Zatoichi Review
by Harvey S. Karten (harveycritic AT cs DOT com)March 9th, 2004
ZATOICHI
Reviewed by: Harvey S. Karten
Grade: B
Miramax Films
Directed by: Takeshi Kitano
Written by: Takeshi Kitano, novels of Kan Shimozawa
Cast: Takeshi Kitano, Tadanobu Asano, Yui Natsukawa, Nichiyo Ookusu, Gadarukanaru Taka
Screened at: Broadway, NYC, 1/28/04
When Beat Takeshi concludes his latest movie with the words, "Even with my eyes wide open, I can't see a thing," you'd be reminded of Woody Allen's role as Val Waxman in "Hollywood Ending" about a director who develops a case of psychosomatic blindness in a film that some interpret as a barb thrown at incompetent directors. (Mr. Allen's allegoric condition in that story could remind us as well of directors like George Armitrage and Brian Robbins, whose "The Big Bounce" and "The Perfect Score" could have been directed only by a blind man as regisseur.)
Takeshi Kitano, however, is anything but incompetent. With popular works that have crossed the Pacific well like "Hana-Bi" (about a tough cop whose world crumbles when his wife is dying, his partner becomes confined to a wheelchair, and a young detective dies in a shootout because of his blunder), Mr. Kitano has come through once again with a work that, like "Hana-Bi," is sad, violent, cynical and just a wee bit romantic. The pace is slower than that of "Kill Bill Pt. 1" though we itch to see Kitano as the title character face off against Uma Thurman. "Zatoichi" is a memorable addition to a series on film and TV from 1962 to 1989. As the press notes states, every Japanese man and woman over the age of thirty is familiar with the episodes: We now in the West have the opportunity to have a peek to see what made the series so popular in its native
country.
Kitano is having a ball this time around, probably as never before, since his piece, dealing with 19th Century samurai gangsters, does not attempt to be true to history. Just watch the way he parlays a tap dance by peasants in the fields into a romping, hip-hop inspired tap dance that combines the volume of the off-Broadway play "Stomp" with the rhythms of Run DMC. A blind swordsman, Zatoichi walks about in the 19th Century Japanese countryside with his trusty weapon, a cane enclosing a sword, a patrician mop of platinum blond hair that could have you mistake him for the CEO of Honda Inc. Winding up accidentally in the middle of a gang war with matter-of-fact bloodletting so severe that you wonder how Japan has any population today, Zatoichi quickly evokes the buzz that he's the fastest sword in the East, making him the target of groups and individuals eager to nail his indominatable sword to their paper- thin walls. His principal enemy is a ronin, Gennosuke Hattori, who is hired as a bodyguard by a mob boss given the man's undefeated record in competition.
While Zatoichi appears to need no help to lay waste to scores of vicious gangsters, he teams up with a vengeance-seeking couple now disguised as geishas (both appearing to be female but one is merely dressed like a woman), who are determined to make the assassins of their family pay a price. From time to time, Kitano throws us a bit of slapstick, principally by showing an overweight, scantily-clad idiot running in circles with a spear, determined to become a samurai. Each moment that the comedy or music or dance routine appears to overtake the drama, Kitano supplies us with gory swordplay, usually ending up with either the ronin or Zatoichi's puncturing the stomach or chest of his opponent with an X-shaped cut, a modified mark of Zorro.
Like just about every film out of India, "Zatoichi" combines epic battles with music and dance which threaten to overtake the more serious action. Without the comic touches, an American audience could conceivably be blase, having already seen "Kill Bill" and a seemingly unending series of violent pictures of directors from Sam Peckinpah to Quentin Tarantino. Kitano's gentle charisma gives "Zatoichi" its charm and watchability, the heft that has already led the picture to garner awards from films festivals stretching from Toronto and Venice to Marrakech and Sitges.
Not Rated. 116 minutes.(c) 2004 by Harvey Karten at
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