Zatôichi

This 26th also the last of the Zatoichi series indeed is the worst one among the 26 episodes. Shintarô Katsu in 1989 looked fat with natural gray short hairs, he directed and produced this one, added lot of modern stunts, his katana sword's ghost-like flashing cuts now got crimson blood splashed out of his opponents' bodies, unlike the early episodes, only cut but no blood coming out. we got chopped off hands, arms, legs even heads rolling on the ground. we saw him cured the sword in a hotel room. then we saw at the first time he finally got the chance to make love to a beautiful Yakuza local chief in a hot spring.

Yeah, these are the new stuff he put into this last episode. but some of the scenes were overly used again and again in former episodes so many times, such as gambling scene, purposely letting two dices littered outside of the cup, cutting fake dices, etc., etc. but the scene that he stumbled into a dirt pit on the road is too much and too lazily copied from one of the earlier episode, simply is not quite good either.

One of the worst arrangements of this series is repeatedly used so many same actors played so many different roles in different episodes. although their names or titles might not be the same, but these repeatedly showed actors were just killed by him in last episode, then same actors with the same faces showed up right in the next episode. this careless arrangement had seriously caused some viewing problems. a serious franchised series should not use so many same actors to repeatedly showed in different episodes; it's just stupid and ridiculous.

This 26th episode actually should never been made in the first place. it looked just so tiresome and spiritless. by making one like this only meant that Shintarô Katsu just wanted to cash in the last time.

Due to this series' popularity at that time, he even put some songs and sang by himself in the last several episodes, but the song in this last one was simply stupid, we got an English song! was it just because he sold this episode to some unknown American TV channel, so he got to put an English roaming samurai song in it for the American TV viewers? Well, the stupidity always amazed me.

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

"After "Zatoichi in desperation", Shintaro Katsu got "behind and in front" of the cameras again at the same time for this last film in the saga about the adventures of the swordsman and blind masseur. Katsu directs and stars in this 1989 "Zatoichi", as well as having written the script, and financed it as a co-producer. His son Ryutaro Gan impersonates the young oyabun Goemon.

Apart from seeing a very mature Ichi, around sixty years old and in the twilight of his days, the plot brings practically nothing new to what has already been seen in the 25 previous films. The same schemes are repeated, old details and stories are recycled, we see the same strategy of Ichi in the dice game, and the blind masseur continues to fully retain his faculties with the sword. In this, years have not passed for him.

(...)

The film lasts two hours, much longer than the most of the other movies (Only "Zatoichi meets Yojimbo" has that extension as well).

Although this last film may disappoint some, one thing is for sure: Zatoichi is Shintaro Katsu and Shintaro Katsu is Zatoichi. Later attempts to bring the blind hero back to the big screen with other actors may be respectable (as is the case with Takeshi Kitano's "Zatoichi" in 2003), but they don't reach the quality of Katsu's 60's and 70's Zatoichi films (directed by Kenji Misumi, Kimiyoshi Yasuda or Kazuo Ikehiro among others).

Good soundtrack with ambient touches by Takayuki Watanabe, except for one song in English, which is quite out of place in that context.

There was a tragic accident during the shooting of this film: Actor Ryutaro Gan (son of Shintaro Katsu), who plays Goemon, killed an extra with a katana while filming a combat scene."

All hail the genius of Shintaro Katsu for creating such a non-stop movie hero. He will always be Zatoichi in my heart, so it is heartening to know that he finished off his legacy as Zatoichi with a 26th film made thirteen years after he "retired" the character in crippling defeat in 1973. He also co-wrote and directed - his only triple threat in the history of the series. But while the movie is certainly fun, and at times very sweet, it has some flaws that don't quite allow it to live up to the excited originality of its predecessors.

The character of Zatoichi is older and wiser, but generally remains as we remember him. The fighting scenes certainly have zing and gore, with buckets of blood pouring whenever someone gets so much as a paper cut (including one particularly horrific blood-soaked scene of a villain continually slicing a subordinate in a drunken fit). And even though it was filmed in the late 80s, Zatoichi #26 doesn't lose any of the series' period-piece charm (in fact, the cinematography and is quite good).

