Zatoichi Review
by Robin Clifford (robin AT reelingreviews DOT com)July 23rd, 2004
"Zatoichi"
An aging blind man (Takeshi Kitano) sits resting along a dusty road. The leader of a gang of thugs bribes a child to take the man's cane away from him. The boy does so and is rudely sent away without payment for his deed. The gang leader then chides the man for having his precious cane taken away so easily. In a flash, the old man snatches the cane, pulls from it a razor sharp sword and dispatches three of the thugs. The rest run away in the face of this amazing man named "Zatoichi."
Takeshi Kitano is a staple in the Japanese TV and film industries and has had a long and successful career, often with his hard-nosed gangster-with-a-heart. With "Zatoichi," he takes on the character from Kan Shimozawa's popular novels, made many times for the big screen in Japan, and brings it west. Zatoichi, also known as Ichi, is an aging, blind masseur wandering the land at a time when the honor of the samurai is waning and the rise of organized crime is becoming a blight upon the peasant population.
One gang, in particular, has descended on a small village and is moving in on its rivals to extort "protection" money from the locals. Zatoichi arrives in town and is taken in by a kindhearted peasant woman whom he grows fond of. The masseur has a liking for a little gambling – a hobby his landlady admonishes him over because of how it ruined her nephew's life – and spends his evenings playing and winning at dice. The blind man listens to how the dice fall and bets accordingly. He becomes a mentor, of sorts, to the nephew and, eventually, must be his protector.
A young, masterless samurai, Hattori (Tadanobu Asano), arrives in town with his pretty, ailing wife (Yui Nasukawa), seeking work as a bodyguard. He comes to the attention of the head of the gang trying to wrest power from the other local criminal elements. Hattori soon proves that he is a one-man army as he dispatches one after another of his bosses enemies in a flash of steel and a spray of blood. In the meantime, Ichi must come to the aid of his landlady's nephew in a gambling house, when he discovers they are being cheated. The ensuing bloodbath comes to the attention of Hattori's boss.
A pair of geisha arrives in town and begins to look for work plying their trade. When a prominent local purchases their services, it is not song and dance they perform as one garrotes the man and the other stabs him to death. The two women are not what they seem as we learn of their story. Ten years earlier, the two children, a boy and girl, sneak out one night to play with their prize possession, a small white mouse. While playing with their pet, the house is invaded by masked ninja and every member of the household is slaughtered – except for the two children. Orphaned, they eek out a survival as the boy must pose as a girl and the "sisters" begin their long journey of revenge.
The lines are drawn in the village as Ichi takes in the sisters and he helps them seek out those responsible for their family's death. Hattori, under orders from his gang boss, searches for the blind masseur and the geishas to eliminate them with extreme prejudice. The blind man and the samurai have crossed paths before and each knows the mettle of the other. The confrontation, and it is inevitable, will end with one man standing.
Takeshi Kitano crafts an interesting addition to the popular Zatoichi series that has produced 20 some movies about the blind sword master and had spawned a popular TV series in Japan. Kitano's version introduces a plethora of characters early in the film and, unfortunately, their roles are not clearly delineated, except for Ichi. There is a political agenda in the town as the gangs struggle for power. But, the leaders of this mob warfare are kept ambiguous throughout the film, causing confusion over who is loyal to whom. Just who "Mr. Big" is in this film is kept open until the very end. But, by this time, so many bad guys have been killed that the process of elimination has few candidates left to choose from.
Kitano uses flash backs and forwards throughout "Zatoichi" to fill in the back-stories of the many key characters and this is one of the causes of confusion. The filmmaker does not make clear, often times, which flashback applies to which character, sometime introducing a significant player in the past just to be brushed aside later. The film would have benefited from better editing and a more clearly realized story.
Fans of "Kill Bill: Vol. 1" are definitely a target audience for "Zatoichi." There are copious amounts of digitized blood and enough swordplay and fight action to fill a couple of martial arts movies. The choreography of these scenes is tight, fluid, fast and deadly, with both Kitano and Asano given ample opportunity to prove their characters' larger than life and capable of the destruction they mete out.
Techs are very good with costume fitting the late medieval period of Japan. Set design is equally suited for the occasion. Notable too is the organic score by Keiichi Suzuki that perfectly blends in with the workaday world of the peasant farmers or the ritual dance of celebration in the town. One very out of place piece, near the end, has the entire cast taking part in a huge, choreographed dance number that introduces all of the players in the film but simply does not belong as an integral part of the movie. The number would have been far more appropriate if used under the film's roll out credits.
"Zatoichi" is an interesting effort by a creative filmmaker. It is good but not nearly great with some very effective performances. I give it a B.
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