(released in the US as ''The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi'') is a 2003 Japanese

Jidaigeki is a genre of film, television, video game, and theatre in Japan. Literally meaning "period dramas", they are most often set during the Edo period of Japanese history, from 1603 to 1868. Some, however, are set much earlier—''Portrait of Hel ...

action film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...

, directed, written, co-edited by and starring

Takeshi Kitano is a Japanese comedian, television presenter, actor, filmmaker, and author. While he is known primarily as a comedian and TV host in his native Japan, he is better known abroad for his work as a filmmaker and actor as well as TV host. With th ...

("Beat" Takeshi) in his 11th directorial venture. Kitano plays the role of the blind swordsman. The film is a revival of the classic ''

Zatoichi is a fictional character created by Japanese novelist Kan Shimozawa. He is an itinerant blind masseur and swordsman of Japan's late Edo period (1830s and 1840s). He first appeared in the 1948 essay , part of Shimozawa's ''Futokoro Techō'' serie ...

'' series of

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

film and television dramas. It premiered on 2 September 2003 at the

Venice International Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...

, 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 , better known by his stage name , is a Japanese actor. He is known for his roles as Dragon Eye Morrison in ''Electric Dragon 80.000 V'', Kakihara in ''Ichi the Killer'', Mamoru Arita in '' Bright Future'', Hattori Genosuke in ''Zatoichi'', Kenj ...

Michiyo Okusu Michiyo (written: 道世, 道代, 路代, 真世, 充代, 通世, 迪与, 美千代, 実千代, 美智代, 美知依, 美知代, 三千代 or みちよ in hiragana) is a unisex Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese ...

Yui Natsukawa is a Japanese actress. She co-starred with Hiroshi Abe in the 2006 Japanese drama Kekkon Dekinai Otoko and in Hirokazu Kore-eda's 2008 film '' Still Walking''. Filmography Film * ''Sora ga Konnani Aoi Wake ga Nai'' (1993) - Kaoru Aoki * ''Yoru ...

, Guadalcanal Taka,

Daigoro Tachibana Daigoro Tachibana (橘大五郎 ''Tachibana Daigorō''), birth name Daisuke Isayama (諌山大輔 ''Isayama Daisuke'', born 27 January 1987) is one of Heisei era's celebrated onnagata and taishū engeki actor. He is branded as the ''Taishu Eng ...

, Yuko Daike,

Ittoku Kishibe , born , is a Japanese actor and musician. Career He originally entered show business as the bassist for the Japanese rock bands, The Tigers and Pyg, but later switched to acting. The veteran of over 115 films, he won the Best Actor Japanese Ac ...

Saburo Ishikura Saburo Ishikura (石倉三郎 ''Ishikura Saburō'', born December 16, 1946 in Kagawa, Japan) is a Japanese actor that has acted in several movies directed by Beat Takeshi. He has also appeared in a few of Takeshi's recent films which include ' ...

and

Akira Emoto is a Japanese actor. Career In 1999, he won the Japanese Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in ''Dr. Akagi''. He also won the award for best supporting actor at the 7th Hochi Film Award for ''Dotonbori River'' and '' Hearts and Flo ...

Plot

The film's plot follows a traditional theme, with Zatoichi (a blind swordsman) coming to the defense of townspeople caught up in a local

yakuza , also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media, by request of the police, call them , while the ''yakuza'' call themselves . The English equivalent for the term ...

gang war and being forced to pay excessive amounts of

protection money A protection racket is a type of racket and a scheme of organized crime perpetrated by a potentially hazardous organized crime group that generally guarantees protection outside the sanction of the law to another entity or individual from viol ...

. Meanwhile, Zatoichi befriends a local farmer and her gambler nephew and eventually offers his assistance to two

geisha {{Culture of Japan, Traditions, Geisha {{nihongo, Geisha, 芸者 ({{IPAc-en, ˈ, ɡ, eɪ, ʃ, ə; {{IPA-ja, ɡeːɕa, lang), also known as {{nihongo, , 芸子, geiko (in Kyoto and Kanazawa) or {{nihongo, , 芸妓, geigi, are a class of female ...

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 robbery and massacre that was carried out on their family estate 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 sword, Zatoichi defeats the yakuza's bodyguard, a powerful

rōnin A ''rōnin'' ( ; ja, 浪人, , meaning 'drifter' or 'wanderer') was a samurai without a lord or master during the feudal period of Japan (1185–1868). A samurai became masterless upon the death of his master or after the loss of his master's ...

