Watch Zatoichi in Desperation For Free

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

It is so daring, it is so ambitious, it is so thrilling and weird and pointed and powerful. I never knew where it was going.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This is the only Zatoichi movie that is bad. The camera-work is absolutely terrible. In an attempt to be flashy or stylish, the end result is something completely unwatchable. Extreme, blurry close ups, inept framing, and sloppy editing make this a visual mess. Added to that is the abuse of children and the mentally handicapped, which serves no purpose to the story. We need not see such things to show that the bad guys are 'bad'. We already know that. It comes across not 'dark', like some suggest, but rather as 'repulsive'.It is a shame because the other 24 films are all great. Most of them are classically shot, with beautiful, sometimes elegant framing. Fights, usually in long or medium shots, are in long takes so that we see the fantastic choreography. In the few that try to be a little more stylish (like Zatoichi's Flashing Sword), it never gets in the way of the story.Here, the visual style is rubbed in our face constantly and is distracting.Avoid at all cost.

It started up well, yet, at a certain point the script turned to a level of imbecility comparable with a big studio US creation. Well, compared with the level of the US Academy this can easily can take an Oscar for best script.On the other hand this movie achieves something almost unique. The visual style is so unusual (especially for somebody used with the standard blockbuster) that both makes the film unforgettable and hard to watch. In my opinion this is what Mean Streets and The Killing of a Chinese Bookie should have looked like if the tech team involved would have been skilled enough. The gambling scene alone makes Rounders look like a half baked high-school project (which is not far from the truth anyway).A 6 for cramming so much into this movie. You have a social message, the indolence of the rich (the young watching the fishermen's boats burn), the unromaticised noblemen, etc.Contact me with Questions, Comments or Suggestions ryitfork @ bitmail.ch

Katsu Productions was at a high level of output at this time. Katsu was producing the Zatoichi series, the Lone Wolf series, the Hanzo the Razor trilogy, the Mute Samurai television series and the Lone Wolf television series. All within a span of two years. In addition to acting in several of these efforts (of course) he also took the director's chair on several occasions. This man had a lot of energy.While sometimes actors who take the helm show a lack of concern with the visuals preferring to focus on the performances, Katsu is an exception. The visual style here is unlike any other Zatoichi I've seen and in fact unlike most other chambara films. Everything is shot in deep focus with moody lighting and stark saturated colors. The style is somber and depressing. The next (and last in the series) Zatoichi film is back to the standard look. If you like this film I would suggest looking into Katsu's Oshi Samurai series which continues the atmosphere.One of the best Zatoichi films but not similar to the others. Recommended but prepare for a somber experience.

I have not seen more than five of the classic (and undeniably classy) Zatoichi samurai films, but this is surely the best, cinematographically, so far. It;s hard to believe this was shot in Eastman Color, a kind of poor second to Technicolor (and with far less durability; either the negative was especially preserved, or digital restoration was performed by a true expert; but in any event, this film is absolutely gorgeous to look at.The story is dark, as others have noted; but the Zatoichi series, like most of the sword-fight genre series films to come out of Japan, is pretty heavy-handed stuff; the Japanese seem to take this sort of thing very seriously. Yet there is no doubt Zatoichi "24" stands out as exceptional, from both the series and its genre. The reason, I think, is its almost total sense of social dislocation; Zatoichi is treated by the other characters as somehow less than human, and his determination to fight at the end somewhat more than human, and so he comes across as something other than human; but the other humans of the film come across as rather poor representatives of the species. I should note that there is very little dialog in this film, particularly at the most dramatic moments, which heightens our sense that we are watching some tragedy from another reality. The question here is, has director/star Katsu pushed his character to such an extreme that he is no longer representative of his genre, but somehow an independent dramatic entity, a "grade-A film", as might be enjoyed by those who disdain genre-films? well, I suggest this film to such viewers, as the "one chambara (Japanese sword-fight)film to see". But in any event, it is an exceptional, and troubling, cinema experience for anyone.