August 29 movie: Zatoichi. (Note: promotional materials are calling this film The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi, but the title screen in the movie itself just said Zatoichi. So that is the title I'm using.)
This is the 2003 remake by Takeshi Kitano. Wow. It rocked. I mean it RAWKED! Best movie I've seen in a long time. Zatoichi is so well-loved in Japan, and so firmly associated with actor Shintaro Katsu (who played Zatoichi in all the old movies) that this was a big risk for Kitano. It would be like Quentin Tarantino making a new movie about the Man with No Name, and making it work brilliantly. We had heard that this was an updated version of Zatoichi, set in the twenty-first century. Which I wasn't thrilled about, and I am so glad turned out not to be true. Kitano's style is well suited to the subject: Georg and I both felt that it was very much a Zatoichi movie, and also very much a Takeshi Kitano movie.
There were several great interludes where soundtrack music blended with percussion sounds created by peasants working in the fields (well done too -- I watched each actor and their movements synched perfectly with the sounds), some hilarious comedy scenes, and a bizarre musical finale that made me feel like the movie had suddenly gone Bollywood. Georg loved it; me, not so much. Though I have to admire Kitano for doing something so kooky. There were even touching subplots about two geishas, and about a ronin who becomes an unwilling bodyguard to the bad guys, to raise money for medical care for his wife. The movie was no more violent in terms of body count than an original Zatoichi film. True, there was more blood and gore, but it was so extremely fake as to be okay for even the most squeamish viewer. Actually that was my only criticism of the movie: I hate phony CGI effects in fight scenes. I much prefer the low rent effects of older movies, the wire work and packets of fake blood. But that's a minor quibble.
Zatoichi was funny, moving, and kicked my ass across town and back. Go see it!
1 Comments
Indeed, an awesome awesome movie! I thought the most Kitano (and most unlike Zatoichi) scene was the big fight set-piece at the gambling hall. Well, the fight itself was pretty much in the Zatoichi style but the way it exploded into action virtually without warning is typical Kitano.
Like I said, I didn't notice the CGI.
And we'll just have to agree to disagree on the ending. Perhaps it worked for me cos I kinda knew it was coming. Not in specific detail, but I'd read somewhere that the movie ended with a production number. I mean, really, what more can one ask from a movie: arterial spray AND a big dance finale... woohoo!