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This week was a lot more Zatoichi for me as I watched Adventures of Zatoichi (1964), Zatoichi's Revenge (1965), Zatoichi and the Doomed Man (1965) and Zatoichi and the Chess Expert (1965). Last night I started Zatoichi's Vengeance, but it was already late and it had been a long day of fun during and after watching the Seahawks beat the Saints so I'll have to finish that one later tonight. At this point, though, I think it's pretty safe to saw I'm loving all the Zatoichi movies, as if my post this past week wasn't proof enough. Additionally, I watched Inside Llewyn Davis and Her, both for a third time and it really is a toss-up as to which one of those I like the most from 2013 and even though it was only a couple weeks ago that I posted my top ten from 2013, I'm already beginning to regret not including The Wolf of Wall Street.

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Nov. 26, 2013

Price: Blu-ray/DVD Combo $224.95

Studio: Criterion

Shintaro Katsu relies on his blade in 1963's Zatoichi on the Road.

The colossally popular Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman action-adventure films make up the longest-running action series in Japanese history and created one of the screen’s great heroes: an itinerant blind masseur who also happens to be a lightning-fast swordsman.

As this iconic figure, the charismatic and earthy Shintaro Katsu became an instant superstar, lending a larger-than-life presence to the thrilling adventures of a man who lives staunchly by a code of honor and delivers justice in every town and village he enters.

The films that feature him are variously pulse-pounding, hilarious, stirring, and completely off-the-wall.

This deluxe set features the string of 25 Zatoichi films made between 1962 and 1973, collected in one package for the first time.

Here’s a list of the films in the collection:

The Tale Of Zatoichi...

Criterion has announced its upcoming November 2013 titles and they include some highly coveted films, one of 2013's better films, an impressive box set and their new dual-format DVD/Blu-ray releases. To begin, it was a little bit of a shock to see they have abandoned releasing both DVD and Blu-ray versions of their film and instead will now release DVD/Blu-ray, dual-format editions. Note here it says dual format "editions", not "discs", which leads me to believe most releases will include both a DVD and Blu-ray disc. Consider in today's announcement the 27-disc box set of the Zatoichi films. This consists of nine Blu-ray discs and 18 DVD discs. On top of that Criterion confirms features will be available for on both DVD and Blu-ray formats. As far as this months titles are concerned, I'll begin with the upgraded Blu-ray release of Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story, which was the December 2012 selection...