FREE ON CINEGEEK.De Takeshi Kitano - Zatoichi 

The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi offers all the contradictory elements that make Takeshi Kitano such a fascinating director and actor! As is so often the case, Kitano plays a man with a motionless face and few words - and then within seconds - action! This man lives by a code, enforces it according to his own rules. All this is presented in Kitano's style, which includes his performances, which function as if in a musical revue. Kitano performs under the name Beat Takeshi. Until then he played modern tough guys. In Zatoichi he ventures back into the 19th century for the first time. He slips into the role of the blind swordsman Zatoichi. By the way, you can find the models for this in our DVD cellar: Zatoichi meets Yojimbo - Zatôichi to Yôjinbô (1970) DVD7257 and Zatoichi meets the one armed Swordsman - Shin zatô Ichi: Yabure! Tôjin-ken (1971) DVD7181. The original Zatoichi was always played by Shintaro Katsu until the late 80s. The series comprises 26 films! During the 90s, the Zatoichi series continued again with almost 50 films and comedian Kiyoshi Atsumi. Kitano as Zatoichi is more like a Westerner, redefining the pop character of his character. His Zatoichi is a humble wanderer with razor-sharp developed hearing and instincts. He knows much better what is happening around him than those who can only see. He walks with a slightly stooped posture. Sometimes he smiles or laughs to himself. He never seems tense and in no time his horse has found its target! The basic plot corresponds to a revenge drama. Zatoichi meets two sisters (one is actually a transvestite). They work as geishas. After the notorious Ginzo gang murders their parents, the sisters become orphans. Zatoichi finds out about this. Although he never declares his intention to do anything, the members of the gang die one after the other until it comes to the second fight between Zatoichi and the chief villain Hattori (Tadanobu Asano). It all sounds quite conventional, but in Kitano's hands, his special timing, his pace, his unmistakable style, make it a Kitano film. He doesn't like Hong Kong martial arts extravaganzas. Zatoichi kills his opponents quickly and leaves a chic blood pattern in his wasteland. Yet he is not in every scene. The film also focuses on the Ginzo boss (Ittoku Kishibe) and the two geishas. We also get an insight into village life, gossip and the great interest in Zatoichi's second job: he is a blind masseur. Kitano prefers to combine violence with artistic outings and music. A house-building scene almost turns into a musical performance. For this, even the actors we have seen before appear behind the scenes. This seems as charming as it is almost unnecessary, but it makes all the difference: imaginative playfulness in a building-block action film. Some of you complained that Kitano was breaking martial arts rules. That's true! I'm very grateful to him for that! Until Zatoichi, he had made eleven films. Most of them were hard action films, but he also did a lot of other things. In Japan, he is best known as the host of a bizarre TV show that puts people in perverse situations (like rolling down a hill in a barrel with nails). Likewise, his films thrive on Kitano's free artistic will. He doesn't continue the Zatoichi series, he redesigns it.