Ichi

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

This is the one with the blind girl as Ichi.

I always picture Ichi as the lovable blind rogue who is a bad ass swordsman. The girl Ichi is just a down girl who hates life and is looking for the Ichi who was her father and trained her. She never smiles. Never cracks jokes. It's all very dour.

I got the feeling this was a television film in Japan. It had that movie of the week feel or maybe even a Pilot. The whole thing sort of bland and lacked contrast. And it had my favorite, crappy looking CGI blood. And all the sword fights were one cut and done. They also spent a lot of money on Fabulous hair, because all the bad guys had it. The second in command had especially awesome hair that Elvis would have killed for.

The plot was creaky and melodramatic. The hero, who wasn't Ichi, had a problem from his youth which meant he couldn't draw sword. He could beat you with sticks,he just couldn't show the naked steel. This begged the question, "Why not kick the shit out of your enemy with a stick then?" It was probably also an illusion to sexuality. Maybe that was too deep for this movie.

Everybody also had some problem with a blind guy. Ichi wanted her to find her blind father. The hero had a blind mother. The bad guy lost a duel to a blind fighter who could have been Ichi's father. There was even a blind swordsman at the town celebration who Ichi hoped was her father but wasn't. I know, another spoiler. I'm not spoiling anything because you are not going to rush out and see this.

The way the film ended also gave it that TV Pilot feel, when Ichi walks off and promises to see the young boy again some day. Blah Blah Blah.

[Drunk Monk]

zato means blind. Just in case you're wondering...

I never saw this. I did see the Crimson Bat. That was the first female answer to Zatoichi back in the late '60s early '70s. I think I only saw one or two of those. It wasn't very good - a direct rip off of Zatoichi and rather dated now, I imagine. Her name was Oichi, which I think is just a Japanese female name. This could be an implied pun - O as a prefix means 'big' like O-sensei (big master) or O-tachi (big tachi - a kind of sword). I did like the title 'Crimson Bat.' That just sounds great. Crimson Bat. Of course, it only sounds great in English, but there you have it.

[thatguy]

There's a movie plot idea: Elvis roaming the countryside killing people for their beautiful hair...

Which Elvis would it be though?

--tg

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

I feel slighted. I knew Zato meant blind. How many films at the Palo Alto art house did I have to go to before I picked that up.

[Drunk Monk]

The version was dubbed really poorly, which detracted significantly as the dubbing was really lame. There was constant references to 'seeing' and blind characters, plus the implication that Ichi was Zatoichi's daughter, which might have played out better in Japanese, but failed with the English voice actors' tepid renditions. Perhaps I'm projecting that, although subs often improve mediocre films because you have to spend some time reading the subs which distracts you from noticing some of the film's other shortcomings. Like Greg, I agree that that charm and humor of Zatoichi was totally lost with Ichi and the digital blood just wasn't working well (same can be said for the Beat Takashi's remake of Zatoichi - both films are really just cinematic testaments on how awesome the original Zatoichi series was). The villains were quite caricature, all in gaudy red with boofed hair, with a leader who had a goofy phantom-of-the-opera half mask to cover a hideous scar - it was very manga/anime. Lots of sword fights and blood spitting, plus some blind shamisen instead of Bollywood. At 2 hours, it was in dire need of some good ol' samurai choppin and cuttin.