First, I should admit that I haven't seen many movies in this genre. And I understand that the most famous series focusing on Japanese sword fighters is the Zatoichi series. I certainly haven't seen that one but hope to. In the meantime I just saw the first entry in the Crimson Bat series, called "Mekura no oichi monogatari: Makkana nagaradori" ("Crimson Bat: The Blind Swordsman" in English). It's definitely the sort of movie that would've inspired Quentin Tarantino, as the blind, abandoned character Oichi (Yoko Matsuyama) goes around dispensing justice. As it was, the copy that I saw was spoken in Japanese, dubbed in English, subtitled in Dutch! It's not the best movie but pretty fun, and that's what counts with these movies.
