La légende de Zatôichi : Le shogun de l'ombre

I bought the Criterion Bluray set,one of my best purchases ever,but mostly so I could get my hands on this movie,possibly the best in the series,and in the top 10 best Chambara flicks ever. Shintaru was in charge on this,and it shows,it has everything Zatoichi fans love,gambling,comedy,some pathos,villainy and great swordsmanship,and boy,does this flick deliver the goods! If you like Samurai cinema,this one is one of the essentials,completely engaging,action entertainment of the finest sort. The director went on to direct the Lone Wolf and Cub series,so you know you are in for a good time,it has some wild imagery,furious jaw dropping swordplay and some nice crimson too! This flick ROCKS!

'Zatoichi At The Fire Festival' was the 21st entry in the popular martial arts series that starred Shintaro Katsu as the blind swordsman Zatoichi. This time around Zatoichi (who moonlights as a masseur) is present at a geisha auction. Later that night he rescues one of the sold women but she is unexpectedly murdered by a mysterious swordsman. We soon learn that he was the dead woman's husband and that he plans on killing Zatoichi because he believes that his wife slept with him. To complicate things further Zatoichi also makes an enemy of the local boss (a common occurrence in this series!), a blind man known as "the Prince Of Darkness" (played by Masayuki Mori who co-starred in Kurosawa's samurai classic 'Rashomon'), becomes a sort of mentor to a young, effeminate wanna-be pimp Umeji (played by Peter, who later appeared in Kurosawa's 'Ran'), and also falls in love with the beautiful Okiyo (Reiko Ohara). Whew! I'm a relative newcomer to these movies but I'm really loving them. Zatoichi is a fascinating character, shy and funny, but a killing machine when need be. This is one of the best in the series, and the standout scenes are a hilarious attempted seduction of Zatoichi by Umeji, and a killer nude fight sequence in a bathhouse. If Beat Takeshi's recent (excellent) 'Zatoichi' has whetted your appetite try some of the Katsu originals. They are immensely entertaining, and I'll bet twenty bucks that Tarantino is a BIG fan.

This entry in the Zatoichi series is firmly planted in the 1970s and at times has an almost James Bondesque feel to it. This is especially true in the bath house scene where Zatoichi goes to enjoy a calming bath and ends up attached by scores of tattooed, naked yakuza. The music is great and the scene is frenetic and fun at the same time. Wooden buckets are used strategically and in a funny way. For veteran Zatoichi fans, notice how Zatoichi's style differs when he uses someone else's sword.

Tatsuya Nakadai does take part in Festival of Fire. He is a truly deranged and dangerous ronin. Of course it's Zatoichi's fate to meet him in the final scene.

The colors are brilliant, there's a good musical score and it's a fine blend of humor, drama, and action. This is an entry with wide appeal for chambara fans. It's campy at times, so those who love the early Zatoichi films most might feel that this film is a bit frivolous, but for the casual viewer there is much to enjoy.

I couldn't believe it when I saw Tatsuya Nakadai (Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Harakiri, High and Low, Ran, etc,etc) pop up in this Zatoichi episode as a crazed, jilted husband out for revenge on almost everyone, including Zatoichi. I noticed the credits had a variation of his name (Nakayo, I think it was). We also have Masayuki Mori (Rashomon, The Idiot, etc) as the mandatory evil boss. Only this time, the evil boss is an evil SUPERBOSS, he's blind (and therefore obviously much more dangerous) and resembles Fritz Lang's Dr. Mabuse. We also have a great humorous side story with Peter (the blind younger brother in Ran) playing an effeminate pimp who tries to seduce and kill Zatoichi --a riot--in order to enter the local yakuza gang. There's also a very funny scene with two roadhouse employees that had me laughing out loud. The cast, characters and plot really set this one above many of the Zatoichi's, including the one Katsu did with Toshiro Mifune (Zatoichi vs. Yojimbo). The film is directed by Kenji Misumi, who directed some of the best Zatoichi films as well as several of the Lone Wolf and Cub series. An absolute must-see for Zatoichi fans and highly recommended for sumarai movie fans. As a Zatoichi movie, 11 out of 10, as a samurai movie or on any other basis, 9 of 10.

The following review is an extract from the book "Shintaro Katsu´s Zatoichi: Complete guide to all movies", which is now available on Amazon.

In 1830, in the province of Kanto, a very powerful head of organized crime managed to unify under his command all the clans of the Yakuza. This supreme leader, whom very few have seen, controls with an iron fist illegal businesses such as gambling, prostitution and extortion; and is known throughout Japan as "The Dark Imperial Lord," or "the Shogun of the Underworld".

Zatoichi arrives in that region after witnessing numerous villagers kneeling before an outstanding character transported in palanquin: "Who is that daimyo?" He gets no answer, because it was not a daimyo, but the enigmatic "boss of bosses" and his entourage.

(...)

Together with "Zatoichi 's Pilgrimage" (Kazuo Ikehiro, 1966) this is undoubtedly one of the best episodes in the entire saga of 26 films about Zatoichi (if not directly the best). Made by Kenji Misumi, lead actor Shintaro Katsu participated in the script.

Aesthetic beauty is present throughout the film, and it is worth highlighting a scene in which the mysterious samurai chasing Zatoichi has a kind of flashback nightmare...

In the final scenes, Ichi will have to endure a real hell before confronting the sinister yakuza boss - who is as blind and cunning as he is. But unlike the "Shogun of the Underworld," Ichi is on the side of justice and always denounces hypocrisy and corruption: "We bandits act outside the law, but you behave as if you belonged to royalty..."