Watch The Tale of Zatoichi Continues For Free

People are voting emotionally.

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

THE TALE OF ZATOICHI CONTINUES / THE RETURN OF MASSEUR ICHI (ZOKU ZATÔICHI MONOGATARI). Viewed on Streaming. Restoration/preservation = eight (8) stars; cinematography = seven (7) stars; score = two (2) stars; choreography = two (2) stars. Director Kazuo Mori picks up the reins of an emerging franchise in a rushed follow-on film that is a pale imitation of the first outing (the original seems to have been released only a few months previously). The blind self-taught sword swinger who is a traveling masseur by trade (and provides rub downs only on fully-dressed customers!) continues to hang out in the same small village and effortlessly cuts down inept Yakusa gang members (while not slicing himself!), but conspicuously avoids Samurai soldiers who, of course, really know how to use their swords. For muddled/contrived reasons, the protagonist is chased all over the place by two warring gangs of Yakusa, a band of samurai, the police, and a besotted prostitute. (It's a bit of a challenge for the three interested viewers out there to distinguish between the tribes except that the Samurai are a bit better dressed and have cooler hair styles!) There are a fair number of disconnected scenes which look suspiciously like out-takes from the first film. Continuity is often lacking with a character's full costume changing from cut to cut. Cinematography (2.35 : 1, black and white) is good. The wide-screen format is fully utilized, there are a few interesting exterior tracking shots, a novel scene photographed so as to appear right at ground level, and nausea-inducing panning is minimal. Restoration/preservation is great. Subtitles are close enough. Signs are translated. Characters who survived in the original movie all seem to make a reappearance. Acting is fine (except for one silly addition), and actresses are given much more to do this time besides being part of the scenery. Choreography is again pretty inept with sword slashing mostly a joke made more humorous when stunt actors pause (for "dramatic" effect?) before falling over. This comes across as if performers are trying to make up their mind whether or not to collapse! There is an occasional glint of metal; so in this iteration some of the swords may be real? Score mostly employs a synthesizer and is undistinguished. A Daiei programmer not worth bothering with. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

There were seriously 25 Zatoichi films made in the time span of 1962 to 1973. Another, almost equally as amazing fact is that the second movie, The Tale of Zatoichi Continues, came out the exact same year as the first movie did. Naturally it's shorter, clocking in at one hour and ten minutes. It's directed by Kazuo Mori, best known for directing other Zatoichi films, and is the last Zatoichi film in B&W.The plot of the second movie is way less engaging than the plot of its predecessor. This time we follow Ichi as he's tailed by a group of killers after learning a powerful political figure's secret as he was giving him a massage. It turns out the lord has some mental problems, and his retainers try to conceal this secret from people. There's also a subplot about Ichi's one-armed brother Yoshiro (played by Shintaro Katsu's own brother Tomisaburo Wakayama, credited as Jo Kenzaburo) who is actually a wanted criminal, and the film culminates with the face-off between the two brothers. There's also another subplot which has Ichi travel to a temple of the first movie's town to pay respect at the grave of the samurai from the first film. There he meets Tane (the girl from the previous movie) who's about to marry a carpenter.The Tale of Zatoichi Continues follows some continuity by taking place a year after the events of the first movie, which is constantly referenced. One thing we learn about Zatoichi is that he had a soft spot for a girl named Chiyo, who left him for his brother (who then killed her). There's also a prostitute who has an one-night stand with Ichi at one point in the film.The Tale of Zatoichi continues is nowhere near as interesting as its prequel, but there are occasional good sword fights to be found in here. This film is more action-oriented and you'll find yourself enjoying Zatoichi's ass-kicking escapades if you can suspend the disbelief that he's completely blind and yet unmatched in sword fights.Even though this movie is forgettable and doesn't have much going for it, I must say the visuals are superior to the first film's visual outlook. The sequel sports some nice shots of characters by the water and the fights are better. However, the music is kinda strange; at some points it loudly builds up, only to get interrupted by a sudden cut.Hightlight of the film: the sudden end where Zatoichi delivers a killing cut to a yakuza gang leader.

Never mind the first film to take its time in introducing the character to us, of which I am glad that it didn't rush. Now that we and the others in the film "know" him ( although part of the fun is that nobody is really able to know him and his skill really) the film goes to hyperdrive mode straightaway. It's fascinating to see this in retrospect, knowing it is a long franchise, and trying to map out the development and where the film and its success came from. Inthink the first film is strong because it takes its time in creating its own universe, simply so that the sequels don't have to work so hard in setting things up. It's nice, and so is the self-reference it allows both in humour and mythology, but the films quickly morph into each other. It doesn't seem to be a problem here, since aren't all series all about working for or against the set rules and archetypes in the previous films?Anyway, I think the two films have very well set up Zatoichi's blindness as a metaphor, yet it's the first film that's more ambitiously conceived. In this respect these two first films are like "Yojimbo" and "Sanjuro", Kurosawa's duology. The last shot of this film, however, is one of the coolest film moments I know of. Seriously. That last five seconds.

I love samurai movies, but the Zatoichi series takes a period of lawlessness and violence in Japan from the lofty realm of the Samurai nobility down to the ranks of the common people. They are great "slice of life" dramas about what life was like for a man who seems to have a devastating handicap during a time of turmoil which is very much like the wild, wild West in American culture. The offset to Zatoichi's handicap (his blindness) is that he is blessed with incredible perceptive abilities which include a level of swordsmanship that seems to surpass even Musashi Miyamoto's legendary skills. The time period appears to be several hundred years after Musashi lived in the 1500's, otherwise Zatoichi might have found his match - for no one else in Japan, no matter how many adversaries attack him simultaneously, can prevail over the blind master's incredible swordplay. I like this movie because it shows the fencing style in great detail, and the viewer can truly appreciate Zatoichi's martial arts abilities. The story is also interesting, as it reveals some of the mysterious masseur's family background. This is the best movie in the series to see first because Zatoichi is very young in this story, and several of the events help explain events in later episodes.There's a great deal of humor underlying the action, and Shintaro Katsu does an excellent job of portraying this quirky, noble, and ultimately very appealing character.