PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Zatoichi 10 - Zatoichi's Revenge

Zatoichi's Revenge is the 10th film in the Zatoichi series and it came out April 3 1965. As usual it stars Shintaro Katsu as the blind masseur Zatoichi. It's written by Minoru Inuzuka and directed by Akira Inoue. The music is by Akira Ifukubi whom Toho fans would recognize from all the films he scored there.

Zatoichi nears the village that his old masseur Master lives in. He arrives to find out Master Hikonoichi had been killed on the road just two weeks ago. The man's daughter has already been sold to a whore house in payment of a debt to local scumbag businessman Tatsugoro. He's screwed over many people in the village, many of their daughters were forced into prostitution. Zatoichi thinks he should be putting a stop to that.

Zatoichi sees Master Hikonoichi's daughter Osayo and she gives him a clue to the killer's identity. Zatoichi attempts to smoke him out. He meets Tsuru the cute young daughter of Denroku, a dice dealer, and spends a little time with them. Next day the man tries to cheat Zatoichi at dice but he fails. He tells Zatoichi that it was Tatsugoro who forced him into cheating. Some of Tatsugoro's thugs try to get the winnings back but that fails and 5 of them meet death from the edge of Ichi's sword.

Tatsugoro isn't happy and like all the boss's who confront Zatoichi he thinks he can just have him killed and his troubles will be over. That's a bad idea as it is a lot harder to kill the blind masseur than it seems. The local Tax Inspector's visit complicates everything for Tatsugoro. Koheita Kadokura, Tatsugoro's chief enforcer, plans to kill the Tax Inspector, blame it on Zatoichi, then kill him in the arrest. He gets the first part done but making the blame stick to Zatoichi is something else that's pretty hard to accomplish.

Tatsugoro orders Denroku to pay him the 100 Taels that Zatoichi took as winnings. He will keep Denroku's daughter prisoner as insurance. Zatoichi battles Kadokura to the death. Tsuru tries to help her dad by stealing Zatoichi's cane sword. That only keeps Zatoichi under cover for a little bit. He pops out of hiding and enlists Denroku for some payback.

Even though they pop several of these films out each year they manage to keep the level of writing, acting and production fairly high. They have a nice style and the sets and locations are all nice to look at. Even after seeing the films 2-3 times I still find I like watching them. Zatoichi is a compelling character and one I plan to visit with in the future. The Criterion set is a nice addition to anyone's film library.

Zatoichi 9 - Adventures Of Zatoichi

The 9th film in the series is Adventures Of Zatoichi and it first appeared in the theater on December 30 1964. That was only 2.5 months after the previous film. Shintaro Katsu is the blind swordsman Zatoichi. The screenplay is by Shozaburo Asai from a story by Kan Shimozawa and it's directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda.

The film is set at the end of the year and Zatoichi is heading to a village to pray in the first sun of the New Year. On the way Zatoichi meets a nervous man named Gorota who asks him where he's headed. When he finds out he asks Zatoichi to deliver a message to a maid at an inn in the same town. Zatoichi agrees and upon arrival he meets Osen. Message delivered Zatoichi asks for a room. They are full up with the New Years Festival going on but she asks Miss Saki if he can stay in her room. She's agreeable.

Miss Saki is in town looking for her father. He had come through the town on his way to complain to higher officials about the local magistrate raising the taxes on the farmers. He hadn't ever got to his destination and it looks like the local officials are as corrupt as you often see in a Zatoichi movie. It was the style of the time but no matter they are in for a rude awakening when Zatoichi comes to call. The magisrate and his henchmen send men after Zatoichi but that trick never works.

Zatoichi makes friends with a couple young brothers. They are acrobats who have come to preform at the festival. Zatoichi finds out that the magistrate set up Osen's brother Gorota. The magistrate hired Gorota to kill a rival and then had the local cops there to arrest him. He figured if the brother was locked up no one would believe he was set up. At least no one that would matter. He didn't figure on Gorota getting free and returning. Miss Saki has been asking about her father, that causes some tension, so they plan to kill her. The magistrate and his creeps are really dicks and I feel no sympathy for them when they get slaughtered.

