Zatoichi was one of the opening films at the Rotterdam Film Festival this past year. It has probably gained more media attention than it really merits due to the samurai sword fighting trends we’ve seen coming out of Hollywood over the past year. Japanese entertainment living legend, Takeshi Kitano, wrote, directed and stars in this samurai tale of a blind masseur who uses his masterful sword fighting technique to defend the weak and avenge the innocent. Yes, we’ve all heard that plot line before, and for the most part, Zatoichi is your standard sword slash fest. But there’s one interesting twist to this film which actually makes it worth watching…

Where as recent Hollywood films like “Kill Bill”, “The Matrix” and “The Last Samurai” have displayed Hollywood’s love and fascination for the Asian film industry, Takeshi Kitano shows us in Zatoichi that Asian cinema is learning from the west as well. Takeshi incorporates the sounds and movements from popular dance and rhythm shows like “Stomp” and “River Dance”. He has made one of the funniest samurai movies coming from the east, as he incorporates dopey slapstick routines which had absolutely nothing to do with the plot, but still, they did make me laugh.

Old Japan is a really strange place as so many of these movies show. Gangsters bully everyone till the lone stranger comes into town to save the day. In this case, that stranger is a blind masseur played by Takeshi Kitano with an amazing minimum of dialogue as he seems to mostly grunt and laugh at everything everyone else says. Killing seems common place in this village as even one man dares his friend to murder the next man to walk down the road, just to try out his new sword. But our hero will have none of it as he displays a degree skill with a sword despite his eyes being closed. His disability gives him great success at gambling as he is able to hear the dice fall. When he meets two Geisha’s on a mission to avenge the murder of their parents, the old blind masseur comes to their aid.

The movie is filmed beautifully and well worth seeing on a big screen rather than waiting for the DVD/Video. The sound is also amazing as he makes the most of Dolby Digital Surround Sound. Even the CGI effect was better that many we’ve seen in recent blockbuster films. It was particularly nice to see him not over use the CGI as well.

Unfortunately there is the terrible problem of the plot. How can I put this gently? It sucked! OK, seriously, it’s really a question of “same same but different” we’ve seen this story told a zillion times and he really adds nothing to it. Despite the almost two hours it takes to get though all the killing (and there is a lot of it) we get no character developments as everything is kept rather superficial. The end (which I will not spoil for you) I have certain reservations about. Like most things in the film, it is predictable and yet strangely entertaining. Zatoichi is a film of many contradictions.

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