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Today's Takeshi Kitano movie takes every convention, some would say cliché, of a samurai film and turns it on its head.

Zatôichi / The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi

The idea of the blind swordsman itself is a convention/cliché. Even Jacky Chan has done one of these.

But Kitano begins with a conflict. We like and admire the first samurai very much until we discover that he is going to sell himself out to a local gang leader and become his bodyguard/enforcer. Not good.

Along comes a blind masseur (Kitano) who takes up residence with a widow in the outskirts of the town.

We learn, early on, that the blind guy is actually a samurai himself as he dispatches some bad guys on the way to the village.

It is inevitable that the two samurai will take up against each other. The bodyguard is only doing it because his wife is sick so we kinda sorta stay in sympathy with him and it is only toward the end that he earns our enmity.

Just about every convention is checked off here. After you have seen a few of these films they become an enjoyable experience brought to pleasure partly by their very predictability. "What" and "who" turn into "how will they do it this time". It is like the classic western in that respect.

Kitano finds new wrinkles all along the way including a drag queen sister, a couple of geezers who are more than they seem and an unfolding realization of who the real gang leaders are.

A delightful feature is the use of music and rhythm to underline the action. In the very beginning farmers dig in the fields. You realize that they are beginning to do it in unison and then in a syncopated rhythm. The sound track follows them.

Percussion is used throughout to this happy effect.

The grand finale involves village danceing which turns into a spectacular dance number involving all the cast in a sort of curtain call. Everyone except the villains. It is a big cast.

This is a 5 out of Netflix5 and should be seen by any martial arts/samurai film fan.

Yes. Kitano is even blond. This could be taken as grey hair but it is not. It is platinum peroxide blond. A blatant example of literally turning it on its head!

Labels: films