Gender: Male Location: Welfare Kingdom of California
The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi
For those of you who saw and enjoyed Kill Bill, and The Last Samurai you may want to check this movie out! Zatoichi is the longest-running, most successful series in Japanese film history featured an unlikely hero. The blind masseur and gambler, Zatoichi, was expertly portrayed by character actor Shintaro Katsu for well over a decade. This film made by Takeshi Kitaro brings back to life the infamous Zatoichi back to the screen.
Gender: Female Location: here...where no one dares...
I'd pick this film over Kill Bill anytime.
Thanks to the anime/manga Rurouni Kenshin, I had nursed a fascination for swordsmen of Japan. When I watched Kill Bill, it was alright, but that was not really a samurai film, was it? So was The Last Samurai...
Now Zatoichi is a very good film, focusing on a wandering, and blind, and aged swordsman who is also a masseuse. Nice comic moments, very good character development, as Nopy pointed out...
and the swordplays defined what a Samurai film should be...
Gender: Male Location: Welfare Kingdom of California
I haven't finished completing my collection of the old Zatoichi series. He is kinda like the James Bond of Japan. Among one the classics in the series is Zatoichi vs. Yojimbo. Is unfortunate that Shintaro Katzu died years ago. I'm pretty sure he would love to have seen the character he portrayed continue in the big screen.
Unlike Kill Bill and many other fighting flicks, Zatoichi doesn't fool around. I cannot remember many (or if any) combatant to last more than a few seconds against him.
He was hindered from the banging of the gongs at most in one of the movies I've seen, but he still got through it.
Last edited by radioboy121 on Nov 18th, 2004 at 06:01 PM