Zatôichi abare-himatsuri (1970)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Kenji Misumi

Writers:

Shintarô Katsu (writer)
Kan Shimosawa (story)

Release Date:

12 August 1970 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama | Adventure | Action

Plot Keywords:

Zatoichi | Katana | Katana Sword | Sword | Martial Arts

Cast

Shintarô Katsu	...	Zatoichi
Tatsuya Nakadai	...	Jealous Ronin
Reiko Ohara	...	Kiyo
Masayuki Mori	...	Dark Lord Yamikubo
Peter	...	Umeji
Kô Nishimura	...	Migi
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Yoshitaro Asawaka
Ryutaro Gomi	...	Yakuza boss
Yuuji Hamada
Yukio Horikita	...	Kuroku yakuza
Shingo Ibuki
Ryunosuke Kaneda
Jun Katsumura	...	Yamibuko yakuza
Akane Kawasaki
Eizo Kitamura
Takuya Kitano
Kanae Kobayashi	...	Egg merchant
Yosuke Kondo
Gen Kuroki
Yasuhiro Mizukami	...	Yakuza boss
Osami Nabe	...	Mistress auctioneer
Jun Nagasawa	...	Egg slinging Kuroku yakuza
Tatsuya Nakayo
Junjiro Niida
Akira Nitta
Masaji Nunome
Osamu Okawa	...	Yakuza boss
Teruko Omi	...	Bath house manager
Jun Satomi
Akira Shimizu	...	Merchant with business burning down
Takumi Shinjo	...	Yakuza boss
Reiji Shoji	...	Tea house owning husband
Utae Shoji	...	Tea house owning wife
Kenzo Tabu	...	Wealthy mistress auction buyer
Tadashi Takadera
Kazue Tamachi
Kunie Tanaka	...	Drunken horse puller
Kazuko Taniguchi
Yoshio Yoshida	...	Mistress of auction yakuza boss
Kazuko Yoshiyuki	...	Unfaithful wife

Also Known As:

Blind Swordsman's Fire Festival
Zatôichi 21 (Japan) (informal title)
Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival (USA)
Zatoichi at the Fire Festival (UK) (video title)

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Australia:PG (DVD rating) | Australia:M

Company:

Daiei Motion Picture Company

Movie Connections:

Follows Zatoichi chikemuri kaido (1967)

One of the best in the Zatoichi series.

'Zatoichi At The Fire Festival' was the 21st entry in the popular martial arts series that starred Shintaro Katsu as the blind swordsman Zatoichi. This time around Zatoichi (who moonlights as a masseur) is present at a geisha auction. Later that night he rescues one of the sold women but she is unexpectedly murdered by a mysterious swordsman. We soon learn that he was the dead woman's husband and that he plans on killing Zatoichi because he believes that his wife slept with him. To complicate things further Zatoichi also makes an enemy of the local boss (a common occurrence in this series!), a blind man known as "the Prince Of Darkness" (played by Masayuki Mori who co-starred in Kurosawa's samurai classic 'Rashomon'), becomes a sort of mentor to a young, effeminate wanna-be pimp Umeji (played by Peter, who later appeared in Kurosawa's 'Ran'), and also falls in love with the beautiful Okiyo (Reiko Ohara). Whew! I'm a relative newcomer to these movies but I'm really loving them. Zatoichi is a fascinating character, shy and funny, but a killing machine when need be. This is one of the best in the series, and the standout scenes are a hilarious attempted seduction of Zatoichi by Umeji, and a killer nude fight sequence in a bathhouse. If Beat Takeshi's recent (excellent) 'Zatoichi' has whetted your appetite try some of the Katsu originals. They are immensely entertaining, and I'll bet twenty bucks that Tarantino is a BIG fan.