Zatoichi and the Chess Expert (1965)

A samurai with a high skill in chess makes friends with Zatoichi, who finds that things become peculiar in his presence.

Director:

Kenji Misumi

Writers:

Daisuke Itô, Kan Shimozawa (story)

Stars:

Shintarô Katsu, Mikio Narita, Chizu Hayashi

Cast

Credited cast:
Shintarô Katsu	...	Zatoichi
Mikio Narita	...	Tadasu Jumonji
Chizu Hayashi	...	Enoshimeya
Kaneko Iwasaki	...	Tane
Gaku Yamamoto	...	Tomonoshin Sagawa
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Saburô Date
Tatsuo Endô	...	Yakuza boss of Ejimaya
Takuya Fujioka
Ryô Horikawa
Kanae Kobayashi	...	Widow Tarozaemon
Fujio Suga	...	Injury prone Banyu yakuza
Rokkô Toura

Storyline

Zatoichi makes friends with a dangerous chess player, while fending off angry yakuza and bloodthirsty relatives out for revenge, and trying to save a sick child. Meanwhile, his luck with dice is turning...

---

Plot Keywords:

zatoichi | chess | yakuza | samurai | cult film | 

---

Genres:

Action | Adventure | Drama

---

Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

24 December 1965 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Zatoichi and the Chess Expert

Company Credits

Production Co:

Daiei Studios

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Daieicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

Zatoichi: You have to understand, Otane. The man you're looking at is dirt. And everyone who comes close to him or touches him, in one way or another gets muddied by that dirt. There's nothing I can do about being dirt myself, but I don't want you to get mired in my dirt.

---

Connections

Follows Zatoichi on the Road (1963)

User Reviews

Typically wonderful...

Zatoichi films are all pretty similar. There are gambling (dice) scenes, Zatoichi vs. large gang fighting scenes, massaging scenes (usually of beautiful women), Zatoichi eating and drinking scenes, bath scenes, travel sequences, often a scenes with a child (or children) - and they all wonderful. One other consistent element is that they all are shot in glorious widescreen and contain some exquisite cinematography. I always find at least a couple of scenes in each film of this series to be quite breathtaking - certainly worthy of pondering over. I find these films so appealing regardless that I know exactly what is to come.

In this chapter Zatoichi meets a rather confident and intelligent foe in the guise of a chess expert. This is, of course, after he has easily defeated all his lesser foes who seek vengeance on his gambling prowess (sound familiar?). We have a female love interest and Zatoichi spurning her because of his opinion of his own "lowlife" status. All in all I was more enthralled with the first 3/4's of this particular film, but felt it failed slightly at the end. Still I think the world of Zatoichi so I give this 4.5 /5