An impoverished blind masseur becomes a mercenary swordsman to gain basic respect. The first of novelist Kan Shimozawas Zatoichi series 26 films a TV series and a play all but two starring controversial singerproducerdirector Shintaro Katsu. First of six Zatoichi films directed by Kenji Misumi. The shrewd Zatoichi targets a yakuza-controlled village because war with a neighboring towns smaller gang is brewing. The broke ex-masseur Ichi immediately wins big by taking advantage of local bakutos cheating after they scoff at his asking to join a dice game. The larger horde who have been given carte blanche by the local governor summoned Zatoichi. Zatoichi hates the fact that hes become an outlaw so he strikes up a friendship with the other gangs honorable hired samurai who has TB.
Review
"The Tale of Zatoichi" was a cultural phenomenon in Japan in the 1960s spawning 25 sequels a 112episode TV series and a remake.
Set toward the end of the feudal Edo period (16031868) the film stars Shintaro Katsu as Zatoichi an itinerant blind masseurswordsman. He stops in the town of Iioka one day to stay with a yakuza boss Sukegoro who he had met on an earlier journey.
Zatoichi is humble but has a quiet intensity. Even though he is blind he perceives more in the situations around him than the other participants with normal eyesight. In an early scene Sukegoro's gangsters try to take advantage of Zatoichi in a game of dice but he uses their underestimation of him to his advantage and hustles the gamblers out of all their money.
Zatoichi insists his impressive skills with the katana are nothing more than parlor tricks but Boss Sukegoro hires him to stay on as he has plans to go to war with a rival gang in nearby Sasagawa. Sasagawa boss Shigezo hires a ronin samurai Hirate to counterbalance Sukegoro's Zatoichi.
Zatoichi and Hirate develop a sort of friendship but their affection toward each other has less to do with their love of fishing or drinking than on their common code of honor. Even though they know they will be expected to fight to the death in the war between Iioka and Sasagawa this doesn't stand between their personal friendship.
So it follows that the most interesting conflict in the movie is not the yakuza warfare between the Iioka and Sasagawa gangs but the conflict between Zatoichi and Hirate. Hirate is dying of consumption and seems to prefer death by Zatoichi's sword rather than let his illness or an unworthy gangster take his life.
"The Tale of Zatoichi" is both fun and stylish. But rather than being a bythenumbers action flick the filmmakers took the time to develop characters the audience can actually care about which elevates Zatoichi above other films of this genre.