The Blind Swordsman Zatoichi [Blu-ray]

Director: Takeshi Kitano Takeshi Kitano

Overview

Beat Takeshi Kitano directs and plays the title role in this tribute to the wildly popular "blind swordsman" of Japanese cinema who was the hero of more than 20 movies and a television series from the early '60s to the late '80s. In Kitano's version, Zat?ichi wanders into a town harassed by criminal gangs, and helps two geishas take revenge on the men who murdered their parents. His mission leads him to a final, bloody confrontation with the gang's mastermind and his hired assassin (Tadanobu Asano), a swordsman with a reputation as lethal as Zat?ichi.

Product Details

Release Date:	04/12/2022
UPC:	0810103680005
Original Release:	2003
Rating:	R
Source:	Paramount
Language:	English
Time:	1:56:00
Sales rank:	20,783

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Takeshi Kitano	Ichi
Michiyo Ohgusu	Aunt O-Ume
Guadalcanal Taka	Shinkichi
Daigoro Tachibana	Geisha O-Sei
Yuko Daike	Geisha O-Kinu
Tadanobu Asano	Hattori Genosuke
Yui Natsukawa	O-Shino
Ittoku Kishibe	Ginzo
Saburo Ishikura	Boss Ogi
Akira Emoto	Pops
Ben Hiura	Tavern Pops
Kohji Miura	Lord Sakai
Hideboh Ron II	Dancing Farmer
Suji Noriyasu	Dancing Farmer
Makoto Ashikawa	Carpenter
Edamame Tsumami	Carpenter
Kosuke Ohta	Carpenter
Yoshiyuki Morishita	Carpenter
Naomasa Musaka	Yakuza Boss on the Country Road
Shoken Kunimoto	Rival Swordsman
Daigaku Sekine	Ginzo's Henchman I
Koji Koike	Boss Funahachi
Koji Kiryu	Dice Dealer at Funahachi's Joint
Taiki Kobayashi	Funahachi's Bodyguard,Farmer Boy 5
Ayano Yoshida	Young O-Kinu
Taichi Saotome	Young O-Sei, aka Seitaro
Kanji Tsuda	Playboy at Home
Ikki Goto	Kuchinawa Underling 1
Yoshio Nakamura	Kuchinawa Underling 4
Hiroaki Noguchi	Kuchinawa Underling 5
Shinichi Nakatsu	Kuchinawa Underling 2
Toru Yonezu	Kuchinawa Underling 4
P-Man	Tavern Customer 4
Al Kitago	Farmer Boy 1
Omiyanomatsu	Farmer Boy 2
Tsutomu Takshige	Farmer Boy 4
Sammy Moremore Jr.	Farmer Boy 6
Muhomatsu	Farmer Boy with a Spear
Michiyo Okusa	Aunt Oume
Michiyo Ookusu	O-Ume
Michiyo Yasuda	Actor
Keiichi Suzuki	Composer

Technical Credits

Takeshi Kitano

Takeshi Kitano	Director,Screenwriter
Tomoo Haraguchi	Special Effects
Mitsuaki Hashimoto	Special Effects
Atsuo Inamura	Special Effects
Taro Kogaku	Special Effects
Yoji Miki	Special Effects
Masayuki Mori	Producer
Takaaki Ohnishi	Special Effects
Chieko Saito	Executive Producer,Producer
Okifumi Taira	Special Effects
Takefumi Yoshikawa	Casting
Senji Horiuchi	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Beat Takeshi Kitano's Zatôichi is an artfully crowd-pleasing riff on the samurai action film. Zatôichi , the beloved hero of a long-running series of genre flicks (which still play regularly on American television), is the perfect match for the impishly violent screen persona Kitano has developed over the course of his film career in films like Fireworks and Brother. With his eyes closed and sporting a knowing smile, he dispatches baddie after baddie in a spray of digitized blood. Kitano the director is fully aware that he's dealing in pure pulp and he revels in it, injecting genre conventions with the visceral, yet stylized, violence his fans have come to expect. As an actor, he clearly relishes the role of Zatôichi, who roams the country posing as a blind masseur, but who is, in reality, the most dangerous swordsman in the land. Even better, he tops the whole thing off with a tap dancing curtain call involving the entire cast that nods to the joyful exuberance of Bollywood and ends the film on an irresistibly upbeat note. A pop-culture creation, Zatôichi, as played in the original films by Shintaro Katsu, has become a mythic figure almost on a par with characters from ancient legend. With this vastly entertaining addition to the series, Kitano proves himself to be just the right man to carry on the tradition.