Tuesday, February 18, 2014

The Tale of Zatoichi Continues (1962)


Zatoichi :  Shintarô Katsu

Director : Kazuo Mori


IMDb : 7.4

Grade :   B+
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In the second entry in the Zatoichi series we find our blind masseur and expert swordsman asleep in a boat. When some guys enter they throw him out, but he cuts one in the eye as he goes overboard. The men figure out he must be Zatoichi, as tales of his exploits have begun to spread.

The men approach Zatoichi to teach him a lesson but two men, one of whom has one arm, come and fight the men and then robs them. The two bandits wander off and Zatoichi is then taken in and bathed by some retainers who want him to give a massage to their Lord. 

Zatoich gives the Lord a massage but discovers that the man is crazy. When some samurai attack him to keep him from telling they their Lord is a madman, Zatoichi chops them down. Zatoichi is then hunted by the men of the House of Kuroda.

 Zatoichi takes away a girl at the inn who is being bothered by the one armed man. Then some samurai find Zatoichi and challenge him to fight. He quickly chops down three, and four more run away.  

We then find out that the one armed man is really Yoshiro, a notorious gangster who is wanted for murder, rape and robbery. Boss Sukegoro tells him that he better move on. 

Zatoichi then revisits the site of his fight from a year ago with Miki Hirate (Tale of Zatoichi) and reminiscences about the man and the fight. Zatoichi remembers Miki very fondly. 

Yoshiro and his partner are running low on money and now the governor's man are searching for them as well as for Zatoichi.  When the House of Kurod men find Zatoichi he chops them all down, except for the boss.

Then Yoshiro arrives on the scene and says he will kill Zatoichi. The one armed man against the blind man and then we find out that they are brothers. Yoshiro says that he hates Zatoichi because he made him the cripple he is now. We find out that Yoshiro stole Zatoichi's girl, Chiyo, from him and now he wants to kill him but Zatoichi defeats him too.

The governors men arrive and Yoshio asks his brother to finish him off but Ichi jumps in to the sea with him and escapes. Zatoichi's brother dies after telling him that Chiyo is still living. 

A good movie with an interesting twist with Zatoichi's evil brother. 



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