Takeshi Kitano is one of my favorite directors and is one of the inspirations of my style of writing. . None of the quick over editing and shaky camera of most American productions, But also none of the fast hard hitting punchs of The Raid. Just elegant quick sword swipes. It's quite sight to watch.

I was amazed that this movie stood up very well against the original series. In fact, I would say I liked it even more than the original series. This is not to say that the originals are poor. With the exception of the last Shintarô Katsu Zatoichi film (1989),they were superb and are among my favorite Japanese movies.

However, the Beat Takeshi version surpasses them because it is less predictable (unfortunately, after dozens of the original Zatoichi movies, they all tended to look the same after a while),has a better sense of humor and features the greatest amount of computer generated blood I have ever seen. Some may be turned off by the blood (hence the R rating),but considering the people are being hacked to pieces with swords, there SHOULD be a lot of blood! I allowed my 14 year-old to watch the movie and feel that most parents of well-adjusted teens can allow their kids to watch it.

A major difference between this movie and the originals is the prominence of the character of Zatoichi. In the originals, he was almost always the center of attention and did a lot of speaking. In this one, Zoitichi is really a more peripheral character--allowing other plots to be preeminent and saying very little.

A particular treat for me was the inexplicable inclusion of the weird fat guy wearing only his underwear. I won't say more, but I thought he was a goofy positive inclusion. Another inexplicable element was the LONG and amazingly choreographed conclusion when all the good guys from the movie appear at the end! It's VERY strange but quite enjoyable.

The blind masseur and former samurai Zatôichi (Takeshi Kitano) is drifting and arrives in a small village dominated by three tyrannical lords, Inosuke Ginzo (Ittoku Kishibe),Tashichi Ogi (Saburo Ishikura) and Funahachi (Koji Koike). He helps an old woman and she lodges him at her home. Zatôichi gambles and the old lady's nephew, a complete loser, becomes close to him and Zatôichi helps him in the bets. They meet the geishas Seitaro 'Osei' Naruto (Daigorô Tachibana) and Okinu Naruto (Yuuko Daike),actually a brother and a sister that have been chasing the killers of their parents, Inosuke, Tashichi and Kuchinawa, for ten years seeking revenge. When the ronin Shinkichi (Gadarukanaru Taka) offers his service of bodyguard to Ginzo, the boss decide to destroy the Funachi gang and join to Ogi later. But Zatôichi decides to help the village and get rid off the criminals.

"Zatôichi" is a good movie of Takeshi Kitano visibly inspired in "Sanjuro", of Master Akira Kurosawa. The gore story has adventure, excellent choreography in the sword fights and lots of humor; there is a samurai without a master offering his services of bodyguard to a gang in a small town; and in the end, the gangs are destroyed; therefore there are many points very similar to Sanjuro. The parallel plots are well constructed and the cinematography is very beautiful, highlighting the blood in the sword fights. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Zatoichi"