I saw Zatoichi today. I hink that it is the best movie I’ve seen so far this summer. In Zatoichi many gang leaders learn one of the basic laws of the universe:
Don’t mess with Beat Takeshi, because he will CUT you!!!
Really, you think by now, they’d know to run immediately when they see him. I’ve never seen blood splatter that artistically. I haven’t seen any of the earlier Zatoichi movies, but now I’m curious. I want to see some of the earlier incarnations of the blind swordsman. I was aware that this character has appeared over and over again and it will be interesting to compare Kitano’s version with the earlier movies.
11:40 pm on August 17th, 2004 1
Beat Takeshi is THE man! Too bad that most people’s experience of him constitutes seeing him in “Johnny Mnemonic”…
4:45 pm on August 18th, 2004 2
Zatoichi rocks! Best Samurai movie I’ve seen in a long time. Not sure about the musical dance number at the end–kind of strange. And if you say “Zatoichi!” really fast & high, you sound like a Jawa from Star Wars.
5:26 am on August 19th, 2004 3
Yeah, when I realized what was happening with the ending, at first I was like “WHAT???!!!!” but then I decided that Kitano had been leading up to something like that all along, because of all of those moments of syncopation with the soundtrack when people were working in the fields, etc.