Zatôichi senryô-kubi (1964)

Director:

Kazuo Ikehiro

Writers:

Shozaburo Asai (writer)
Akikazu Ota (writer)

Release Date:

14 March 1964 (Japan)

Genre:

Action | Drama

Plot:

Zatoichi is mistaken for a thief. To clear his name he must find and defeat the real villain. Spiffy.

Plot Keywords:

Samurai | Zatoichi | Thief | Horse | Yakuza

Cast

Shintarô Katsu	...	Zatoichi
Shogo Shimada
Mikiko Tsubouchi
Machiko Hasegawa
Tomisaburo Wakayama	...	Jushiro (as Jo Kenzaburo)
Tatsuya Ishiguro
Shinjirô Asano
Saburo Date
Hikosaburo Kataoka
Matasaburo Tamba
Toranosuke Tennoji
Koichi Mizuhara
Hiroshi Hayashi
Yûsaku Terajima
Ichirô Takakura

Also Known As:

Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold
Masseur Ichi and the Chest of Gold
Zatôichi 6 (Japan) (informal title)
Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold
Zatoichi's Thousand-Ryo Neck (informal English title)
Zatoichi: A Wanted Criminal for Stealing 1,000 Ryo (literal English title)

Runtime:

83 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Company:

Daiei Motion Picture Company

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Zato Duling: The Cross-Eyed Swordsman (1969)

Good entertainment

In this classic samurai tale, we follow the deadly trail of Zatoichi-a blind swordsman who has sworn to prove his innocence with regards to his unknowing involvement with the robbery of a chest of gold containing the local farmers tax payment while bringing the real culprits to justice. Here we have the classic hero, the defender and champion of the poor albeit here a most unlikely since the farm villagers think he was responsible for the robbery and he is as he might say "a simple blind man". A bit of suspension of disbelief is required but boy is this ever great stuff! Any fan of sword-fighting films should find much to enjoy here.