Jan 14 movie: Zatochi On the Road. Again my thanks to IFC for showing all these Zatoichi movies in order. We don't know yet if they're going to show them all, or just the early ones. But we're definitely enjoying it while we can. This was the fifth in the series, and (we think) the first one to be a completely stand-alone episode: no characters in common with the other movies (excepting of course Zatoichi). Also the violence level has racheted up. This time Zatoichi is helping a nobleman's daughter get home to Edo before her evil husband's soldiers find her and kill her. Zatoichi exposits that the girl stabbed a man in the face to get away, but she acts way too meek and helpless throughout the movie to make that believeable. Anyway, this is classic Zatoichi: he sets rival gangs against each other, kills a lot of people, the girl falls in love with him and he ditches her. Because he's a loner.
Zatoichi is the unlikeliest romantic hero I've ever seen. He's not handsome, walks with a stoop, has a weak chin, his face is always dirty and sweaty, and in this episode we learn that he talks with his mouth full. The big romantic scene between Zatoichi and the girl takes place while they eat rice balls, and he talks with his mouth full of rice and has rice all over his face! Then they're ambushed and he jumps up and kills all the bad guys, with rice still stuck to his face! Bizarre and brilliant.
Post a comment