Zatoichi: Formula and Fighting

This is the second of a five part review of all the movies contained in the Zatoichi Box Set from Criterion. You can read part one here: Zatoichi: Birth of a Franchise.

5, 7-11 Formula and Fighting

The strain of telling an interconnected series of stories must have caught up to everyone. With a rotating cast of directors and screenwriters, contract actors recycled in different roles, not to mention the pressure of producing up to four movies a year, the decision must have been made to make each movie a standalone. Not that this is a bad thing necessarily since the remaining films can be watched in any order without affecting continuity, but it led to a short stretch of uneven film making. There was a noticeably heavier emphasis on the rote formula elements and extended sword fights took screen time from more interesting plot and character development.

5. Zatoichi on the Road **

This movie starts well, but the plot depends on inexplicably bad decisions made by the characters combined with Zatoichi's atypical inability to sniff out a conspiracy. In a series of unlikely coincidences a con artist named Ohisa always shows up to interfere with Ichi's plans until she surprisingly develops a conscience late in the game. Despite the obstacles, Ichi is never really threatened by the yakuza, ronin, and samurai he meets along the way. The movie also tends to be talky, with plot points revealed through conversations as opposed to well developed scenes. Even though we're supposed to believe that Zatoichi and his charge, Omitsu, develop some sort of bond, the relationship seems sparkless. Even the overlong gang war at the end disappoints, coming off more as a pointless bloodbath than the delivery of Zatoichi justice. In the end, it feels as transitional as a road trip where neither the beginning or the destination is shown, a metaphorical bridge between movies 4 and 6 with little to connect it to the story lines developed from the beginning of the series.

7. Zatoichi's Flashing Sword **

This is an interesting film in some respects. It features experimental camera work, some original, if improbable, fight choreography, and the story focuses far more on the rival yakuza gangs with Zatoichi in a supporting role for the balance of the film until the bloody climax. These attempts at making more than a formula flick are undermined by numerous bits of light comedy with little payoff and the addition of a deaf character and a stuttering character who seem to have been given their disabilities only to have some misguided fun by comparing them to Zatoichi's blindness. At 82 minutes, the movie seems a little too brief, when it might have been worthwhile to spend a little screen time showing the aftermath of a gang war that leaves both sides decimated.

8. Fight, Zatoichi, Fight ****

I've always really liked this movie. Zatoichi shows a tender side which he vainly tries to hide under a gruff exterior as he cares for a baby and tries to reform a woman who makes her living as a pickpocket. Only recently I realized that the movie offers a metaphorical look at parenthood, as it presents how a good parent must take fewer risks (even when it goes against one's instincts) to ensure that he or she will be around to raise the child. Overall, it's a well told story with a group of assassins chasing Zatoichi through some beautiful country scenery. The journey trope keeps the story moving while still allowing time for relationships between the characters to develop.

9. The Adventures of Zatoichi ***

Inexplicably bad decision-making drives the plot in this movie much the way it did in Zatoichi on the Road. At least three times Zatoichi allows characters to leave town on their own, exposing them unnecessarily to danger in each instance. Adventures rises above with a subplot involving a town drunk who may or may not be Zatoichi's long lost father. This movie also handles the corrupt official in league with yakuza boss better than the one that follows. Definitely worth a viewing for the look at town life around New Year's and Ichi's encounters with two decidedly different ronin.

10. Zatoichi's Revenge **

This movie starts with a lot of promise in the first two acts. Zatoichi has returned to the hometown of his massage teacher only to discover that he has been murdered and his daughter is being held at a brothel. The plight of the women working to repay their bonds is dramatized to show the exploitation many likely endured during the Edo Period. The movie then heads to more familiar territory as Zatoichi uncovers another plot between a corrupt provincial official and the local yakuza boss that has also been exposed by a rare honest Shogunate inspector who, in a credibility straining scene, decides not to travel with a bodyguard. The third act brings the movie to a standstill with some unnecessary expository scenes leading to a final fight scene that drags on for no apparent purpose. It could have been a much better movie, but it gets undone by the uninspired resolution of the plot threads that had been ably set up earlier. Mikiko Tsubouchi is under-utilized in the role of the daughter, but able comic relief is provided by Norihei Miki in the role of a crooked dice roller who specializes in ending winning streaks when the house is behind. 

11: Zatoichi and the Doomed Man **

I had bad memories of this movie from the first time I saw it, but after watching the first act, I started to wonder if I had been too hard on it. The movie opens with Zatoichi receiving some rare punishment at the hands of government officials who fortunately don’t realize they have a wanted killer in custody. After meeting the doomed man of the title (framed for reasons that will become clear later) he meets an entertaining con artist who quickly realizes the freeloading potential of impersonating Zatoichi. What could have been a movie sustaining plot line gets wrapped up too quickly as Ichi catches up to him and reminds him of the risks of impersonating a sword fighter when one does not have martial skills of one’s own. Fortunately (or unfortunately) Ichi’s reputation does not get badly damaged by the con artist and he has little to do in the way of repairing it. The rest of the movie plays out in an extremely predictable manner with Zatoichi conveniently showing up at one place after another at just the right time and for no apparent reason. The final fight scene is overlong and drama free. A subplot regarding a possible family connection between the doomed man, the con artist, and their wife/mother and daughter/sister also goes wasted and undeveloped. There was probably a better story to be had in there somewhere, but considering how many movies they were pumping out, the occasional rush job is unsurprising.

Read part three: Zatoichi: The Golden Years

Appendix: The Rating System

***** Classic (The most representative movies of the early, middle, and late years.)

****   Excellent (Innovative and enjoyable, with some formulaic elements that are just enough to fall short of a Classic rating.)

***     Good (Professional, entertaining efforts that did not push the boundaries.)

**       Fair (Coincidence-driven or otherwise flawed films. Some high points, but not enough to save the movie.)

*         Poor (Total bombs. Unfit for inclusion in the canon)