Return of Zatoichi

December 17 movie: The Return of Zatoichi. The second Zatoichi movie takes place a year after the first, with Zatoichi returning to pay his respects to the grave of the samurai he killed in the first movie. Zatoichi also fights with his brother, who had stolen the woman he loved, and kills a bunch of bad guys. Also he meets up again with the woman who fell for him in the first movie, but refuses her again. And he sleeps with a prostitute, which I gather is more respectable in a historical Japanese film than it would be in an American film. It's great to get all this backstory on Zatoichi. The later movies are all so episodic: Zatoichi shows up in a town, befriends some honest people who fall afoul of gangsters, then Zatoichi kills all the bad guys. It's been really nice to see how the Zatoichi story began. We got the next one on the DVR today and I can't wait to watch it. Yay to IFC for showing these movies!