Watch Zatoichi: Darkness Is His Ally For Free

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

This 26th also the last of the Zatoichi series indeed is the worst one among the 26 episodes. Shintarô Katsu in 1989 looked fat with natural gray short hairs, he directed and produced this one, added lot of modern stunts, his katana sword's ghost-like flashing cuts now got crimson blood splashed out of his opponents' bodies, unlike the early episodes, only cut but no blood coming out. we got chopped off hands, arms, legs even heads rolling on the ground. we saw him cured the sword in a hotel room. then we saw at the first time he finally got the chance to make love to a beautiful Yakuza local chief in a hot spring.Yeah, these are the new stuff he put into this last episode. but some of the scenes were overly used again and again in former episodes so many times, such as gambling scene, purposely letting two dices littered outside of the cup, cutting fake dices, etc., etc. but the scene that he stumbled into a dirt pit on the road is too much and too lazily copied from one of the earlier episode, simply is not quite good either.One of the worst arrangements of this series is repeatedly used so many same actors played so many different roles in different episodes. although their names or titles might not be the same, but these repeatedly showed actors were just killed by him in last episode, then same actors with the same faces showed up right in the next episode. this careless arrangement had seriously caused some viewing problems. a serious franchised series should not use so many same actors to repeatedly showed in different episodes; it's just stupid and ridiculous.This 26th episode actually should never been made in the first place. it looked just so tiresome and spiritless. by making one like this only meant that Shintarô Katsu just wanted to cash in the last time.Due to this series' popularity at that time, he even put some songs and sang by himself in the last several episodes, but the song in this last one was simply stupid, we got an English song! was it just because he sold this episode to some unknown American TV channel, so he got to put an English roaming samurai song in it for the American TV viewers? Well, the stupidity always amazed me.

This movie was GREAT! It wasn't the best Zatoichi movie, but it certainly was one of the best. It had EVERYTHING...the wayward samurai, the jaded but loving woman, the feuding crime bosses...and ORPHANS.But, this was a deeper, more introspective Ichi. He starts off the movie in a jail cell and subsequently receives a hundred lashes as punishment for insolence to a judge. It becomes apparent that Ichi has a lot of friends and spreads the spirit of giving everywhere he goes...Oh, and he also kills a lot of people...a LOT of people. And, for his age, Katsu Shintaro does amazingly well. The battles are tight, a little bloodier than before, but well staged.One minor complaint with this movie is the sex and nudity. While not excessive, it will keep my children from seeing it until their mid-teens. It is a shame because they have seen most of the other Zatoichis...

Zatoichi is a very strong film from the man himself, Shintaro Katsu. I won't say too much in this review, but this is a very strong entry to the Zatoichi series. It has its faults, but most of the time it is a beautifully shot piece that connects extremely will to the viewer.The fights are great, and really make me kind of sad that Takeshi Kitano decided to go the CGI route in his version of Zatoichi. Here, the arterial sprays are real. And it is one amazingly blood-stained opus. Evidently, Shintaro's sun (the main villain) actually killed an extra during shooting! A crime or total dedication to one's character, you be the one to decide.Some of the film's major problems: That wretched 80s English song. It's horrible. Whenever it plays, you drop out of Katsu's world. Why it is in there, I'll never understand. It's possible that the song alone (played twice) keeps this film from being great. Another problem: Zooms. I have no problem with snap zooms or very deliberate zooming shots, they can be great especially in older films, but here, the zooming is sloppy. It's as if the DP doesn't know what shot he wants, so he messes around with it as he goes. This problem only occurs maybe three times, but when it does, it stood out to me.Otherwise, a great film. The faults I find with it are relatively minor quibbles.Kitano's 2003 update is a better film, but this is arguably more fun and more fulfilling to Zatoichi fans.The Media Blasters DVD is great! Surprisingly nice anamorphic transfer, good original Japanese audio with very legible English subtitles. Not much as far as special features go, but the film alone is enough to make this a worthy purchase.

This is by far the goriest of the Shintarô Katsu series. The image of Zatoichi holding a severed head while slashing attackers is one I may use for my next tattoo. Blood spurts and flows in rivers. The story is well executed, nostalgic, and has the welcomed addition of nudity! It was hard to believe that Zatoichi actually had sex with a gorgeous tattoed naked yakuza girl in a hot spring. It was even more incredible that at age 69 Shintarô Katsu pulled the scene off, and it was quite erotic! That has to be one for the cinematic record books.The only thing I found that didn't work in this film was a very 80's Michael Bolton like theme song sung in English! Luckily it only occurs with the vocals twice. Other than that minor flaw, this is in the top 5 of the Zatoichi catalog, and I've seen them all. Highly Recommended!!!