Zatoichi on the Road is the 5th film in the series and it came out June 27 1968. It was written by Minoru Inuzuka who had written the previous two films in the series and then no more. It's directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda, who would direct a few more films in the series and Daimajin. Shintaro Katsu plays our hero the blind masseur.
Zatoichi is asked to visit the Doyoma crime boss Hikozo. He wants to see Zatoichi who says he won't fight for him. The man says his boss justs want to meet him. The pair are attacked by rivals of boss Hikozo and th guide is killed. Zatoichi dispatched the men. Hisa is the wife of one of the men and she tells Zatoichi who the men were.
That night Zatoichi encounters a dying man who asks him to get Mitsu, the girl he was guarding, to her home in Edo. Zatoichi finds the girl and she tells him she had stabbed the local lord when he tried to rape her. Zatoichi says he will help her and they set off. At an inn Hisa sees Zatoichi and the girl. While Zatoichi is massaging a man to earn the money for their room Hisa convinces Mitsu to run off with her.
Zatoichi eventually finds out there are rival gangs looking for Mitsu. They all want the reward and money often causes trouble. He gets a palanquin service to take her to Edo but she's kidnapped along the way. Boss Hikozo pops into the story and Zatoichi says he will fight for him as the rival gangster has kidnapped Mitsu.
There's some more fighting but eventually Zatoichi gets the job done. It's a pretty entertaining story and another nice looking film. Zatoichi is a nice complex character who has interesting things happen around him. There's a nice sense of humor on top of it. There's plenty more films to come. The Criterion collection has the 25 films that appeared from 1962 to 1973 so I'll have some good watching coming up.
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