Zatoichi (AKA The Blind Swordsman: Zatôichi), is one of the even fewer films that I can comfortably say, I’ve had the pleasure of watching more than once.  I watched it for the first time in about 2006/07, when I was just getting into Asian Cinema and absolutely loved it. Every moment of the film was exciting and suspenseful as the story unfolds and elements of various mini-story lines begin to weave and intersect resulting in a crescendo of sword fight/blood bath as the mystery and intrigue continues to unravel before you.

The Poster

What amazed me about the film itself was the extend to which the Director, Takeshi Kitano gets involved. Not only did he direct and write the screenplay for Zatoichi, but he also stars in it. If you are fortunate enough to own the DVD, the extras will show you how he also helped to choreograph much of the sword fight scenes and in particular the unique fighting style that Zatoichi himself adopts in the film.

The pace throughout the movie is swift, from start to finish. At no point are you bored because events quite fluidly move from one to another. The intricacy of the plots, at times can be confusing as you see various snippets at first with context and deeper explanations are only revealed of the course of the story as the various groups come into contact with one another.

A particular element of the movie that does take some getting used to, is the use of CGI for the blood and much of the dismembering which does date the film somewhat. This however, is a very minor issue and is quite easily overlooked as a more a charming characteristic of the film instead of a glaring faux pas. The sword fights are exciting to watch. The viewer only really catches glimpses of the traveling vagrants prowess with a sword but he talent and brutality is not fully displayed till much nearer the end of the film but we are constantly left in no doubt that he is willing and ready to kill should the circumstances for such force as is the case in the gambling den when the house is caught cheating. At the same time we see elements of restraint, in particular the sequence between Zatoichi and Hattori Genosuke in the local bar, upon their first encounter comes to mind.

Kitano Directing a Fight Scene

One of the most interesting elements of the movie (trust me, there are plenty!) is the sword fighting technique Zatoichi employs, which even for a non-sword fighting expert like myself is easy to appreciate. As Zatoichi conceals his sword in his walking cane, the way he draws his sword puts him in immediately an offensive and defensive position as he draws his sword from it’s sheath directly upward in front of him, blade toward attacker. The samurai on the other hand draw their swords from the waist diagonally across their bodies which takes longer and requires larger motions and subsequently more space. Again, the best demonstration of this was in the local bar when the main characters encounter each other for the first time and Zatoichi quite clearly demonstrates a superior skill to that of Hattori Genosuke.

Concluding Remarks
This wouldn’t be much of a review if nothing was said about the plot and the storyline. I’ve watched this film twice and on both occasions, while I expected and predicted the outcome, the execution of the storyline and the deliver of the lines and the slow unraveling of the mystery is done so expertly that it continually exciting every time. Kitano indeed tells a story very well. Towards the end we get to see veil after veil removed as we begin to see the real workings of the puppeteer behind it all. It would be an even greater injustice if I were to spoil this here. My advice to you is to go out and find this movie straight away. Better yet, get the DVD.Kitano Directing a Fight Scene

Let me know what you think in the comments below. Where does this one rank in your Top 10, because it definitely should be somewhere in everyone’s Top 10.