07-22-2013, 12:09 PM
I've been watching so much Zatoichi, I'm going blind. 
The Tale of Zatoichi: It's a modest start really. This isn't much of an origins flick. It's really the first few films combined that serve as that. Already, Shintaro Katsu's charisma as Ichi is clear. He just nails that character, and the sword fight scenes, although modest in these early films, are superb.
The Tale of Zatoichi Continues: Zatoichi faces the one-armed swordsman, although not the one from China. There's this amusing subplot about a boss who is obviously gay (a mental condition) and how the vassals all try to hide that. When Ichi gives him a massage, hilarity ensues. It's somewhat of an outlier although a few characters and story arcs from the first flick carry over.
New Tale of Zatoichi: This one gives a lot of Ichi's backstory - his master, his love interests. It's somewhat anticlimactic in that his origins are rather mundane - no radioactive spider bite, nothing like that - just a blind kid that worked really hard to make up for his handicap - at least there is a backstory.
Zatoichi The Fugitive: More on his love interest - it gives closure on a lot of his history, so he can move on to detached total badassery.
Zatoichi on the Road: This is where the Zatoichi body count gets out of control. Many nice single-shot fight scenes with Ichi dispatching multiple opponents in succession. Also, sword tricks become more to the forefront - cutting candles where you see the noto first and then the candle splits in half.
As a side note, I also saw Blind Menace, which was a precursor to Zatoichi. Katsu plays Suginoichi, a blind masseuse. The character is totally reprehensible and utterly unredeemable, a murderer, a rapist, a backstabber, very unsympathetic. However, it's Katsu doing his blind man impression in a very raw form.
I'm in the middle of Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold, which features Tomisaburo Wakayama as a whip-wielding scar-faced villain. Wakayama was Ogami Itto - Lone Wolf in the Baby Cart from Hell series. He is also the older blood brother of Shintaro Katsu. This installment gets bloodier, opening with a close-up shot of an open sword wound.
The Tale of Zatoichi: It's a modest start really. This isn't much of an origins flick. It's really the first few films combined that serve as that. Already, Shintaro Katsu's charisma as Ichi is clear. He just nails that character, and the sword fight scenes, although modest in these early films, are superb.
The Tale of Zatoichi Continues: Zatoichi faces the one-armed swordsman, although not the one from China. There's this amusing subplot about a boss who is obviously gay (a mental condition) and how the vassals all try to hide that. When Ichi gives him a massage, hilarity ensues. It's somewhat of an outlier although a few characters and story arcs from the first flick carry over.
New Tale of Zatoichi: This one gives a lot of Ichi's backstory - his master, his love interests. It's somewhat anticlimactic in that his origins are rather mundane - no radioactive spider bite, nothing like that - just a blind kid that worked really hard to make up for his handicap - at least there is a backstory.
Zatoichi The Fugitive: More on his love interest - it gives closure on a lot of his history, so he can move on to detached total badassery.
Zatoichi on the Road: This is where the Zatoichi body count gets out of control. Many nice single-shot fight scenes with Ichi dispatching multiple opponents in succession. Also, sword tricks become more to the forefront - cutting candles where you see the noto first and then the candle splits in half.
As a side note, I also saw Blind Menace, which was a precursor to Zatoichi. Katsu plays Suginoichi, a blind masseuse. The character is totally reprehensible and utterly unredeemable, a murderer, a rapist, a backstabber, very unsympathetic. However, it's Katsu doing his blind man impression in a very raw form.
I'm in the middle of Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold, which features Tomisaburo Wakayama as a whip-wielding scar-faced villain. Wakayama was Ogami Itto - Lone Wolf in the Baby Cart from Hell series. He is also the older blood brother of Shintaro Katsu. This installment gets bloodier, opening with a close-up shot of an open sword wound.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse