Zatôichi: The Last

The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi (2003), where the leading role has Takeshi Kitano is everything which this movie isn't. It has an interesting story, we can enjoy more than impressive scene of the samurai sword fighting, every move is so precise, so 'Zen', so awesome. We follow three stories at the same time and they 'melt' into one, because the people in them meet each other, their life paths meet each other. This movie has everything: humor, fighting scenes, drama, crime, justice..., a complete movie. You can really laugh, you can really relate to every character and find the reason 'why' for she or he, every character is so greatly founded.

But the sequel, 'The last', is everything but not above mentioned. A very weak story, a weak characterization, there is nothing in Ichi's swordsmanship, he is so clumsy, that even the final fight is like a big joke. It is not even a the worst copy of the final scene from the last part from 2003. We can't feel the pain of Zatoichi, when his woman is dead, he uses his sword as it is the stick for killing flies. I don't even to bother what the director or the screen writer wanted to convey, because the movie didn't say anything. No drama, no humor, it is very boring story, dark, and very risky thing to make a sequel,a 'different' story after so great movie in 2003. I don't know what you are going to do and think, but me, after a big expectation to see more Zatoichi, because it is one of my favorite movies, I saw nothing.I tossed my copy and I am going to see Takeshi Kitano and this is the only Zatoichi for me. I know that there are tons of movies about Zatoichi even before Kitano, but I am sure that nobody can't top the 2003. version.

Up until I saw "Zatoichi: The Last", I thought the final Shintarô Katsu Zatoichi film (returning 27 years after the first film in the series) was the most unnecessary. That 1989 film found the legendary blind swordsman in prison--broken and only a shadow of his old self. Well, in "Zatoichi: The Last" it's even worse. He's not a shadow of his old self...he's simply NOT Zatoichi and it's a film that fan's can't help but hate.

This long and humorless film finds Zatoichi vowing to stop fighting and finally settle down after the murder of his wife. He goes to a crappy village full of farmers and fishermen. Surprise, surprise...soon baddies show up and beat up, rape and rob these poor people. Oddly, though, it sure takes a long time for enough to be enough and for Zatoichi to chop the baddies to pieces. And, since the film has "The Last" in its title, you can pretty much figure out how it's all going to end. No surprises here.

For folks who have never seen the films before this, I'd score this one a 6. It's depressing, overly long but worth seeing. For fans, I'd give this one a Zero if it was possible. This new Zatoichi acts and looks NOTHING like the original. Katsu's version which he played for 31 films was funny at times, likable and grizzled. This incarnation is just not this character in any way. A terrible slap in the face of fans.

By the way, I sure would have loved to have seen Takeshi Kitano return for another Zatoichi film. His 2003 Zatoichi film actually DID capture the spirit of the older films AND infused some freshness as well. So I am NOT against seeing a Zatoichi film without Shintarô Katsu---but the character must be consistent and in the spirit of the original films.

This interpretation of the character of Zatoichi was sincerely awful, with all his stumbling and bumbling. His swordmanship sucked, too. Absolutely nothing like Shintaro Kastu who brought a quiet dignity and class to the role.

And the sound editing was horrid. This movie will go on my list of Movies For The Blind.

I don't understand what "The Last" stands for in this movie's title. Maybe its predicting that this is the very last Zatoichi movie that will be made ? Who knows, but it's unlikely that this would be the last time popular character of Zatoichi will ever appear on screen.

Shingo Katori's version of Ichi lacks the creepiness of Shintaro Katsu, and Takeshi Kitano's version, but has much more modern looks and feel to it. Consequently, he appears too nice, and couldn't infuse enough menacing character to the role. The fault in my opinion is not with Katori, but the casting director who've cast Katori for this role. Katori is a good actor, but his strength is in more modern roles, or if he was 10 years older, he would have looked more the part.

The story wasn't so intriguing either. It didn't have to be a Zatoichi's movie to tell this story. The grittiness of the original is missing, and lacks the feeling of the downtrodden in the society. The transformance from the downtrodden to the super swordsman of usual Zatoichi movie is also lacking. What's too many of in this movie is senseless thrashing of people by the bad guys..

So while acceptable, the movie turned out to be mediocre in many ways, and can only be recommended for viewing by a die hard Zatoichi fans.

Excited at first to see a new Ichi movie, I was very disappointed as the movie dragggggged on. Having seen I believe every movie in the series, and some of the TV shows from the 70's, I can say with some validity that this movie has very little in common with any of them. Character name and cane sword, yes, but that's about it. The humanity, pathos and occasional comic touch, as played by Katsu (the original Zatoichi) is almost totally absent.

The script and plot are very hard to follow (and this from an avid follower of Japanese films). If you're not familiar with the feudal Japan of a few hundred years ago, and the role played by the yakuza there, you'll be totally lost. The movie is probably at least 30 minutes too long, with many scenes screaming for a less self-indulgent director/editor. I found myself frequently hitting fast-forward to shorten lengthy scenes of just walking, sitting, etc.

To top it off, Zatoichi films have at their core the singular hook of a blind swordsman prevailing against multiple foes. Unfortunately, the swordplay is very weak, and not staged very well. The actor playing Ichi looks as if he spent a few weeks learning iaido for the first time. Katsu's Ichi was heroic and larger-than-life, and there's just never a sense of that essential quality in this movie.

Finally, without giving anything away, I will just say the ending is arguably the worst ending I have seen in many decades. Watch ANY other of the dozens of Zatoichi movies, or the 100+ movie-quality TV episodes, and you'll be much happier.