Shin zatô Ichi: Yabure! Tôjin-ken (1971)

Director:

Kimiyoshi Yasuda

Writers:

Kan Shimosawa (story)
Takayuki Yamada (writer)

Release Date:

13 January 1971 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama | Action | Adventure

Tagline:

A legendary figure in Japan is Zatoichi - the blind masseur with healing hands and a swift sword.

Plot Keywords:

Betrayal | Sword | Spear | Martial Arts | Katana

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Shintarô Katsu	...	Zatôichi
Yu Wang	...	Wang Kong
Watako Hamaki	...	Sen
Michie Terada	...	Yone
Kôji Nanbara	...	Kakuzen
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tôru Abe	...	Boss Toubei
Katsutoshi Akiyama
Yuutaroo Ban
Yi Chang	...	Shamo
Yuuji Hamada
Tokue Hanazawa
Seishirô Hara
Tsutomu Hashimoto
Shirô Itô	...	Stooge
Tadashi Iwata
Masato Kagawa
Jun Katsumura	...	Toubei yakuza
Kanae Kobayashi	...	Shige
Goro Kumon
Gen Kuroki
Yuzou Kusakawa
Noritake Matsuda
Shinsuke Minami	...	Henoichi
Shoji Mori
Junjiro Niida
Osamu Okawa
Hitoshi Omae
Jun Ôsugi
Takamaru Sasaki
Kyôichi Satô	...	Yakuza
Jun Satomi
Mitsuo Totsuka	...	Kame
Ling Wang	...	Yumay (as Su Lin)
Ichirô Yamamoto

Also Known As:

The Blind Swordsman Meets His Equal
Zatôichi 22 (Japan) (informal title)
Zatoichi Meets His Equal
Zatoichi Meets His Match
Zatoichi Meets the 1-Arm Swordsman
Zatoichi Meets the One Armed Swordsman
Zatoichi and the One Armed Swordsman

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

Japan | Hong Kong

Language:

Japanese | Mandarin

Color:

Color (Daieicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Australia:PG (DVD rating) | Australia:M

Company:

Daiei Motion Picture Company

Trivia:

The last Zatoichi film produced by the Daiei Motion Picture Company (which had went bankrupt). Toho Company took over the films for the rest of the decade (along with Shintarô Katsu's own Katsu Productions, which coproduced the films since 1967).

Movie Connections:

Followed by Shin Zatôichi monogatari: Kasama no chimatsuri (1973)

Zatoichi films? This is a good place to start...

One of the more accessible films in the series due to its simpler story (two heroes ally themselves against an evil but then find themselves on different sides due to a mis-understanding). Though the Zatoichi films often vary in style and in tone, the themes (treat others as you would wish to be treated, be true to your word, gamble within your means, etc), remain constant. Here, the language barrier between Zatoichi and The One-Armed Swordsman (one is Chinese, the other Japanese), is a theme that will have had a greater resonance for its native audience rather than those in the west, but the story works well just as a straight-forward adventure yarn. Shintarô Katsu is as reliably great as ever. By turns dynamic and exacting with the sword, warm of heart with the just and needy, steely and unmerciful of the greedy and vindictive. Zatoichi is one of the great movie heroes. Shintarô Katsu, one of the great heroic actors. If you haven't seen these films then you could do worse than start here.