05-04-2014, 01:28 PM
Zatoichi and the Chess Expert
This one is very convoluted - almost too many story arcs. I started it and came back to it a few days later and got a little lost. S watched the end with me and I got messed up trying to recount the story so far because I mistook some of the characters. The chess master is a good foil for Ichi - the chess and swordsmanship metaphor - someone should do their PhD on that :oops: . It takes place at Hakone, the namesake of ED's matrimonial grounds, which is akin to Japan's version of UK's Bath in Jane Austin novels. There a woman on a quest for vengeance cross-dressed as a man that doesn't even look faintly masculine but only Ichi can see through her disguise. Ichi plays out a funny gambling scam, and gets busted at it. There's a little girl with tetanus w/a damsel in distress. The little girl takes on the 'premature' role, which is a persistent theme, one I've love to see rekindled in martial arts cinema today. Ichi is often hiding his darkside from innocent children so they don't follow his footsteps. This film isn't as panoramic as the previous films. The earlier part of the series revels in Japan's countryside with lovely widescreen landscape shots. This one is more set pieces, more tightly framed in dark woody spaces. Until the end, where Mt. Fuji is the backdrop.
Ichi never does a chiburi. The fights end with everyone standing still as Ichi does his noto, and the moment the blade clicks back into saya, they all fall over dead. I'm still very impressed by Katsu's noto. Even with a dull blade, after several complex and frantic cuts, he always returns to a perfect noto. It's perfect zanshin, and one of the many qualities that make Zatoichi a brilliant martial arts film series. SPOILER The chess master fight is particularly amusing as the killing cut is several tempi prior to the noto. But then, whenever you see Ichi noto, you know it's done. END SPOILER
Hulu+ stalled out with about 5 minutes to go and S commented 'Five minutes? They're going to get all this resolved in five minutes?" I said "Yea, almost everybody is going to die - it's just a matter of who." Five minutes and dozens of bodies later S said, "well, obviously he wasn't going to die because there are more films."
Zatoichi's Vengeance - not to be confused with Zatoichi's Revenge (but these are just the English titles - the Japanese titles seem to translate literally quite differently - maybe I'll translate those a little more carefully later as my Japanese is really rusty).
I saw this one before but I only remembered the drum attack and the flicking-booger-into-boss's-sake move.
Ichi finds him alongside a blind monk, who offers him wisdom and the philosophical quandaries and karmic issues of his lifestyle. He persuades Ichi to swap out his sword cane for stick. Not that it makes much difference as Ichi can steal his opponent's katana just as easily, and the sword cane magically reappears later. There's a young adoring boy (the premature) and Ichi takes a beating to show his weakness and put the boy off. The final fight takes place in silhouette. I didn't think that would work because its such a short cut (pun intended) in choreographic skill, but the tension of the fight is sustained well enough and I applaud the creativity of how that played out. It was still a decent length single shot take and choreographed in a way that the fight could be followed quite clearly.
This one is very convoluted - almost too many story arcs. I started it and came back to it a few days later and got a little lost. S watched the end with me and I got messed up trying to recount the story so far because I mistook some of the characters. The chess master is a good foil for Ichi - the chess and swordsmanship metaphor - someone should do their PhD on that :oops: . It takes place at Hakone, the namesake of ED's matrimonial grounds, which is akin to Japan's version of UK's Bath in Jane Austin novels. There a woman on a quest for vengeance cross-dressed as a man that doesn't even look faintly masculine but only Ichi can see through her disguise. Ichi plays out a funny gambling scam, and gets busted at it. There's a little girl with tetanus w/a damsel in distress. The little girl takes on the 'premature' role, which is a persistent theme, one I've love to see rekindled in martial arts cinema today. Ichi is often hiding his darkside from innocent children so they don't follow his footsteps. This film isn't as panoramic as the previous films. The earlier part of the series revels in Japan's countryside with lovely widescreen landscape shots. This one is more set pieces, more tightly framed in dark woody spaces. Until the end, where Mt. Fuji is the backdrop.
Ichi never does a chiburi. The fights end with everyone standing still as Ichi does his noto, and the moment the blade clicks back into saya, they all fall over dead. I'm still very impressed by Katsu's noto. Even with a dull blade, after several complex and frantic cuts, he always returns to a perfect noto. It's perfect zanshin, and one of the many qualities that make Zatoichi a brilliant martial arts film series. SPOILER The chess master fight is particularly amusing as the killing cut is several tempi prior to the noto. But then, whenever you see Ichi noto, you know it's done. END SPOILER
Hulu+ stalled out with about 5 minutes to go and S commented 'Five minutes? They're going to get all this resolved in five minutes?" I said "Yea, almost everybody is going to die - it's just a matter of who." Five minutes and dozens of bodies later S said, "well, obviously he wasn't going to die because there are more films."
Zatoichi's Vengeance - not to be confused with Zatoichi's Revenge (but these are just the English titles - the Japanese titles seem to translate literally quite differently - maybe I'll translate those a little more carefully later as my Japanese is really rusty).
I saw this one before but I only remembered the drum attack and the flicking-booger-into-boss's-sake move.
Ichi finds him alongside a blind monk, who offers him wisdom and the philosophical quandaries and karmic issues of his lifestyle. He persuades Ichi to swap out his sword cane for stick. Not that it makes much difference as Ichi can steal his opponent's katana just as easily, and the sword cane magically reappears later. There's a young adoring boy (the premature) and Ichi takes a beating to show his weakness and put the boy off. The final fight takes place in silhouette. I didn't think that would work because its such a short cut (pun intended) in choreographic skill, but the tension of the fight is sustained well enough and I applaud the creativity of how that played out. It was still a decent length single shot take and choreographed in a way that the fight could be followed quite clearly.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse