First things first. For those of you who are not familiar with Zatoichi, he is not a samurai. Zatoichi can be described as a swordsman, yakuza, and perhaps even chaotic good, but not a samurai. I don't think he lives in bushido. So that's that.
Zatoichi gambles, drinks, kills people and he's awesome! Here's a picture I took earlier of the menu of a DVD that Dad and I were watching.
It is popular belief that a lot of westerns are based on Japanese samurai films, like The Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa. I can see tons of cowboys in old westerns aspiring to be the kind of bad ass that Zatoichi is.
The plotlines of most of the Zatoichi movies follow the same type of formula. A person makes a dying request to Zatoichi, a blind masseur and innocent bystander. Then Zatoichi, being the nice guy that he is, sets out to accomplish that request all the while slicing through bad guys with his lightning fast cane sword. That's not always the plot though. Other times there are some really poor and lowly villagers that lack the strength to stand up for themselves and Zatoichi steps in and protects them. In any case, he's awesome!
The cinematography and style of the Zatoichi movies is usually very good. It's not like other samurai movies where there are fountains of blood spraying from places where limbs used to be, and it's not like kung-fu movies with a bunch of monkey guys jumping around with the help of some hidden wires.
Oh, another reason why I like Zatoichi so much. The actor, Shintaro Katsu, who portrays Zatoichi in his 26 films and over 100 TV episodes, is extremely good at portraying a blind person. I personally don't think Shintaro Katsu was actually blind, but I can't find anything on the SchmInternet that says if he was or wasn't. If anyone out there knows for sure, please share with the group.
So if you haven't heard of Zatoichi, rent a DVD and try him out. I think you'll find you like him. If you can't rent a DVD, come over to my house!
Dad has a ton of DVDs to watch. Dad and I have watched one almost every night this week. I'm still way behind Mom, who I think has watched almost all of the ones we have.
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