04-29-2014, 07:40 PM
This one had some great intersecting story arcs, particularly the parallels between Ichi's master's daughter and the dice player's daughter and their monkey song theme. The dice player was a great comic foil with his attempts to emulate Ichi's sword technique. He also had a great fart joke. Who can't appreciate a great fart joke? Especially in a '65 Chanbara flick. Ichi takes out dozens of henchmen in the big fight, bordering on three digits. I really liked the theme of Ichi's love of sunshine, poignant, ironic, and so well played in this one. Oddly, the soundtrack uses a lot of what could best be described as Mexican guitar riffs, evoking all those old spaghetti westerns. That chanbara/spaghetti western connection - something Clint, Yul and Tom McLaughlin understood - here it is, sort of, in '65.
I'm now 40% of the way through the film series (the TV series doesn't count here) and I have yet to find one that isn't impressive. The early ones were definitely rougher, yet unpolished, but still a good watch. Ichi has really found his groove in these later ones - the character is so well actualized - the epitome of the reluctant warrior, and yet when it's time to get down, the sword fights are excellent. Long complex single-shot scenes brilliantly executed with Katsu's eyes all rolled up playing blind. Why aren't today's martial arts flicks this sophisticated? Where did we go astray?
I'm now 40% of the way through the film series (the TV series doesn't count here) and I have yet to find one that isn't impressive. The early ones were definitely rougher, yet unpolished, but still a good watch. Ichi has really found his groove in these later ones - the character is so well actualized - the epitome of the reluctant warrior, and yet when it's time to get down, the sword fights are excellent. Long complex single-shot scenes brilliantly executed with Katsu's eyes all rolled up playing blind. Why aren't today's martial arts flicks this sophisticated? Where did we go astray?
Shadow boxing the apocalypse