Zatoichi

[Drunk Monk]

Being a woman, Oichi aspires to love. Zatoichi just wants to be accepted because he's a homely blind guy, but Oichi, a lovely blind gal, can aspire higher. Yoko has one of those intricate faces, like Meryl Streep in the way she seems to have a few extra facial muscles than most humans. Yoko really works her eyes, but in this one, her blindness was so inconsequential. She wasn't giving as many vacant stares. Quite the opposite, she was looking all over the place. There were several prolonged close-ups of her registering various emotions like a romance. In fact, that's the main element that Oichi brings to the narrative. Oichi tries to put away her cane sword and be happy, just for a night, just before she has to kill everyone. Then she kills everyone. And it's kind of sweet. Romantic. Then, it's rage unleashed. As for the fights, she's got this blind girl flailing style of swordwork, but she sticks the kill shots. She wears crimson kimonos and her cane sword has a crimson case and handle, so it's very visual. In the finale, a daylight fight scene switches to this surreal stage and it becomes almost like bunraku with kill shots focusing on contorted faces in red and green lights, and then to stills of Oichi cutting and blood splashing, like some sort of French Art film.

There's a great villainess that wields a whip woven from the hair of jilted women and keeps vipers in her bosom for throwing weapons (she has a huge snake yakuza tat on her back).

Very entertaining. Would have been totally DOOM worthy back in the day. Now it's vintage and we don't do so much of that at DOOM...we should.