Eventually Zatoichi settles things in the only way he knows. He finally gets his wish and leaves for another adventure. It was another entertaining film with a good script and nice locations and sets. You can see it at the link above. Hope you enjoy it.

Zatoichi 8 - Fight, Zatoichi, Fight

Fight, Zatoichi, Fight is the 8th film in the series and it arrived in Japanese theaters October 17 1964. Shintaro Katsu is still Zatoichi the blind swordsman. Seiji Hoshikawa and Tetsurô Yoshida wrote the screenplay from a story by Kan Shimozawa. It was directed by Kenji Misumi.

Zatoichi decides to take a palanquin to the next town when the carriers offer a ride for less than half price so they won't have to go back home empty. A group of 5 men are after Zatoichi and want to kill him. They see him get into the palanquin and take a short cut so they can ambush him outside of the town.

Before the palanquin gets to the ambush spot they encounter a woman and child. The woman is a bit sick and Zatoichi offers her his ride. The palanquin sets off only to be ambushed a short way down the road. The carriers are told to run away and the assassins all stick their swords into the palanquin. Out falls the woman and her child. The carriers see Zatoichi on the side of the road and tell him what happened. Zatoichi runs to the palanquin with the men following, they find the woman dead and the assassins long gone. The baby seems fine and Zatoichi decides to take hom to his father Boss Unosuke. Along the way he has more encounters with the assassins who have enlisted some help. He kills some of the help and tells them to leave him alone until he gets the kid to his father.

Along the way he meets up with a lady pickpocket who's in trouble for stealing a wallet. He gets her out of it and she travels along with him to help with the baby. The two of them grow fond of the little guy and they both find it hard to give the kid back to Unosuke. Trouble is the boss doesn't want the child, he has plans to marry the daughter of a more powerful boss and the old wife and kid just don't fit in with his plans. He runs Zatoichi off and joins up with the assassins to kill him.

 

As you might expect things don't go so well for Boss Unosuke or the assassins. Zatoichi finds a home for the kid in a touching scene. He leaves town sad. It's one of my favorites in the series. It looks great mos of the time and occasionally there's a bit of beauty. There's plenty of swordfighting mixed in with nice humorous scenes. It's helps with what is really a pretty sad story. There's a nice score by Ikira Ifikube who Godzilla fans will recognize from that movie series.

Zatoichi 7 - Zatoichi's Flashing Sword

Zatoichi's Flashing Sword was released July 11 1964 and Shintaro Katsu is Zatoichi the blind swordsman. It's screenplay is written by Shozaburo Asai and Minoru Inuzuka from a story by Kan Shimozawa. It's directed by Kazuo Ikehiro. It's the 7th film made in the initial run of 25. Shintaro would come back to make a last Zatoichi film in 1989. Criterion only put the first 25 films in it's set. No matter, the last one is available and I have a copy. I'll get to that one once I pass the first 25 in front of these old eyeballs.

Zatoichi is travelling when the son of a local boss shoots him in the back. A young lady rescues Zatoichi, pays for his doctoring, and disappears before he wakes up. The wound is not too bad and he's up on his feet right quick. He decides to go visit the young lady and thank her in person.

When he gets to her house she welcomes him warmly. Her father, a local boss, asks Zatoichi to stay, they give him food and a new kimono. He's a nice boss and he runs the local river crossing which a rival boss wants it for his own. The man who shot Zatoichi turns out to be the son of the nice boss. He's a no good layabout and trouble maker. Zatoichi knows it's him but he doesn't do anything to the son.

