Zatoichi and the Fugitives is the 18th Zatoichi film and it first appeared in the theaters August 10 1968. It's written by Kinya Naoi and directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda. Shintaro Katsu plays the blind masseur Zatoichi.
Zatoichi comes to yet another small town that is controlled by another greedy boss. He's got the usual gang of thugs and he controls the village through the silk trade. Some evil gangsters are also in the area. They're cruel bastards who kill most of the people they rob. They turned this poor traveler into a fountain.
The boss lets the gang hide out above his silk factory where they're supposed to lay low. They don't. Zatoichi has some run-ins with the gang but their leader keeps them all from fighting. He know who Zatoichi is and what he's capable of doing. One of the gang is a woman and another is the son of a local man.
The local man is Doctor Junan and he's played by Takashi Shimura. Some might recognize him from some of the 200 films he's made. He appeared in 21, of 30, Akira Kurosawa films and in several of the Toho monster films. I certainly remember him from Godzilla, Godzilla Raids Again, The Mysterians and Mothra.
When the Boss won't allow a sick weaver to go home, Zatoichi steps in an forces him to let the go home. As punishment Zatoichi makes the Boss tear up her bond papers thus releasing her from her slavery. The boss sends his toadies who manage to wound Zatoichi before he escapes.
There's plenty of slaughter after the Boss sends the gang after Zatoichi. Of course they don't fare well and that includes the son. Zatoichi takes a terrible beating during the fights but he manages to leave town on his feet.
It was as good as any in the series and more violent than most. I'm still interested even though I've seen them all 2 or 3 times before. There are still good production values, script and actors. I liked having the movies so much, I recently bought the Criterion BluRay set, even though I had a set of the films on DVD. I definitely want to watch these again and more than once.
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