07-05-2014, 10:50 PM
First off, this has been an epic review journey. Thanks for sharing it.
As for what comes next, have you seen the Maiku Hama Private Eye Trilogy? If not, you might consider it. No, I don't recall sword fights, but to my mind it's still worth visiting.
1. The Most Terrible Time in My Life (1994)
2. The Stairway to the Distant Past (1995)
3. The Trap (1996)
Each of these movies follows the emotional arc of the entire Zatoichi series. They start out with lots of Private Eye humor, sort of turning the genre on its side, but then a real case turns up, and each time it gets gritty and nasty fast, ending with some brutal and satisfying drama. I watched the three movies in reverse order. No, not on purpose. It was my naive process of discovering that it was a trilogy. If you only watch one, let it be the last, which has a bigger budget and all the actors are comfortable in their roles, the director is more inventive than ever, and the case gets really really strange. But the first two have merit as well.
As for what comes next, have you seen the Maiku Hama Private Eye Trilogy? If not, you might consider it. No, I don't recall sword fights, but to my mind it's still worth visiting.
1. The Most Terrible Time in My Life (1994)
2. The Stairway to the Distant Past (1995)
3. The Trap (1996)
Each of these movies follows the emotional arc of the entire Zatoichi series. They start out with lots of Private Eye humor, sort of turning the genre on its side, but then a real case turns up, and each time it gets gritty and nasty fast, ending with some brutal and satisfying drama. I watched the three movies in reverse order. No, not on purpose. It was my naive process of discovering that it was a trilogy. If you only watch one, let it be the last, which has a bigger budget and all the actors are comfortable in their roles, the director is more inventive than ever, and the case gets really really strange. But the first two have merit as well.