The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi: Review By derekmay

Reverse cutting! Acrobatic cutting! Action packed! These are just of few of the excitement-inducing taglines that permeated the trailers for the original movie series back in the 1970’s. And now that the late, great Shintaro Katsu has passed, does Beat Takeshi deliver on the bold promises of those earlier films? Oh, yeah!

It’s hard to imagine another living man who has the bold constitution for blood, the keen visual insight for filmmaking and the reverential admiration for an icon taking over one of Japan’s longest running characters and producing something that brings it up to date while paying homage to all that made the series spectacular in the first place.

Takeshi Kitano (alias 'Beat' Takeshi), one of Japan’s leading directors both in terms of interesting and off-beat story-telling and hardcore blood-soaked violence, here takes on the duel role of director and star. Though his attempt to break into the American market with “Brother” a few years back failed, he did make a mark in the most unlikely of places: television. Who would have thought that the host of a re-dubbed Japanese game show on Spike TV (‘Takeshi’s Castle’, aka ‘Most Extreme Elimination Challenge’) could possess the fortitude to bring back a franchise that everyone believed died with it’s star? But it is that blend of violence and humor that made Zatoichi a hit in the first place.

For all of its theatrical and television run, Zatoichi was played (and produced) by one man: Shintaro Katsu. Katsu played the blind masseur with a penchant for gambling and getting mixed up in the adventures of common people besieged by, well, usually gamblers. Luckily, he had with him his trusting sword-cane, which he could draw and cut with such lightning speed and skill that his name was known and feared.

Things haven’t really changed with Takeshi’s interpretation of the role. While Katsu played the masseur with a little more humor, charisma and, most notably, screentime, Takeshi prefers to keep Zatoichi at arm’s length. We really don’t see a whole lot of him here. The story is actually fueled by three intersecting stories – 1) a shadowy crime lord slowly tightening his grip on a small village, 2) the stoically tortured bodyguard he hires with a deadly skill matching Zatoichi’s, 3) and two revenge-seeking geisha’s trying to avenge their slain family. Zatoichi tends to show up here and there to either fight or gamble, but rarely to talk. While Katsu’s easy-going and likable blind-man is missed here, Takeshi’s direction more than makes up for a lack of character insight.

The story is much like those of old, having the three lines intersect with Zatoichi caught up in the middle, and of course saving the day. This time the pace moves along fairly slowly, with Takeshi offering up more dramatic subtext and character development (in the supporting character if not his own) than we’ve seen before. Each character is likable enough and the performances are carefully crafted to maintain the balance between seriousness and lightheartedness. Takeshi’s mission to present a richly crafted tale with deep characters succeeds, even if it tends to spread itself almost too thin so as to leave us chomping at the bit for the action scene.

And so it is here that the real triumph is made. If there’s one thing Takeshi knows, it’s how to shoot an exciting fight sequence. He manages to include fantastically over-the-top blood spewing (a staple of samurai cinema) while enhancing it to modern levels. The subtle use of animation and effects turn a simple slice and dice into a truly horrendous death to anyone Zatoichi’s blade happens to meet. The fights are fast, brutal and gorgeous. Takeshi somehow accomplishes what western directors have tried and failed – he’s given himself the illusion of martial skill by shooting close-up and cutting quickly, but without sacrificing choreography where fights become lost and obscured like in so many films. These battles here are original, skillful and exciting - everything they should be.

But probably the best carry-over from the originals is the humor. Unlike Katsu contemporaries like ‘Lone Wolf and Cub’ (which he also produced and starred his amazingly skilled brother Tomisaburo Wakayama) or ‘Sleepy Eyes of Death’, Katsu’s films never took themselves too seriously. While Takeshi steers more for the dramatic, he still incorporates plenty of off-beat laughs such as the chubby, screaming oaf training to be a samurai or the bumbling gambler who fancies himself a swordsmen until he literally has some sense knocked into him. And, of course, the much talked-about dance sequence at the end is a wink at the audience to say, “we hope you enjoyed the show!”

All-in-all, Takeshi’s remake of the classic series is a perfect blend of all that was great with all that we have come to expect from modern cinema. While the story drags a bit and Zatoichi is more background player than protagonist, there are enough thrilling action sequences, quirky laughs and intense drama to make the hardcore fans happy and win over the many more to come. Katsu’s beloved character is skillfully respected by the only man who could’ve pulled it off. Let’s just see if Takeshi will carry it for as long.