Zatoichi, o Fugitivo

Masseur Ichi, the Fugitive (1963)

*** (out of 4)

The blind swordsman Ichi (Shintaro Katsu) angers a large yakuza after defeating them in a wrestling match, which will lead to a bigger fight. Directed by Tokuzo Tanaka. This here was my second film in the series and while I enjoyed most of the first one, this one here just doesn't cut it. There's way too much talking going on and none of it is even mildly interesting. Even worse is that the actual swordfights are rather lame as well. The concept of a blind swordsman is really the only thing that keeps this film (and perhaps series?) afloat.

I recently rewatched Zatoichi: The Fugitive (1963) on a random streaming service. The story follows our hero, Zatoichi, who is framed for a crime by the local Yakuza-leading to a bounty hunter being hired to track and kill him. Meanwhile, an old flame resurfaces at a most inopportune time...

Directed by Tokuzô Tanaka (The Demon of Mount Oe), the film stars Shintarô Katsu (Hanzo the Razor), Miwa Takada (Yokai Monsters), and Masayo Banri (The Depths).

The cinematography is top-tier-from the stunning backdrops to the framing of each character and the dynamic execution of every action sequence. The film does a remarkable job of showcasing the culture organically, without making it the focus. The opening sumo wrestling scene is a standout: an unexpected and entertaining way to reintroduce our hero. It's also a treat to see a youthful Shintarô Katsu in these early entries.

The sword fights are sudden, stylish, and brilliantly choreographed. The buildup to the final showdown is strong, and the duel itself delivers. As for the romantic subplot-true to form for Zatoichi-it's bittersweet, and he remains a heartbreaker.

In short, Zatoichi: The Fugitive is a masterclass in filmmaking, cultural texture, and heroic storytelling. I'd give it an 8/10 and strongly recommend it.

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

"(...) Zatoichi agrees to be transported in a jinrikisha (a type of proto-taxi in Japan of the Tokugawa era, and other Asian countries). Persecutors who want to kill the blind man see how he rides the vehicle, as they keep a close watch on him. At the edge of the road, Zatoichi and his carriers meet a woman with a baby who feels unwell. Chivalrously, Zatoichi proposes to the mother to get into the car in his place; he will continue on foot. A few meters ahead, the jinrikisha is attacked, the killers strung the person inside thinking that it is Zatoichi ... and killing instead the young mother (...).

(...) Zatoichi, who feels responsible for the tragedy, decides to take the baby to the town of Miyagi to give it to her father Unosuke, the husband of the deceased.

(...) This issue is the eighth sequel to the excellent "Zatoichi monogatari" (Kenji Misumi, 1962). The director of every film about the adventures of the blind swordsman is not always the great Kenji Misumi, but this is the case in this "Zatoichi kessho-tabi" that we are dealing with today, and whose international title in English comes to be, without much sense, "Fight, Zatoichi, fight". We say without much meaning because that title is not necessarily descriptive of the film (Zatoichi fights in all his films), and we are inclined to think that it is not the literal translation from Japanese either.

this is one of the so-so add-on(s) of this 'blind swordsman' series. after couple of the prequel and sequel in black and white, it suddenly turned into a colored one. but there were many flaws in this series that by nowadays standard, they were so obvious and inevitably decreased the greatness of this series:

1) In this follow-up film, Zatoichi's short hairdo suddenly fashioned in modern cut. his short hair was trimmed so evenly and nicely and blow dry up and held on his head firmly. a wandering Yakuza blind masseur would have such fashion taste to have his hairdo nicely treated in an expensive saloon was beyond my comprehension.

2) The fighting scenes looked more false and phony once in colors. the swords never cut open the clothes and no blood was splashed all over the places, even when cut by Zatoichi's sword and fell into the pond, no blood ever showed up in the water, yet when Zatoichi was cut by his opponent's sword, his arm would have blood. but judging by where it was cut, the artery on his arm should have cut deeply and the blood would never be so easily to be stopped. but the worst effect of such synchronized swords fighting was those clothes never being slashed open and no blood appeared whatsoever, it just looked so fake and unconvincing, more like the stupid productions of Chinese 'Shaw Brothers' Kung-Fu movies, all of them just looked so stupidly fake and moronically synchronized.

3) For a blind man, no matter how sensitive his hearing ability, there's no way he could have detected the positions and locations of so many enemies around him. but Zatoichi seemed to have the supernatural power to rightly detect his enemies' locations and where to lodge and cut his opponents' bodies. the most unconvincing flaw of Japanese samurai movies was the sudden stop in action when one of the guys was cut and the others just stood around to await the next synchronized movement. it seems when all the people surrounding their targeted person would allow the guy to finish the fatal cut of their comrades to be completed thoroughly and then to start the next fighting sequence. this is such a unbearable fake scene almost appeared in every Japanese samurai movie.

4) When a hunting rifle was implemented in this film, the primitive long gun seemed to be very easily reloaded. by judging this movie series era, the primitive rifle would need fuse to ignite the gun powder to push a round bullet ball out of the barrel, it would need gun powder to be stuffed into the barrel and chamber first then inserted the lead ball bullet to complete the reload, yet in this film and all the other series, the rifle simply operated so modern than what we usually saw in the fighting scenes of the American Civil War.

The screenplay of this film is just too bland and lukewarm to make this particularly a great and memorable one.

One might mistake this for the first Zatôichi in colour, so bold are the colours during the opening credits that they'd challenge even Imamura's hyper-lush "Kamigami no yakubo" (1968).

What the films achieve wonderfully is that they still allow the necessary plotting to take its time. In modern fare I think we'd be having all the quiet moments and hesitations removed, let alone all the human drama. Thus the film really has genuinely suspenseful moments and genuine drama. Otane reappears, and we are allowed to see a loose end tied in the drama.

I'm going through the films in chronological order just now. It will be interesting to see where the series goes as it matures; these early films have all been very brilliant.