Things come to a head pretty quickly and Zatoichi is right in the middle of it. The rival boss, having the local magistrate in his pocket, attacks openly. There's plenty of fighting and people are dropping like flies. Zatoichi slashes his way though the film leaving piles of corpses for the locals to take care of. No one ever seems to mention the dead bodies.

There's a scene that shows a big splash of blood on a paper wall, the wall bursts open and a man falls out. It stands out in the film, most of the fights are nearly bloodless. There would be more blood in later Japanese Samurai films. Fountains of it.

Zatoichi finally puts an end to the feud. Now mostly everyone is dead and peace comes to the town. It's a nice looking film with plenty of interesting scenes and shots. There's plenty going on, the right number of extras and characters you're familiar with. The sets, props and costumes remain high quality. I'm not sure if they're that acurate but they work well for me. Zatoichi's a nice mix of hero and trouble. Where he goes, bad people die. We could use a bunch of him.

Zatoichi 6 - Zatoichi And The Chest Of Gold

The 6th film in the series came out March 14 1964 and it's the 1st of 4 films that year, all starring Shintaro Katsu as Zatoichi the blind swordsman. Zaotichi And The Chest Of Gold is written by Shozaburo Asai, Akikazu Ota and Kan Shimozawa (story). It's a good story, evil overlord, trod upon peasants, brave warrior setting it right, even if it's pretty familiar. I could easily see that story translated to an American western or a modern crime drama that could play out nearly anyway.

It's directed by Kazuo Ikehiro who would go on to direct some other very good samurai films. He directed 3 Sleepy Eyes Of Death films as well as 2 more Zatoichi movies. Here he does a great job, there are so many nice shots, I can't even count them, and the action is filmed really well. There some nice optical effects that add a lot. I'm watching the new Criterion release and it looks great.

Zatoichi is travelling to visit the grave of a man he had killed a couple of years earlier. The local magistrate is a corrupt jerk who has the local tax payment stolen. He hires three ronin to do the job. The leader Jushiro is played by Tomisaburo Wakayama who, in a few years, would play Ogami Ittō, another iconic Japanese film figure, in the Lone Wolf And Cub series. That's Tomisaburo on the left there. I really should get those dvds out and watch them again soon. I had the luck to see that 6 film series in the theater back in the 1980s. I think it was at the old Uptown theater during one of their occasional Japanese film series. The LWAC series was produced by Tomisaburo's real life brother Shintaro Katsu.

Zatoichi gets thrown into the middle of everything when the locals think he had something to do with the robbery. He sets out to clear his name and his efforts lead him to the magistrate and the three ronin. The magistrate tries to kill Zatoichi more than once but the men he sends fail miserably. Zatoichi learns where the gold is hidden and recovers it. That magistrate doesn't know what he stirred up when he underestimated the blind man but Tomisburo does when he uses his whip to drag Zatoichi behind his horse. Even a horse is no match for our hero. Well, at least that guy died with a big sword in him.

Another nice offering in the series that I enjoyed quite a lot. You can watch a so-so copy on YouTube. It's better watched in a smaller window and not full screen on a larger monitor.

Zatoichi 5 - Zatoichi on the Road

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.

Zatoichi 4 - Zatoichi The Fugitive

Zatoichi The Fugitive came out August 10 1963. Shintaro Katsu returns as blind swordsman Zatoichi in the 4th film of the series. I'm watching the recent Criterion release which looks darn nice. There's is a link above to the movie on YouTube. It looks good for YouTube.

Zatoichi is attacked on the road by a Yakusa. The dying man tells Zatoichi that he attacked hoping to get a 10 Ryo reward for killing him. Zatoichi decides to visit the man's mother and tell her what happened to her son. On the way Zatoichi gets in a wrestling match where he wins some money and enemies.