, in a duel. Zatoichi 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 surprising him by opening his eyes. The film ends with a dance number led by noted Japanese

tap dance Tap dance is a form of dance characterized by using the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion. Two major variations on tap dance exist: rhythm (jazz) tap and Broadway tap. Broadway tap focuses on dance; it is widely perfo ...

troupe ''The Stripes'', and Zatoichi walking down a trail and tripping over a rock, saying "Even with my eyes wide open, I can't see anything."

Cast

as the

Hattori Gennosuke *

as Aunt O-ume, the

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer mig ...

as O-shino, Hattori's wife *

as O-sei *

Taichi Saotome , also known as , is a Japanese actor and singer. He played young men and onnagata roles of women. Biography His father is the head of the theatre troupe ''Gekidan Sujaku''. Saotome performed in '' taishū engeki''. A "female impersonator", he ...

as young O-sei *

Yūko Daike is a Japanese actress. She appeared in more than fifteen films since 1996. Selected filmography References External links * 1971 births Living people People from Kōchi, Kōchi Japanese film actresses Japanese television actre ...

as O-kinu, sister of Osei. * Guadalcanal Taka as Shinkichi, gambler nephew of Oume. *

as Ginzo, gang leader *

as Ogiya, gang leader *

as "Pops", tavern owner

Production

Kitano revealed that he was approached by others to create the film and therefore differed from his own techniques and followed the common filmmaking process in order to please them and make a pure-entertainment film. This film marks Kitano's first collaboration with composer

Keiichi Suzuki is a Japanese musician, singer, and record producer who co-founded the Moonriders, a group that became one of Japan's most innovative rock bands. He is known to audiences outside Japan for his musical contributions to the video games ''Mother'' ...

, ending an 11-year streak with

Joe Hisaishi , known professionally as , is a Japanese composer, musical director, conductor and pianist, known for over 100 film scores and solo albums dating back to 1981. He is also known for his piano scores. Hisaishi's music has been known to explore ...

. The director said he made the decision feeling that the film needed percussion-based music and that Hisaishi is not a flexible composer, and also suggested that Hisaishi had become too expensive for him. Costumes were created by

Kazuko Kurosawa is a Japanese costume designer. She won the 2008 Genie Award for Best Achievement in Costume Design. She is the daughter of famous filmmaker Akira Kurosawa and actress Yōko Yaguchi, her son is actor Takayuki Kato. She is married to the son of a ...

. Kitano used

digital technology Digital technology may refer to: * Application of digital electronics * Any significant piece of knowledge from information technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange al ...

to increase the gore of the fights.

Reception

The film grossed in Japan. Peter Bradshaw of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' gave ''Zatoichi'' 4 out of 5 stars. Jasper Sharp of

Midnight Eye Midnight Eye is a non-profit review website launched in 2001 by Tom Mes, Jasper Sharp, and Martin Mes. The website features reviews and analyses of Japanese films, as well as book reviews and interviews with filmmakers. In June 2015, it was announc ...

praised the film as "pure cinematic magic". Allan Tong of ''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...

'' said, "when Zatoichi is on screen, the film erupts with brilliant fury in unforgettable action sequences". ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' praised the film while comparing it to ''

Yojimbo is a 1961 Japanese Samurai cinema, samurai film co-written, produced, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The film stars Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yoko Tsukasa, Isuzu Yamada, Daisuke Katō, Takashi Shimura, Kamatari Fujiwara, and Ats ...

'', ''

Sanjuro is a 1962 black-and-white Japanese ''jidaigeki'' film directed by Akira Kurosawa and starring Toshiro Mifune. It is a sequel to Kurosawa's 1961 ''Yojimbo''. Originally an adaptation of the Shūgorō Yamamoto novel ''Hibi Heian'', the script w ...

'' and '' Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance''. On review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film had a approval rating of 86% based on 124 reviews.

Awards

* 2003, September 6,

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...

Silver Lion for Best Direction The Silver Lion ( it, Leone d'argento, also known as Silver Lion for Best Direction) is an annual award presented for best directing achievements in a feature film at official competition section of the Venice Film Festival since 1998. The pri ...

, Venice * 2003, Audience Award Leone Del Pubblico, Venice * 2003, September 14, 28th International

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

, Audience Award AGF People's Choice Award, Toronto * 2003,

London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shor ...

* 2004, February 20, Japan Academy Prize, Outstanding Achievement in Film Editing, Outstanding Achievement in Music, Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography, Outstanding Achievement in Lighting Direction, Outstanding Achievement in Sound Recording, Tokyo

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zatoichi (2003 film) Zatoichi films 2003 films 2003 action films Japanese action films Samurai films Yakuza films Films about blind people Films directed by Takeshi Kitano 2000s Japanese-language films Shochiku films Cross-dressing in film Films about child prostitution 2000s Japanese films Films about disability Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award winners