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[Jim Bowie]

Last night, I saw this movie. It's called The Blind Samurai: Zatoichi, and it's a new film from Beat Takeshi. It's honestly one of the best samurai movies I've ever seen. At first the gore looks a little fake, but after 10 minutes or so, it goes right along with the movie. The acting and the action is TOP NOTCH!

Zatoichi is based on the 25 (26?) Zatoichi movies already made. They were made back in the 70s, in black and white. In this remake Kitano Takeshi (a.k.a. Kitano of Battle Royale) plays Zatoichi, a blind samurai that poses as a masseur, and hides his sword in a walking cane.

Playing the rival of Zatoichi, Hattori, another badass samurai, is Tadanobu Asano. He was also in Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl, another amazing Japanese movie. Hattori takes a job as a bodyguard to a gang lord to get money for medicine to heal his sick wife.

Do yourself a favor and see this AMAZING samurai film!

 

[Drexon]

Totally digged this movie. I thought I'd given up on Japanese flick (let's face it, most of 'em suck ass), but this one was a surprice. Totally worth watchable action flick with lots of gore (blood) and a pretty decent plot.

 

[DarienA]

...you just kept missing all those martial arts threads eh?

 

[Jim Bowie]

...you just kept missing all those martial arts threads eh?

I've had vacations and 56k the last few weeks- sorry if this has been covered

 

[DarienA]

I've had vacations and 56k the last few weeks- sorry if this has been covered

Welcome back to the nuthouse!

 

[DaveH]

Just watched this last night. It's a slow movie that doesn't feel slow... except on that gratuitiously long geshia scene/flashback. I just rewatched Yojimbo, Seven Samurai, and some of Champloo these past two weeks so it was interesting to see the same cliches pop up again (not a criticism at all). Somehow the completely random dance number at the end worked for me.

It's an action film... but an action film like Equilibrium, with intense but extremely brief action scenes. So if you're expecting a prolonged samurai duels you won't find them here. Great movie adaptation of the TV series... I think I'll wake up early tomorrow to catch the old B&W episodes on cable.

 

[sefskillz]

I caught this a few months ago and I went in with fairly high expectations. It definetely felt like a Kitano movie to me, not that that is a bad thing. I dunno, overall I just came out a bit disappointed, except for the awesome ending sequence.

Here's hoping for Izo.

 

[Flynn]

I loved Zatoichi too.

Good offbeat sense of humor. Killer fights...and even a bit of the tried and true Kitano outcast story.

The soundtrack was awesome as well.

It's been a great year for samurai fans -- Twilight Samurai and now this.

 

[Warm Machine]

Good movie with very uneven pacing. When Zatoichi goes to work with the killing and the gambling the movie is great, the rest is somewhat dull.

I was also dissapointed in the near final scene on the Beach. It could have lasted longer than 5 seconds.

I also hated the CG blood effects even though I understand why they were used.

 

[nitewulf]

i thougt it was great. while watching my brother pointed out something interesting. he said, "kitano is like woody allen, he always plays himself." its absolutely true, i have seen the old zatoichi movies and this was kitano's take. very different.
sword fights were awesome, i liked the tap dancing sequences and use of colors. the pacing was somewhat uneven at times, and it offered no backstory, assuming everyone already knew who zatoichi was. not a good intro movie to zatoichi, but a great samurai film regardless.
i'd suggest watching other kitano movies as well (not battle royal), he's fantastic.

 

[Jim Bowie]

i'd suggest watching other kitano movies as well (not battle royal), he's fantastic.

Why not BR? Battle Royale is classic, and you can't deny the severe awesomeness of Kiriyama.

 

[EviLore]

I'll just chime in again and say that I think Takeshi Kitano's take on Zatoichi sucks. Poorly paced, action sequences that are 100% dependent on cg with no actual skill in the choreography, far, far too much time spent on the tranny, and the twist at the end just leaves me going "blah."

Takeshi Kitano is cool; I like Kikujiro, among other things. This movie isn't so much a let down as it is, simply, a poorly designed film hinging on the gimmick of zatoichi's character and bad cg blood.

 

[Flynn]

and it offered no backstory, assuming everyone already knew who zatoichi was.

The first Zatoichi doesn't really "introduce" the character either. Which is pretty much in line with this kind of genre story telling. You don't really need to know a ronin's background to understand what one is.

The fact that he's on his own, has a sword and is blind is pretty much all you need to know.

And Battle Royale, while good, isn't a fair representation of Kitano's work. Good advice.

 

[nitewulf]

Why not BR? Battle Royale is classic, and you can't deny the severe awesomeness of Kiriyama.

because it's not a "kitano" movie. as in hana-bi, sonatine, kikujiro etc. i like BR fine, but its not a beat takeshi movie.

 

[Warm Machine]

bad cg blood.

Especially the blood splat on the mat at the end of the movie. The splat looks like it is floating 2 inches off the ground!

I know they tried to make the gore look elegant and beautiful but I know it could have been done practically.

 

[Flynn]

It's funny. At first I didn't like the CG blood. But then I started to think back to older chanbara movies, like Baby Cart and realized that the blood spurts there were about as fake as they come.

I sorta see this gaudy CG as the modern equivilent of the insane orange spurts of the '60s.