Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold is, stylistically, a huge step up from the previous entries of the series. New director Kazuo Ikehiro revitalizes the shtick a bit and adds bloody violence, humor, faster pace and even some skin in a light-hearted onsen bath scene. The film begins with a James Bond-styled opening sequence, which sees Ichi slaughtering people in front of a black back-drop. This pretty much completely summarizes his adventures; walking in darkness and kicking ass.
The story, unfortunately, isn't a treasure hunt adventure as you'd expect from the title, but rather concerns Zatoichi pursuing thieving government officials to clear his name of stealing a chest full of a village's tax money. There's some more past continuity creeping up in the form of Ichi visiting the grave of a man he'd killed before, but luckily the film isn't too dependent on its predecessors. Unfortunately, the plot does get kinda convoluted at some point in typical Zatoichi fashion, and I'm not really a fan of the lengthy mountain sequence where Zatoichi converses with a respected master, because it just seems like a long detour from the rest of the storyline, which is crowded enough on its own right.
However, outside of some obligatory night scenes shot in pitch darkness, the movie excels in the technical field. The colors and shot compositions are fresh and the way the final showdown between Zatoichi and the remaining nemesis (played by Katsu's brother Tomisaburo Wakayama) is staged is beautiful and the fight itself is also pretty intense even though it's obvious to everyone who the winner will be.
Highlight of the movie: Probably that final duel.
