Zatôichi sakate giri (1965)'s comments

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nbats

https://youtu.be/Q5qJJroypEk

1 year 10 months ago

They are making so many Zatoichi films every year, that some are bound to feel more like filler. Zatoichi and the Doomed Man is definitely self-contained and feels like one of the less memorable chapters in the series. It's not devoid of charms, however. Breaking from tradition, it doesn't start with a proper teaser - not even a poetic teaser like the last few, which I might call cinematic haikus - rather starting in medias res and setting up the mission Ichi doesn't really want to undertake before moving to credits. It keeps its "haiku" for the end, the dry soil imagery of the beginning surrendering to images of ocean waves reclaiming the sand. An image of Ichi's endless battle against corruption and injustice, surely. It keeps coming even if he wants to deny it. In this one, he's sometimes saddled with a comedy grifter who, in a coincidence of Dickensian proportions (you can't tell, but I'm making a face), turns out to be connected to the man Ichi is unsure about wanting to help. Yakuza aplenty to get themselves slices. Some nice fight scenes in the fog, and other cool tricks, but this one fails to make the story personal to Ichi, so like him, we sort of want him to get the hell out of there and never see these people again.

3 years 9 months ago

monty

aka Zatoichi and the Doomed Man

12 years 6 months ago