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Zatoichi
Plot
Beat Takeshi Kitano directs and plays the title role in this tribute to the wildly popular "blind swordsman" of Japanese cinema who was the hero of more than 20 movies and a television series from the early '60s to the late '80s. In Kitano's version, Zatôichi wanders into a town harassed by criminal gangs, and helps two geishas take revenge on the men who murdered their parents. His mission leads him to a final, bloody confrontation with the gang's mastermind and his hired assassin (Tadanobu Asano), a swordsman with a reputation as lethal as Zatôichi. ~ Tom Vick, RoviReview
Beat Takeshi Kitano's Zatôichi is an artfully crowd-pleasing riff on the samurai action film. Zatôichi , the beloved hero of a long-running series of genre flicks (which still play regularly on American television), is the perfect match for the impishly violent screen persona Kitano has developed over the course of his film career in films like Fireworks and Brother. With his eyes closed and sporting a knowing smile, he dispatches baddie after baddie in a spray of digitized blood. Kitano the director is fully aware that he's dealing in pure pulp and he revels in it, injecting genre conventions with the visceral, yet stylized, violence his fans have come to expect. As an actor, he clearly relishes the role of Zatôichi, who roams the country posing as a blind masseur, but who is, in reality, the most dangerous swordsman in the land. Even better, he tops the whole thing off with a tap dancing curtain call involving the entire cast that nods to the joyful exuberance of Bollywood and ends the film on an irresistibly upbeat note. A pop-culture creation, Zatôichi, as played in the original films by Shintaro Katsu, has become a mythic figure almost on a par with characters from ancient legend. With this vastly entertaining addition to the series, Kitano proves himself to be just the right man to carry on the tradition. ~ Tom Vick, RoviCast
- Takeshi Kitano - Zatôichi/Ichi
- Tadanobu Asano - Gennosuke Hattori
- Michiyo Okusa - Aunt Oume
- Yui Natsukawa - Oshino
- Guadalcanal Taka - Shinkichi
Credit
Takefumi Yoshikawa - Casting, Stripes - Choreography, Takio Yoshida - Co-producer, Masanori Sanada - Co-producer, Kazuko Kurosawa - Costume Designer, Takashi Matsukawa - First Assistant Director, Takeshi Kitano - Director, Takeshi Kitano - Editor, Yoshinori Ota - Editor, Chieko Saito - Executive Producer, Shinji Kamiya - Line Producer, Hitoshi Takaya - Lighting, Keiichi Suzuki - Composer (Music Score), Norihiro Isoda - Production Designer, Katsumi Yanagishima - Cinematographer, Kensei Mori - Production Manager, Masayuki Mori - Producer, Tsunehisa Saito - Producer, Senji Horiuchi - Sound/Sound Designer, Kan Shimozawa - Screen Story, Takeshi Kitano - Screenwriter, Haru Shohara - Script Supervisor, Yohji Yamamoto - Costumes Supervisor, Kan Shimozawa - Short Story Author| Zatoichi (1989 Film), Zatoichi (1963 Film) | |
| Zatoichi & the Fugitives (1968 Film), Zatoichi Challenged (1967 Film) |
Zatōichi
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Zatōichi (2003 film)
| Zatōichi | |
|---|---|
 Japanese theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Takeshi Kitano |
| Produced by | Masayuki Mori Tsunehisa Saitō |
| Screenplay by | Takeshi Kitano |
| Story by | Kan Shimozawa (novel) |
| Starring | Beat Takeshi Tadanobu Asano Michiyo Okusu Yui Natsukawa Guadalcanal Taka Daigoro Tachibana Yuko Daike Ittoku Kishibe Saburo Ishikura Akira Emoto |
| Music by | Keiichi Suzuki |
| Cinematography | Katsumi Yanagishima |
| Editing by | Takeshi Kitano Yoshinori Ōta |
| Studio | Bandai Visual Tokyo FM Dentsu TV Asahi Saitō Entertainment Office Kitano |
| Distributed by | Shochiku Office Kitano |
| Release date(s) |
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| Running time | 116 minutes |
| Country | ‹See Tfd› Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
| Box office | $32,285,593 [1] |
Zatōichi (座頭市) is a 2003 Japanese samurai drama and action film, directed, written, co-edited, and starring Takeshi Kitano ("Beat" Takeshi) in the eleventh film he has directed.[2] Kitano plays the role of the blind swordsman.
The film is a revival of the classic Zatōichi series of samurai film and television dramas. It premiered on September 3, 2003 at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the prestigious Silver Lion for Best Director award, and went on to numerous other awards both at home and abroad. It also stars Tadanobu Asano, Michiyo Okusu, Yui Natsukawa, Guadalcanal Taka, Daigorō Tachibana, Yuko Daike, Ittoku Kishibe, Saburo Ishikura, and Akira Emoto.
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Contents
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Plot
The film's plot follows a traditional theme, with Zatōichi coming to the defense of townspeople caught up in a local Yakuza gang war and being forced to pay excessive amounts of protection money. Meanwhile, Zatōichi befriends a local farmer and her gambler nephew and eventually offers his assistance to two geisha siblings (one of whom is actually a man) who are seeking revenge for the murder of their parents. The siblings are the only survivors of a massacre that was carried out on their family estate in order to obtain large sums of money ten years ago. They soon discover the people responsible for the murders are the same Yakuza wreaking havoc on the small town.
After slicing his way through an army of henchmen with his shikomizue, Zatōichi defeats the Yakuzas' bodyguard, a powerful ronin, in a duel. Zatōichi later wanders into town and confronts the Yakuza bosses, killing the second-in-command and blinding the elderly Yakuza boss (who had been masquerading as a bumbling old waiter up until this point) after opening his eyes for the first time and giving the boss the impression that he has been able to see the entire time. The film ends with a dance number led by noted Japanese tap dance troupe The Stripes, and Zatōichi walking down a trail and tripping over a rock, saying "Even with my eyes wide open, I can't see anything."
Cast
- Beat Takeshi as Zatōichi
- Tadanobu Asano as the ronin Hattori Gennosuke
- Michiyo Okusu as O-Ume, the farmer
- Yui Natsukawa as O-Shino, Hattori's wife
- Daigorō Tachibana as O-Sei
- Taichi Saotome as young O-Sei
- Yuuko Daike as O-Kinu
- Guadalcanal Taka as Shinkichi
Awards
- 2003, September 6, Venice Film Festival, Silver Lion for Best Direction, Venice [2][3]
- 2003, Audience Award Leone Del Pubblico, Venice [2]
- 2003, September 14, 28th International Toronto Film Festival, Audience Award AGF People's Choice Award, Toronto [2][3]
- 2003, London Film Festival [2]
References
External links
- Official website
- Zatoichi at the Internet Movie Database
- Zatōichi at AllRovi
- Zatoichi at Rotten Tomatoes
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