 

He tells Maki, the mother of the man he killed earlier, that her son is dead. Maki's upset but pragmatic, her son wasn't much of a son, and she tells Zatoichi she respects his honesty. He gives her the reward money, telling her it was from her son. Zatoichi learns that there are rival gangs mucking up the life of the locals. That seems a common theme in Japanese movies and life in general. He meets the pretty young woman who is in love with the reluctant heir to his father's Yakuza empire. He just want to marry the pretty girl and leave the life. The other rival Yakuza is ready to move in.

Zatoichi has mixed feelings about the return of Otane. She didn't marry that carpenter and now she's hanging out with a low class ronin named Tanakura. He and Zatoichi have an encounter at an inn. To prove he's a great swordsman Tanakura slices a bottle in half, horizontally. Zatoichi flips one of his dice into a man's saki bottle. While the man is still holding the bottle Zatoichi whips out his sword and the bottle falls to the ground in 2 pieces. It reveals the dice sliced in two. Zatoichi makes a new enemy.

There's plenty of drama in this one with smaller bits of action mixed in. There's a big fight near the end when the Yakuza finally attack Zatoichi. In the final fight it's the blind swordsman against the scummy ronin. In the end Zatoichi is alone again.

There's usually some sadness in Zatoichi's life but not enough to make the movie a melodrama. You can't say much good about life in that time, unless you were rich, there wasn't much joy in one's life. Another strong episode. It looks great, there's plenty of nice scenery for the location shooting, lots nice sets and costumes. Worth a look.

Zatoichi 3 - New Tale Of Zatoichi

The third Zatoichi film, New Tale Of Zatoichi, came out on March 15 1963 and it's the first of the series in color. It's also the first of three to appear in 1963. It was the first Zatoichi film for director Tokuzo Tanaka. He'd direct the next film in the series and one three years later. Shintaro Katsu plays Zatoichi in the series of 26 films.

Zatoichi returns home and while eating at the inn with a friend from his youth some robbers steal everyone's travelling money. The next morning Zatoichi tracks down the gang and gets everyone's money back. The brother of Kanbei comes looking for Zatoichi with vengence in mind. They nearly fight but there's an interruption in the form of Banno, Zatoichi's old master.

They go to Banno's house and Zatoichi renews his acquaintance with Banno's sister Yayoi. Banno wants her to marry a samurai so he can get a bit of cash from the man. He's become poor and corrupt over the years. Yayoi is really in love with Zatoichi and she wants him to give up his Yakuza life and throw down his sword. He says he will. There's a sub plot about a kidnapping and Banno figures to get his paws on the 300 ryo ransom.

Zatoichi asks forgiveness of Kanbei's brother and the man moves on after a bit of generosity. Later that evening Banno kills a drunk and un-armed Kanbei's brother for saying nice things about Zatoichi. That will need to be avenged and the blind swordsman is the one to do it. Things don't go so well on the Yayoi front and Zatoichi walks off into the foggy night.

I really enjoyed this film the first time I saw it and I've maintained that enjoyment over repeated viewings. It's one of my favorites in the series, there's a great story with plenty of different things going on. It's well moody, kind of sad and the color really adds a lot to the film. Well worth a look. You can see it on YouTube at the link above.

Zatoichi 2 - The Tale of Zatoichi Continues

The second Zatoichi film came out October 12 1962. It's written and directed by Kazuo Mori who would direct a couple more Zatoichi movies, Return of Daimajin and 10 episodes of the Zatoichi tv show. The music in this movie is by Ichirō Saitō.

The Tale Of Zatoichi Continues has Zatoichi return to the town he was in during the first movie. He wants to visit the Joshoji Temple to pay respects to Hirate, the samurai he had killed the year before. They have a really nice town set and plenty of great interior sets. I would guess that each good size film studio would have standing sets to shoot their samurai films in, just like there were standing western sets in Hollywood when those were popular. Check them out for yourself, the link in the title has the movie on YouTube.

