2003 ‘座頭市’ Directed by Takeshi Kitano
Blind traveler Zatoichi is a master swordsman and a masseur with a fondness for gambling on dice games. When he arrives in a village torn apart by warring gangs, he sets out to protect the townspeople.
Takeshi Kitano Tadanobu Asano Michiyo Yasuda Yui Natsukawa Guadalcanal Taka Daigorô Tachibana Yuko Daike Ittoku Kishibe Saburo Ishikura Akira Emoto Hideboh Ron II Suji Noriyasu Makoto Ashikawa Tsumami Edamame Kôsuke Ôta Yoshiyuki Morishita Naomasa Musaka Ben Hiura Shoken Kunimoto Daigaku Sekine Koji Koike Koji Kiryu Taigi Kobayashi Yoshida Ayano Taichi Saotome Kanji Tsuda Shinji Asakura Show All…
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Japan
FranceU
USAR
South Korea15
Netherlands16
Spain
CzechiaU
Norway18
Hungary16
Germany16
AustraliaMA15+
Netherlands16
UK18
Netherlands16
Netherlands16
Australia
Czechia
France
Germany
Hungary
Japan
Netherlands
Norway
South Korea
Spain
UK
USA
Dumb people: you can't do self-serious action and wacky comedy well at the same time.
Takeshi Kitano: hold my sake
constantly draws your attention to its own overt artificiality. disguises everything: that woman is a man, those dice are fake, his cane hides a sword, this old guy is a mob boss, the blood is digital. eyes can't be trusted. Kitano trades his usual static deadpan for faster cuts and a moving camera, absolutely none of which his legendary protagonist -- who is totally in on the joke -- can see. and yet we're constantly sonically locked in to his perceptions, especially in the hidden music he hears everywhere.
there's a final plot twist i won't disclose that, along with Kitano's characteristic style of humor, adds to a general sense of dismissiveness of the material on his part. that's really…
Action!: The Campy, The Violent and The Plot Twist— Kitano's Lingering Violence
In a similar vein to movies such as Yojimbo and 13 Assassins, Kitano takes on the samurai genre in a way I wasn't expecting, mainly because the film is unevenly tonal it is.
It features the director's trademark humor and meditative pace with a character that's a badassery in essence, and Takeshi oozes the character with a form of cool that for many could rival some of the best fictional samurai characters ever created. Though at the same time, I couldn't help but feel some potential was wasted and a lot of the focus was placed on secondary characters that I couldn't really connect with, whose writing for…
the only takeshi kitano film i've seen where he seems to be having fun and not taking the whole affair too seriously; proof that a work-for-hire job isn't always the worst thing for a director. usually i hate the weightless digital blood stuff from the 2000s, but this is just the right amount of cartoonish buffoonery to where that feels appropriate -- kitano always has a great sense of humor, but it's usually used to sucker punch you with bad vibes, whereas his zatoichi film is thankfully lighthearted, full of neat fights, and never really makes you feel like shit. i get that's kind of his whole thing, but as someone who's not super into him, i appreciated the broader…
Cinematic Time Capsule
2003 Marathon - Film #108
”You’re no ordinary masseur”
Long before reboots were the hip new thing, Takeshi Kitano brought us this whimsical take on classic blind swordsman series.
Other than the 80’s knockoff, “Blind Fury” this was my first real introduction to the Zatōichi character and I remember really loving it. Sure the CGI enhancements are a bit cartoony and very hit and miss (especially to the modern eye) but there’s no denying this was a fun, eccentric and interesting take from a very unexpected source.
BONUS POINTS for that wonderfully rhythmic final curtain call, which somehow creates a magically toe-tapping feel-good finale despite all the bloody carnage that’s just been witnessed.
”Massuer, did you see that?”
“I don't see much”
With all the Zatoichi I've enjoyed digesting in the greater collection Shintaro Katsu will always be the true Zatoichi to me. Yet that doesn't hinder any other attempts at impersonations, as Takeshi Kitano did here. It doesn't matter if he's not the real Zatoichi at all, his version of Ichi is as deadly as any other and vastly entertaining. It's faster, flashier, and bloodier than earlier entries. It's also a bit goofier with some modern cheesy comic moments thrown in. I personally wasn't a fan of all the arcs which is the only reason for the half star short rating here, but I was a big fan of the action. Also, while I think the musical number at the end…
The CGI in this film looks horrendous. The film otherwise looks so true to the films it’s an homage to, I don’t know why they had to soil it with these Playstation 2 lookin ass blades and blood effects that don’t even properly sync up with the characters they’re coming out of instead of just doing a practical effect. Besides that though, the movie is good. It’s a fun little action comedy with likeable characters, good humour and a decent atmosphere and pace.
Takeshi Kitano's take on the blind swordsman is a glorious film. It adheres to the formula set by Shintaro Katsu's previous twenty six films (I say that but I still have the final five of the Criterion set and Arrow's Zatoichi: Darkness is My Ally to watch) but it deviates enough to revitalize the tale for a new generation.
The fight sequences are absolutely superb; visceral and violent, the villains dispatched with the speed that you would expect from Ichi's lighting sword. It's just a shame that the CG blood and gore don't hold up as well (for the most part). I know Kitano wanted to use CG so that he had more control over things like blood spatter but…
I'm not sure how to describe this film other than to say for the most part you think you are watching a typical samurai movie with a few light characters and scenes for comic relief, but by the end of it you are grinning like a baby because the final scene is so unexpected and fun and, well, it just makes you bloody happy! I must confess that halfway through I couldn't figure it out--there seemed to be two honourable samurai and it looked like they might end up facing each other. I've only seen 3 or 4 samurai films, but in those there has never been a fight between two honourable samurai. I couldn't wait to see how this…
- Kitano is one bad ass you dont wanna mess with!
- Loved the way he uses Rain during Crucial scenes
- Captures the atmospherics brilliantly
- Sarcastic,brutal,swift and merciless
- WTF Ending!
67/100
Second viewing, down from 71. The reason for my original modest over-generosity can be found in the drive-by that I "filed" from TIFF '03 :
Most of my reservations about Kitano involve his limitations as an actor, which is why Kids Return had previously been my favorite of his films. Let's face it, though, the guy can play this role with his eyes closed. (Sorry.) Weightless and choppy, but also thrillingly dynamic and oddly effervescent; it's probably as close as Kitano will ever come to making a full-blown musical, and the celebratory finale sent me out the door on a high that hasn't yet worn off. How NYFF could have wanted Brother but not this is beyond my comprehension.
(Rest of the review, along with everything else I write, available via ultra-cheap subscription. Seriously, it’s as little as $1 a month and for now that pays my rent.)
52 Week Challenge - Week 19 - A Film Title Beginning With Z.
6/10
💕The Good:
Takeshi 'Beat' Kitano did a good job as Zatoichi. He was likeable, funny and pretty badass. I laughed for ages when he had drawn the eyes on his eyelids.
I really liked the central good guy group and found them to be very likeable characters.
My favourite characters and storyline were the Geisha duo.
I liked the two scenes where funky beats were incorporated into mundane tasks. That was a nice touch.
💩The Bad:
I did find it to be pretty boring for the most part and at one point I nodded off. It felt like it had been on for such a long…
