December 14: Blind Swordsman: The Story of Zatoichi. Not exactly clear on the title of this one. The info screen called it Zatoichi: The Life and Opinion of a Blind Masseur, but I used the title that appeared in the film itself. Well in the subtitles, to be precise.
We think this was the first Zatoichi movie. Like all the others, Zatoichi somehow gets involved in a squabble among petty gangsters, although he doesn't kick as much bad guy butt as usual. In the other Zatoichi movies I've seen, he's always seeking a legitimate job, but in this one he calls himself a gangster several times and doesn't have a problem working for one of the gangs. There's a little bit of backstory; he says something vague about how he used to be a legitimate masseur until three years before, and that he practiced swordsmanship on his own, no formal training.
Zatoichi looked so young in this film! He's still an unlikely hero: not very handsome, and a bit greedy. Which is one of the things I really like about Zatoichi. He's not some saintly altruist who travels the countryside helping the needy and refusing all reward. He wants to make some money, and he doesn't mind doing the occasional unsavory work to get it. There's a subplot about a young woman whose brother is trying to force her to be with (maybe marry, or maybe just have sex with) a gangster, but Zatoichi doesn't rescue her: the would-be husband dies in the gang war. She falls for Zatoichi and wants to go with him but he refuses because he's a loner, Dottie, a rebel.
Post a comment