English subtitles.
Caution to parents,as this movie is highly violent with too many bloody stunts. Please take care of your young ones.
I was pretty impressed by the movie picture quality and the visual effects, stunt co-ordinations. I can bet it not less than our Hollywood stuffs.
History of Zatoichi (Credit goes to reviewer C.Taylor:Zatoichi-Blind-Swordsman-Vol-1 ):By the 1960's Japanese cinema was dominated by film series with 3 or four "episodes" a year. Actor Shintaro Katsu had portrayed a blind masseur in the movie "Shiranui Kengyo" [Agent Shiranui ]. In 1962 Katsu stared as yet another blind masseur in the film "Zatoichi Monogatari" [ The tale of the low ranking blind man Ichi. ] In the movie Ichi had a name that gave him the rank of "Zato" which basically meant the lowest level of the blind men's masseur guild. However, this was just a cover. Ichi was actually a high ranking Yakuza assassin who's master swordsmanship was sought after by all the Yakuza bosses. While Zatoichi was completely blind, he had incredible hearing, a mastery of the Iaijitsu style of fighting, and a deadly blade hidden within his cane. In the film Ichi is imployed to fight in a Yakuza gang war and is forced to kill a swordsman he respects who was hired by the rival gang. At the end of the film Zatoichi throws away his cane-sword and gives up the life of a Yakuza assassin forever. However, the film was so popular that a second movie, "Zuko Zatoichi Monogatari" [ The continuing tale of the low ranking blind man Ichi ] was made. Here Ichi, who has his cane sword back, returns to the grave of the rival swordsman he had killed in the last film to pay his respects and ends up being forced to kill his own brother by the same Yakuza boss that hired him a year before. The film ends with Ichi killing the boss in vengeance. With the success of the second film, Daiei Studio decided to turn it into a full film series staring Katsu. The third film "Shin Zatoichi Monogatari" [ A new tale of the low ranking blind man Ichi ] was the first Zatoichi film in color and was followed by 19 other films. In each Zatoichi has given up his life as an assassin, even as Yakuza bosses are always trying to hire him. But he usually has the misfortune of wandering into a town menaced by an evil Yakuza boss or corrupt government official and always ends up wiping out them and their henchmen. On many occasions he would also run into a swordsman who vowed to be the one who would finally kill the now legendary Zatoichi and the film would end with a quick duel with Ichi the victor. As the series progressed Ichi soon had a price on his head by Yakuza gangs and was wanted by the law.
The recent movie which i watched:
In this movie again Ichi a blind swordsman goes to a small town controlled by a ruthless gang. There he meets many characters like the siblings on a mission to avenge their family assassination, a samurai who is hired by the gang, as well as an unlucky gambler who befriends the blind swordsman. The cinematography was really beautiful and well made. The costumes like most period films were finely crafted and were beautiful with background music soring to heights.
Would you believe the director and the lead role is played by the director of this film Takeshi kitano (as Zatoichi). His Samurai fight movements are amazing ,looks lot aggressive and realistic.In this film Ichi unveils the plot from evil gang leader and helps the siblings avenge their family's assassination.
I hope to see more from this great director in his next film.
On a whole its a movie worth watching if you like high voltage action :-).
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