Zatoichi the Blind Swordsman
From Zanecorpwiki
A few disappointments keep this from being a really excellent movie, but still comes out very well. DVD.
Summary
If you're a fan of the original Zatoichi movies, just forget that this movie has the same name, and you'll be okay. There's some excellent homage... not the least of which is the thing looks like a late 60's/early 70's Japanese film. The color saturation, slight graininess, and the visual style.
Takeshi Kitano proves that despite the silly blond hair, he can do an excellent Zatoichi if he wants. At first, it seems pretty straight, he has the same laughing off hand manner, but that quickly evaporates. We're left with a character that superficially resembles the original, but is really a very different animal.
Whereas with the original Zatoichin, you were never really sure whether his bumbling was a masterful mask, or due to the fact that no matter how good he may be, he's still blind. Takeshi's Zatoichin is overt in his mastery. The laughing off-handedness evaporates quickly after the opening sequence.
Tho most obvious, though perhaps not tho worst part is the CGI blood and decapitations that permeate the movie. It's always an interesting question as to what classic movie makers would have doneif they'd had the technology, but regardless, the fact is that the worst part of the violence was always implied. Here, it's graphically depicted.
It would have been much better if they'd just done their homages to Zatoichi, but never implied that it was part of the series because it very much is not. Case in point, I spend the majority of the review comparing it to the originals when it is, in fact, a pretty good movie in it's own right.
Details and Notes
This is one of those cases where I come off being rather critical not because it's bad, but because it was so close to being great. It just needs a little more restraint and a slightly defter hand in plot development, and you're there.
Most everything about the movie is good to excellent. If there's one general criticism (aside from the Zatoichi confusion), it's that the movie is a cluttered. A few to many characters and side bits that really don't add anything to the movie. The spoiler below is one, but also the idiot son, and even the friendly aunt and uncle just don't really add that much. Why is Zatoichi blond? It's certainly the look for "modern Japanese action", but in this movie, it just doesn't really fit.
Hell, there's one interesting character, the master wood-sword fighter whom I completely forgot about till I rewrote the review. He's an interesting guy, but his brief appearance and subsequent disappearance after uttering a few seemingly interesting, but ultimately non-sensical phrases is nothing short of baffling.
All this distracts from the more interesting parts of the movie. I'd rather spend the time developing the more interesting characters, like old man in the bar, the two geisha, and--most of all--the morally ambiguous rival swordsman. He's potentially the most interesting character yet we get maybe 5 minutes of character development.
Mild spoiler.
What's up with the "Zatoichi can see" thing at the end. I don't really have a problem with the idea per 'se, my problem is that it didn't add anything to the story. It was completely unnecessary. Maybe if the last guy had been some kind of super fighter and Zatoichi was forced to reveal he wasn't blind... or... I don't know something. It's hardly even a spoiler since it really makes absolutely zero difference in the movie.
It's like Takeshi Kitano just had a "wouldn't it be cool if" idea and threw it in for the sake of itself. If this were a standalone movie, not a big deal, but Zatoichi is a well established character with something like a dozen movies. Changing shit because you feel like is really just uncool.
