Zatôichi umi o wataru (1966)

Director:

Kazuo Ikehiro

Writers:

Kan Shimosawa (story)
Kaneto Shindô (writer)

Release Date:

13 August 1966 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Sword | Sword Fight | Katana Sword | Samurai | Katana

Cast

Shintarô Katsu	...	Zatoichi
Michiyo Ookusu	...	Kichi (as Michiyo Yasuda)
Kunie Tanaka	...	Man speaks a lot
Hisashi Igawa	...	Eigoro
Masao Mishima	...	Nanashino Gonbei
Jotaro Senba	...	Bokasuri
Ryutaro Gomi	...	Jyonenbo
Isao Yamagata	...	Boss Tohachi
Saburo Date	...	Kagimatsu
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Yoichi Funaki
Kenshiro Hara
Yukio Horikita
Jun Katsumura	...	Tohachi yakuza
Masako Morishita	...	Little girl on boat
Manabu Morita	...	Takuji
Masamiku Sugiyama
Shôsaku Sugiyama	...	Farmer
Takeshi Takuda
Yûsaku Terajima	...	Farmer

Also Known As:

Zatôichi 14 (Japan) (informal title)
Zatoichi's Pilgrimage
Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman's Pilgrimage (USA)

Runtime:

82 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Company:

Daiei Studios

Movie Connections:

Followed by Du bi shuang xiong (1976)

Pretty good--and some interesting moral lessons for Ichi

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This film starts off in a boat. The passengers are all listening to a man telling a story as Zatoichi sits there eating. Suddenly, the boat lurches and in the confusion a man has his wallet stolen. Oddly, instead of being contrite, when the thief is caught, he's brazen and abusive--leading Zatoichi to handle it himself and in a most memorable fashion.

Ichi then makes a pilgrimage to the temple in order to try to get the gods' assistance. He's tired of all the killing (a familiar theme in these films) and wants their help in taking away the necessity to kill. Naturally, however, within a very short time, a guy naturally approaches him and tries to kill him. Unlike his usual methods, however, Zatoichi does NOT kill him with the sword but knocks the man (and himself) into the river. Oddly, the attacker drowns--even though he should have been okay. It's as if the gods are sending him a message that he is an instrument of death and cannot avoid this fate.

As often happens when he kills these lone attackers in other films, Zatoichi makes it a point to tell the family of the dead man that he was dead. However, in this case, the sister of the dead man stabs Ichi for his trouble! And, in keeping with his prayer to the gods, Ichi just stands there and takes it. His stoicism shocks her and she immediately begs for forgiveness for her actions. In fact, throughout the rest of the film, she is his #1 fan.

You find out that her brother attacked Zatoichi because the local boss ordered him to do this. The boss, it turns out, really didn't hate Ichi but wanted the brother killed--so he sent him on an impossible task to get rid of him (nice guy). It's obvious at this point that eventually the boss and Zatoichi will have a showdown by the end of the film.

What happens in the interim is interesting. The farmers who are being threatened by the evil boss take a rather pragmatic but evil attitude. According to the ever-smiling Gonbei, let Ichi and the boss fight it out--if the boss dies, wonderful; if Ichi dies, then they aren't out anything! So, by the end when the boss and dozens of his retainers attack, the locals just sit back and watch--which says a lot about human nature. It also challenges Zatoichi--letting him know that perhaps a good man being forced to kill IS morally superior to supposedly good men who sit back and do nothing.

While this is a very familiar type of film (such as the lady falling in love with him, the evil local boss, etc.), it's done very well and the moral questions make it stand out from the usual film in this series.