Shintaro Katsu is at his most doddering and charming as the now-elderly Zatoichi. He is downright tender and sweet when he entertains a group of children, meets a traveling band of fellow blind masseurs, humbly succumbs to prison torture, uncomfortably accepts gifts from an old friend, or tries to understand the color red. He's fiendishly clever showing up a bunch of gamblers who are more than willing to try and cheat a blind man at dice. And he is even kinda sexy as he enjoys a seductive hot bath with a naked young yakuza powerhouse (Rowr!). It's nice that the film is attentive to the character and he certainly seems more reflective, but the story only truly comes to life when Zatoichi gets down to slicing up some arms, noses, and torsos. Those scenes are unfortunately infrequent, and while the gore is certainly excessive in the most wonderful way, the choreography is sloppy and somewhat uninspired. Katsu was approaching 60 at the time of filming, hardly a young pup, so he can't be faulted too much for toning down the acrobatics - or squatting, as the case may be.

The biggest flaw, one that doesn't make the film unwatchable but less likely to enjoy repeated viewings, is that it is overlong by half and bogged down in a plot that...well, just doesn't make any darn sense. Instead of a single foe for Zatoichi to focus on, the film features an abundance of ill-defined villains, a weepy samurai, the previously mentioned sexy yakuza leader, a shifty rival gang-leader, an imprisoned rebel, a young mother with a huge brood of kids, and Katsu's own son in the closest to main villain role as a gambling big-wig. They over-fill the story with sub-plots of battling each other for supremacy, expanding gambling empires, trading antique firearems, and ordering the gradual slaughter of each supporting character - most of whom die at each other's hands rather than by the sword-cane of our blind anti-hero. There's so much extraneous plot that there are long stretches where Ichi himself is pointless, and indeed, it feels like another film were made around him.

As a lesser sin, there is a lot to be said against the film's use of a cheesy 80s pop ballad - in English, no less. But it certainly adds the right touch of hilarious cheesiness right after a particularly gory Zatoichi bloodbath (sample lyric: "Looking at life through the eyes of a looooner"). Fortunately, it only pops up in one scene, and the rest of the music is appropriately old school.

I'd say this entry into the series is one you should see... oh, maybe fifth. Start with the first film, The Tale of Zatoichi, which is low on actual fighting, fitting more in the tone and style of Kurosawa's style of traditional samurai film. Then go to one of the middle period films - take your pick from the 17 titles currently reissued on DVD by Home Vision Entertainment, they are all fun and ridiculous in their own way (I recommend The Fugitive, but just because I had the chance to see it on the big screen). Then don't miss 1970's Zatoichi Meets Yojimo, a must see thanks to the presence of Toshiro Mifue, and probably the funniest in the series. And finally, jump to Takeshi Kitano's 2003 Zatoichi remake. Kitano's tribute is better than this 1989 entry, and covers many of the same themes.

Plus, much better music.

THEN watch this one. And after that, you've only got 22 more to go as well as the television series and the ridiculous U.S. remake Blind Fury with Rutger Hauer (an abomination if considered as part of the Zatoichi series, but a hilariously bad stand-alone film) before you have completed the Zatoichi cannon.

There's a lot that's great about the final film in the Zatoichi series, with some small disappointments on the side.

The action is great, it's really well shot, Shintaro Katsu is as good as ever, and the gore is all out in this one. It gives you a lot of what you want out of the series, and calls back to enough things that the reviews calling this something of a Zatoichi's Greatest Hits are right on the mark.

Unfortunately, I didn't like how little the title character was actually featured in his own finale! Felt a bit like Godzilla in one of his movies just rocking up every now and then, but overall quite seperate, at times, from the other less interesting characters.

And as for the story: it's a little convoluted. It's not as sleek and seamless as the narratives presented in some of the best Zatoichi films.

Also: I wish they did more with Zatoichi's age, here. A little more melancholy about getting old could have gone a long way to making this hit more emotionally.

But for its strengths alone, it's still a good entry in the franchise, and works as a fun- if far from perfect- send off.

And let's face it: if you've made it through the first 25, you're already sold on watching this one.

Zatôichi returns, older but with his samurai attributes better than ever.

This, incidentally, is one of the most criticizable aspects of this film: never has Zatôichi killed so many enemies at the same time as in old age. And by the way, never has so much blood been spilled in a Zatôichi film as in this last one, with Shintarô Katsu, who also writes, produces and directs it. No one expects realism in a martial arts film, but Tarantino was not to be anticipated either.

On another level, it also seemed inappropriate to use a song in English, in a style very from the 80s (slap bass and electronic drums) in the soundtrack of a film set in feudal Japan.

Nevertheless, it is a good film in the series, with a solid, interesting and action-packed plot. And Shintarô Katsu showed himself at an excellent level this last time he dressed the skin of the character he played for 27 years.