 

Trouble finds Zatoichi, before he even gets to the temple he's tossed into the water by the leader of a gang of men. Zatoichi managed to grab the leader's sword and slice the the man's face with it. The gang comes looking for revenge. While Zatoichi is drying his clothes from his plunge in the river, he's lying nearby taking a snooze. A crippled samurai intercepts the leader's men and finishes them all off. Zatoichi moves on and gets hired to give a massage to a noble. Turns out the guy is senile and his retainers think Zatoichi should die to keep him quiet. Their plan to kill him fails so they hire local Yakuza to do the job. They don't fare too well. Shintaro Katsu's real life brother Tomisaburō Wakayama plays the crippled samurai. Tomisaburō also plays Lone Wolf in the Lone Wolf And Cub series.

The second movie is only 72 minutes but it moves along quicker than the first. There's a good amount more action and the first of the large fights with gangs of men against Zatoichi. There's a bit of melodrama but not too much and a little humor. It's another good one, and like the first, well worth seeing.

Zatoichi 1 - The Tale Of Zatoichi

The first of the Shintaro Katsu Zatorichi films is The Tale Of Zatoichi. It showed up in the Japanese theaters on April 18 1962 and proved to be popular. There were enough sequels between 1962 and 1973 to turn it into one of Japan's longest film series. The series is set in the late Edo period which is about 1830 to 1850. Zatoichi is a blind masseur and an expert with the cane sword. He was created by novelist Kan Shimozawa. The first entry in the film series had a screenplay by Minoru Inuzuka. He would write one more Zatoichi film and hardly anything else. The director of the first feature was Kenji Misumi who would direct several more Zatoichi films, a Hanzo The Razor film and four of the Lone Wolf And Cub series. The music for the first film is by Akira Ifukube who is mostly known for writing the Godzilla music over at Toho. He did scores for lots of other movies too.

Shintaro Katsu would make 25 films as the blind masseur Zatoichi between 1962 and 1973 then revisit the character one last time in 1989. I've got the whole batch of Criterion DVDs to watch. Sperhauk bought the Blu-Ray DVD combo set and passed along the dvds to me. The films have all been remastered and they look great. The movies have Zatoichi moving from town to town plying his trade as a masseur. He gambles and drinks and gets into fights. Lucky for him he's practised sword fighting. His skill turns out to be a problem for his attackers. Unsuspecting his skill they think they're robbing a blind man, and whoosh, their arms come right off. Oww! Spurt! He often helps the poor sap who's had some wrong done to him or her.

In the first film he's hired by Yakusa boss Sukegoro to help with an upcoming fight with Shigezo, a rival Yakusa boss. Zatoichi doesn't have much respect for his new boss but the guy really is a creep. Shigezo hires his own sword slinger, Hirate, who really admires Zatichi. A relationship between Zatoichi and Hirate develops during the waiting time before the Yakusa's go to war. Hirate turns out the have TB and Sukegoro decides to attack without Zatoichi's help. There's a bit more complication to the story before Zatoichi gets to leave town. He's lucky, many of them won't leave town anymore. 

I'd seen the first Zatoichi film several times and it still remains interesting and entertaining. I like the setting, the film makers put plenty of interesting shots up on the screen. I like the characters, Zatoichi has a good moral sense and plenty of compassion. There are usually plenty of bad guys to kick down and sad people who need a bit of a hand up. It's not all about the fighting, there's a good bit of humor and social observation. Yakuza bosses and corrupt officials make Japan a tough place to live and an ordinary man's life wasn't worth much. Women were often worth less than a man.

The series remains highly popular and the first movie scores a 7.7 on the IMDb. I gave it an 8 over having to give it a 7. It's a nicely done film and even more nicely the Criterion set puts the whole 26 films in one basket. That wasn't the case in the previous dvd releases. I have the set, partly Animeigo dvds, partly from some dvdr's that I made from TCM and VHS tape releases by Chambara Films. It's a series that is well worth seeing. As I mentioned the first film was recently posted to YouTube. There are several more and I'll post more links as I go through the films over the next while.