Zatôichi hatashi-jô (1968)'s comments

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nbats

https://youtu.be/x8kp7pFOOsI

1 year 10 months ago

There have been a lot of bad people cut down in the Zatoichi series. The ones in Zatoichi and the Fugitives take the cake, almost more agents of chaos that will do bad things for the heck of it. Indeed, the title fugitives aren't yakuza and don't feel bound by that code. And yet, there's also a bad yakuza boss in this who allies himself with the band of thugs, and he's really no better. They all have it coming to them, and do, in spades - this is one of the most visually violent films in the series. And it's rough on Ichi too. It's perhaps a good thing then that he befriends a kind local doctor played by Japanese cinema royalty Takashi Shimura, who lends a lot of gravitas to the family story at the heart of the film. Director Kimiyoshi Yasuda affects extreme close-ups and jarring zoom-outs to create interest in the frame - it feels very cinematic - but over-eggs the pudding when it comes to the music cues which are, by turns, syrupy, Americanized, or just overdone. Let the cicadas act as soundtrack, I don't really need any more.

3 years 8 months ago