Sperhauk picked up a copy of the last Zatoichi film, Zatoichi, Darkness is his Ally, for under 5 bucks. It's a highly entertaining series of films about a blind masseur who travels about helping people by killing the local bad guys. He's blind but he's the best swordsman you'll run across. He uses his good hearing to detect where people are. As you can imagine he has an advantage in the dark. He uses a cane sword and like the lightning fast gun slinger of the American western Zatoichi can draw his sword, slash you, and return the sword to it's wooden sheath before you realize you're dead. Most of the movies are readily available on dvd or bit torrent. Shintaro Katsu played Zatoichi in 25 movies from 1962 to 1973, then he did 100 episodes of the Zatoichi tv series from 1974 to 1979, and returned to the character for one last movie in 1989. I hadn't seen this movie before, at least I don't think so. A lot of these movies blend together after all these years and this movie takes many of the iconic Zatoichi action pieces and works them into it's story, which was co-written and directed by Shintaro Katsu. There's a gambling den where a tricky Zatoichi tricks the bosses into a foolish bet, bad yakuza and corrupt officials working together to screw over the local population, a sexy woman who heats up a bath for our masseur, some cute kids, some down trodden villagers and a pretty good amount of sword play. On top of all that there's a bit of introspection as our hero gets older and ponders the way of the world in Edo period Japan. At 116 minutes it's the longest film in the series so there's a nice bit of extra time to get busy. Most of the 60's and 70's films were in the 90 minute range and were not quite so complex. Since I like the character quite a bit it doesn't drag for me. There's a great huge fight at the end and it all ends pretty well as the town's people dance about the corses of the Yakuza and rejoice in their new found freedom. It's a tough world in Japan, you take your pleasure where you can, a new boss will be along soon. Hope he's better than the old boss. Zatoichi moves along. There are always more people who need a killin' in his world. That would end Katsu playing the role. It's a great body of work, well worth seeing. There's a 2003 film with Takeshi Kitano as Zatoichi. You can see the whole movie on Google video or you can buy the dvd which comes with another interesting Kitano film, Sonatine. A very unusual Yakuza film.
There's wasn't much unusual about our second feature. Zombie Honeymoon is about a couple of crazy kids from New Jersey who get hitched. Their uncle lends them his house up on the Jersey shore. While at the beach a zombie comes walking out of the ocean and falls right on the hapless groom. The zombie spits up some black bile and that kills the guy. He revives in the hospital and seems to be ok. Soon after he starts eating people. His new bride sticks with him for a while but he's just attacking too many people and he's starting to rot away. I don't think the sickness and health vows cover zombieism. Eatin' flesh is always a deal breaker. It's supposed to be part horror film and part romantic comedy. I see the horror in the zombie's, and while they are on their honeymoon, it's not too romantic. The comedy is weak ass, over whelmed by the melodrama as their relationship falls apart. Sperhauk payed two bucks for the dvd. I've spent more on worse. Now I've seen it and I don't need to see it again, nor buy it. You might like it, then again, you might not. Better if you don't find out. You can go watch Sean of the Dead if you want to see a good romantic comedy zombie film.
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