Adventures of Zatoichi (1964)
"Zatoichi sekisho yaburi" (original title)

The blind swordsman tries to locate a girl's missing father.

Director:

Kimiyoshi Yasuda

Writers:

Shozaburo Asai, Kan Shimosawa (story)

Stars:

Shintarô Katsu, Miwa Takada, Eiko Taki

Cast

Credited cast:
Shintarô Katsu	...	Zatoichi
Miwa Takada	...	Saki
Eiko Taki	...	Sen
Kichijirô Ueda	...	Boss Jinbei
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Daimaru	...	Zany Entertainer
Mikijirô Hira	...	Gounosuke
Gen Kimura	...	Yakuza dice thrower
Akitake Kôno	...	Intendant Gorota Kajima
Koichi Mizuhara	...	Kamazo
Ikuko Môri	...	Hanokama
Rocket Nakata	...	Zany Entertainer
Teruko Ômi	...	Daruma maker's wife

Storyline

Blind swordsman/masseuse Zatoichi befriends a young woman looking for her father, a village leader who has disappeared. As he helps her investigate the disappearance, Zatoichi also becomes involved with another young woman who is trying to help her brother, who has murdered someone at about the same time and place as the missing man was last seen.

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Plot Keywords:

zatoichi | sword | dice | sequel | katana | 

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Drama

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

30 December 1964 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Adventures of Zatoichi

Company Credits

Production Co:

Daiei Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

Throughout the film, Zatoichi's hair length and the darkness around his eyes changes from scene to scene or sometimes within the same scene.

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Connections

Followed by The New One-Armed Swordsman (1971)

User Reviews

Japanese samurai movie partially delivers

This was my first exposure to Zatoichi series, which I think numbers 27 movies. My biggest problem was that the movie deposits you into the story without any explanation. My disorientation could be because I am unfamiliar with the Japanese culture and Zatoichi could be well-known there. Anyhow, after the first ten minutes, the movie is pretty easy to follow because it has the same structure as the classical western: stranger comes to a town with a problem, rids the town of the problem and then leaves. There are twists that aren't surprising and one that is. I have to say that the sword fights are very different than what I was expecting. Each fight lasted approximately five seconds. Even the fight with a really good swordsman lasted only 30 seconds, if that. The tactic of the vanquished standing very still for a little while until he collapses, was a good one and managed to be effective throughout the whole movie. The best fight was when Zatoichi prevented three thugs from ascending a staircase by pretending to be just a clumsy blind man. The fact that the film is very short, helps out a lot but in the end the movie only seems like an episode in a TV series. I guess I will have to see more of the series to really understand it.