Zatoichi [2004] [DVD]

The plot is a classic Japanese period plot; A town is being run by an underhand and violent Yakuza gang, a hero enters the town, defeats the gang and gets a final showdown against the tough bad guy (in this case Tadanobu Asano (Ichii The Killer) perfectly cast as the mighty no-nosense ronin Hattori.
Kitano himself plays the blind masseur Zatoichi who turns out to be incredibly skilled with a blade. Soon Zatoichi is befriended by a lovely middle-aged lady, her nephew (the no-good gambler with a heart of gold) and two geishas with a sad and bloody past.

The pretty graphic violence (swordplay aplenty)is offset by a lot of fantastic visual and verbal humour and a magnificent soundtrack with dance finale.

Don't expect any clashing of swords though, Kitano was determined to make the fighting as realistic as possible, meaning fights are short and bloody affairs, perfectly handled by actors and direction alike.

Kitano's acting performance is spot-on as the chuckling, shuffling friendly masseur, turned death-bringer when required. He makes an intensely likeable main character while uttering very few words throughout.

Including nods to past Japanese classics (including Kurusawa's Seven Samurai - fighting in the rain with a blue sky), Kitano rightly won the Best Director at the Venice Film festival in 2003.
This is his best film to date and a welcome forray away from present day Yakuza.

Zatoichi is excellent and more light hearted than expected. It contains Kitano's own brand of humour and swift violence, has some great characters and an involving and sometimes poignant story - the geisha twins' tale of lost innocence comes to mind here. He's also added some really neat touches to the sound; the scenes where Zatoichi passes workers in the field and where a house is being built are actually percussive pieces which slowly build up layer by layer until its becomes obvious your listening to music. It might seem a lttle odd in description but it sits well in the overall film. When I first saw these scenes I thought they must be an attempt to get inside Zatoichi's world; he can only hear after all and Zatoichi's finding of rythm and music in everyday sounds might explain his superhuman martial skills. After seeing the ending however, I'm not so sure.

Kitano plays the lead really well (with a Gazza haircut) and his reserved style of acting is ideally suited. He adds a subtle kindliness to the role and acts the "doddery old blind man" quite convincingly. The fighting scenes see him shift instantly into a hyper-alert, super-deadly swordsman and back again in the space of a few seconds (think Yoda in Attack of the Clones). He's also tricky much like Kurosawa/Mifune's lone samurai in Yojimbo and Sanjuro. It reminds me alot of those films actually - because of the setting (village with yakuza), the humour and the lead characters - but it stands out as firmly unique because of Kitano's inspired direction and his homage to the genre.

The fights themselves are marvelous and two stand out as particularly cool. Swordplay in some martial arts films get lost in themselves with just slashing noises and facial close-ups. Thankfully Kitano mixes up the long, wide and close shots and we're treated to nice range of filming styles during the duelling and brawling sequences with some inspired swordplay. Also to be thankful for is the absence of wild acrobatics which, whilst I enjoy them in kung-fu flicks, would have been bad for this film.

The other main badass in the plot - an ambiguous good/bad guy - is pretty deadly too. Like most of the other main characters he has his own personal dilemas to contend with (killing to pay for his sister's medicine) and this is portrayed really well. He should have his own movie. Other memorable characters include the chubby, naked samurai wannabe charging round and round the house all day and the two murderous geishas. The antics of the main characters during the middle of the film reminded me fondly of the scenes in Sonatine where the gangsters kill time whilst hiding out in the beach house.

This film is well polished, more than his others, and is probably one of his most 'approachable'. Its easily his best film since Hana-bi although the genres are not really comparable.