His Sword Made Him a Hero... His Courage Made Him a Legend. This Summer, Justice is Blind.
What do you get if you translate "revisionist western", "gunfighters" and "the Man With No Name" into Japanese? A bloody tale of gang rivalry and personal revenge set in a town in 19th century Japan, with samurai swordfighters and, in place of Clint Eastwood's brand of mythic anti-hero, a soft-spoken middle-aged blind masseur / gambler with hidden talents.
Written, co-edited, directed by and starring the (it goes without saying) multi-talented Takeshi "Beat" Kitano, Zatoichi is an exceptional film. An ensemble piece, it interweaves the stories of a charismatic samurai warrior forced to hire himself out for funds to treat his invalid wife, a couple of murderous geishas whose back story provides good reason for revenge, a local man with a passion but no talent for gambling living with his aunt, a farmer, and a war between two local Yakuza (criminal) gangs.
The character of Zatoichi, it says in Wikipedia, was well-known in Japan in recent decades through a series of films and TV shows, as a travelling vigilante, protecting "the innocent from oppressive or warring yakuza gangs and investigating/stopping general injustice", rather like David Carradine's wandering monk in the 70s US TV series "Kung Fu".
The film includes a number of memorable fight sequences, extremely violent, but also beautiful in their precise choreography and swift start-stop rhythms, sort of like an animated series of snapshots, endowing the key combatants with preternatural presence of mind and athletic skill, and most importantly, allowing the audience to clearly follow the sequence of moves leading to victory or defeat, unlike the modern vogue for fight scenes comprised of impressionistic collages that mystify more than illuminate. As well as action sequences, there are quieter more reflective scenes, and some laugh out loud slapstick sequences, including a wonderfully surreal group of rhythmic fieldworkers. Not for nothing, one could be forgiven for assuming, is the director's nickname "Beat" Takeshi. (Actually, Wikipedia points out, this nickname is a hangover from his days as a standup comedian, Beat Takeshi.)
The performances are fantastic. Kitano himself, stooped, thick-bodied, shuffling, eyes closed, face-twitching, is strangely compelling, like a stunted Charles Bronson, but somehow hugely believable in the fight sequences. The ronin samurai (Wikipedia explains that a free-lance samurai is a ronin) is played with great inner strength and gravitas by Tadanobu Asano. The younger of the two geisha siblings, Daigoro Tachibana, in particular, gives a fantastic performance. The foolish gambler is nicely played by Guadalcanal Taka.
Zatoichi is an entertaining work of art that could work well in a double bill with a Sergio Leone or Clint Eastwood western, or even the animated modern western "Rango" (though the audience would need to be limited to adults).
- Rating: Exceptional
- When seen: 25 Mar 2011
- Where seen: Home
- More information: IMDB | RottenTomatoes | Wikipedia
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Amendments: Removed link to Wikipedia-sourced image. Added ranking image.
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