Zatoichi

[Drunk Monk]

I just realized that I'm 10 movies in and these were all made in a few years, mostly '63 & '64. The next one, Zatoichi's Revenge, which I'm about halfway through, is '65. So far, the villains are more reprehensible, forcing cute Japanese damsels into prostitution, and Ichi is staying his hand to reveal the assassin of his massage master. There's this charming theme of Ichi's love for sunshine. Two great scenes: Ichi busts a cheating dice player by cutting the sake bottle where he hid the dice - of course, it takes a beat for the sake bottle to split and Ichi is being led by his cane by a little girl (the daughter of the cheating dice player) and cuts down a would-be assassin and replaces his sword in the cane without the girl knowing. She hears the body fall, but Ichi, always protective of the innocent, tells her not to look.

Zatoichi rocks. I am continually in awe of the cinematography, the choreography and the character development. They just don't make martial arts movies like this anymore.