Ichi

[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.