Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo (1970)
"Zatôichi to Yôjinbô" (original title)

Zatoichi tries to unrest the mob rule over a small village all while the gang leader's bodyguard is actually the Yojimbo, secretly taking the gang down from the inside. Will the two heroes realize in time that they are on the same side?

Director:

Kihachi Okamoto

Writers:

Kihachi Okamoto, Kan Shimosawa (characters),

Stars:

Shintarô Katsu, Ayako Wakao, Osamu Takizawa

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Shintarô Katsu	...	Zatoichi
Ayako Wakao	...	Umeno
Osamu Takizawa	...	Yasuke Eboshiya
Masakane Yonekura	...	Boss Masagoro (as Sakatoshi Masakane)
Shin Kishida	...	Kuzuryu
Kanjûrô Arashi	...	Hyoroku
Toshiyuki Hosokawa	...	Sanaemon Goto
Shigeru Kôyama	...	Jinzaburo Wakiya (as Shigeru Kamiyama)
Minoru Terada
Hideo Sunazuka
Daigo Kusano
Fujio Tokita	...	(as Fujio Tsuneda)
Gen Kimura
Hiroshi Tanaka
Hiroto Kimura

Storyline

With a price on his head, Ichi seeks tranquillity in a favorite village. Since his last visit, it has fallen prey to Boss Masagoro, the son of a merchant rumored to have stolen gold from the shogunate. The boss has hired Yojimbo as his hard-drinking enforcer, but Yojimbo is both a spy for the shogunate, trying to find the gold, and in love with the merchant's unwilling mistress, Umeno. Ichi hires on as the merchant's masseur and buys Umeno's freedom with his employer's own money. This embarrasses Yojimbo who withdraws from a pact with Ichi to stir up trouble between father and son and their gangs. As the two sides fight, Ichi finds the gold and sets up a final set of confrontations.

---

Plot Keywords:

sword | zatoichi | katana sword | sword fight | martial arts | 

---

Taglines:

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

---

Genres:

Drama | Action | Adventure

---

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

15 January 1970 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo

Company Credits

Production Co:

Katsu Production Co. Ltd., Toho Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

79 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Daieicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film was so popular that in the U.S. is was booked into some theaters that normally didn't run foreign language films.

---

Connections

Follows Zatoichi the Fugitive (1963)

User Reviews

not the worst, not the best, but plenty good

this may not be the best zatoichi title, hindered by a complicated plot and an unusually long runtime (116 mins), but it's easily an 8/10 compared to other zatoichi films (1989's 'zatoichi' being the worst and a 1 out of 10). if you're a zatoichi fan you are not allowed to miss this one or you're out of the club.

shintaro katsu and toshiro mifune are in excellent form and their presence alone makes it worth seeing. both of them look great. mifune is in his post-kurosawa days, but still in his prime and his face is aged to perfection.

don't expect a kurosawa film––this series was made as entertainment, not art. of course yojimbo is a better film, but this is every bit as funny and entertaining.