Zatoichi is a blind old man who makes his living from giving massages and gambling. His pronounced sense of hearing helps him win all the gambles by being able to hear whether the dice landed even or odd. But underneath his old guy cover, Zatoichi is an amazingly skilled swords men. Using his uncanny sense of smell and hearing he defeats the oppressive Yakuza gangs.
The plot of this Zatoichi is made up of three main components. The first: On his journey, Zatoichi stumbles upon a village run by an abusive Yakuza gang. As Zatoichi takes up residence with an lonely lady he soon decides to demolish the gang and set the village free. The second part of the story resolves around a skilled Samurai whoses wife is very ill and needs money to cure her. Despite his wives hatred of killing, he takes up work as a body guard for the Yakuza. But whose the more skilled swordsman: Zatoichi or the Samurai?
The third plot is a bit wierder. Two Geisha girl's who entice men to kill them and take they're money. When questioned about it by Zatoishi they reveal the tragic tale of a brother and sister who's parents were tragically taken from them. They seek revenge and end up as a pair of man hunting Geishas.
Putting these three plots together in to one movie does make things a bit odd and fairly messy. The plot is very weak and nothing really gets explored or explained. But the final scene was so weird! It was as though the director put a completely unplaned plot twist in at the very last minute. It was entirely unneccersary! But those last 10 seconds or so were HILARIOUS!!
Zatoichi himself looked really odd. Always pulling faces of pain and concentration as he hobbled along! And really if he could fight so amazingly then how come he could hardly walk? Plus, when he did fight he was so ridiculous! I would never have thought that this film was 'high-budget'! The red water guns sparying everywhere as blood looked so stupid I almost laughed!! But the two Geishas had such lovely kimonos and hair I wouldn't be surprised if a high amount of money was spent on that!
At the end there was a random festival! This was really out of the blue, I think they just needed an excuse to get all the characters together for some strange kind of conclusion. Although all the drumming and dancing was very fun and well planned out it didn't seem to go with any plot!
But still, I did enjoy this film! The fight scenes, although unrealistic, were well choreographed... As was the dance at the festival. And it did make me laugh, even if I wasn't supposed to. However, I was expecting more from my dad's reccomendation.
Pie:
Well, I disagree with you about some of the details... but a good review. Well done.
ReplyDelete(To everyone else, Zatoichi is EASILY a four and a half pie movie!)