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The original series of 26 films featured Shintaro Katsu as Zatoichi. The first film was made in 1962 in black and white. The third film, in 1963, was the first to be filmed in color. The 25th film was made in 1973, followed by a hiatus of 16 years until Katsu's last film, which he wrote and directed himself in 1989.
- Jeremy Urquhart
- Senior Author
- 'Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo' (1970) Yojimbo is one of the most well-known Akira Kurosawa samurai films, perhaps ranked only behind movies like Seven Samurai, Ran, and Rashomon.
- 'Zatoichi the Outlaw' (1967) The Zatoichi series slowly got more violent as it went along, with Zatoichi the Outlaw representing a step-up in the blood department.
- 'Samaritan Zatoichi' (1968) Samaritan Zatoichi was the 19th movie in the series, and was the final Zatoichi film released in the 1960s. The series took a long hiatus by its standards after the release of this film, seeing as no Zatoichi film came out in 1969, and audiences had to wait until 1970 for the 20th entry in the series.
- 'Zatoichi’s Vengeance' (1966) Zatoichi got revenge in 1965, with Zatoichi's Revenge, and then in 1966 (during the 13th movie), he decided he wanted to get some vengeance as well.
A list of the Zatoichi films in chronological order. Does not include remakes and other similarly related films, just the original film series.
- The Tale of Zatoichi. Directed by Kenji Misumi • 1962 • Japan. The epic saga of Zatoichi begins. As tensions mount between rival yakuza clans, one boss hires a formidable but ailing ronin as his clan’s muscle, while the other employs a humble, moral blind masseur named Ichi.
- The Tale of Zatoichi Continues. Directed by Kazuo Mori • 1962 • Japan. THE TALE OF ZATOICHI proved so popular that a follow-up went into production the same year.
- New Tale of Zatoichi. Directed by Tokuzo Tanaka • 1963 • Japan. Zatoichi is back, and in color! Hoping to leave violence behind, the blind masseur wanders to a village, where he meets an old friend fallen on hard times.
- Zatoichi the Fugitive. Directed by Tokuzo Tanaka • 1963 • Japan. Zatoichi triumphs at a village wrestling match, much to the chagrin of his yakuza opponents.
- The Tale of Zatoichi
- New Tale of Zatoichi
- Zatoichi on The Road
- Zatoichi and The Chest of Gold
- Fight, Zatoichi, Fight
- Zatoichi The Outlaw
- Samaritan Zatoichi
- Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo
- Zatoichi Goes to The Fire Festival
- Zatoichi in Desperation
Story: In his first adventure, Zatoichi finds himself caught in the middle of a turf war between two yakuza clans. After being recruited by the oyabun Sukegoro (Eijiro Yanagi), he befriends ronin Hirate Miki (Shigeru Amachi) who is suffering from tuberculosis. Unfortunately, they are fighting on opposing sides. Thus, the two master swordsmen know t...
Story: In Zatoichi’s first outing in color, Zatoichi returns to his home village. Arriving, Zatoichi meets up with his mentor and sword teacher Banno (Seizaburo Kawazu) and promptly falls in love with the latter’s daughter, Yayoi (Mikiko Tsubouchi). Zatoichi decides to settle down and marry Yayoi, but her father can’t overcome Ichi’s low social sta...
Story: In the the fifth Zatoichi adventure, Ichi has to guard a rich merchant’s daughter (Shiho Fujimura) to safety. Threatened by two opposing yakuza clans and pursued by violent samuraifor refusing their lord’s advances, the girl is in grave danger. After having saved her from the girls’ certain doom, Zatoichi vows to bring her back home. Why You...
Story: The sixth entry has Zatoichi trying to retrieve a chest of gold containing the taxes that a poor town’s folk had to pay to corrupt government officials. Supported by the legendary outlaw Chuji Kunisada (Shogo Shimada), he tries to help the villagers. However, his mission dares to fail when he encounters a cruel ronin(Tomisaburo Wakayama) who...
Story: The eighth entry in the series follows Zatoichi’s quest to protect a newborn baby after the baby’s mother was killed by members of the yakuza who attacked a palanquin believing it to be carrying Ichi. The blind swordsman meets the pickpocketed Ko (Hizuru Takachiho) who agrees to join Ichi on his way to return the baby to its father. Why You ...
Story: In entry number sixteen, Zatoichi helps a group of farmers organised in a labor union to fend off a yakuza clan in favor of the seemingly reform-minded yakuza boss Asagoro (Rentaro Mikuni). After returning to the village to save the young girl, Oyuki (Kayo Mikimoto), from prostitution, Ichi learns that Asagoro has begun to oppress the peasan...
Story: The nineteenth entry has Zatoichi kill an indebted man for an evil yakuzaclan in order to clear his own debts. As soon as he has cut him down, however, the young man’s spouse (Yoshiko Mita) emerges to pay off her husband’s loan. Angrily, Zatoichi steps in when the gang member decide to prostitute the girl as interest for her dead lover’s loa...
Story: In the twentieth Zatoichi film, the titular blind gambler encounters a cynical ronin (Toshiro Mifune), who works as yojimbo(“bodyguard”) for a yakuza boss planning to overtake the fortune of his greedy merchant father (Osamu Takizawa). Soon Zatoichi finds himself embroiled in a life-threatening turf war… Why You Should Watch It: With a runni...
Story: In entry twenty-one, Zatoichi faces off against the devilish blind oyabun Yamikubo (Masayuki Mori), who controls every other yakuza clan in the region. Furthermore, Zatoichi also has to fight off a psychopathic ronin (Tatsuya Nakadai) who wrongly believes that Zatoichi has slept with his wife and has to show the flamboyant yakuzason Umeji (P...
Story: In entry number twenty-four, Zatoichi promises to bring an old woman’s shamisen to her daughter in a nearby village after he has witnessed the woman’s demise. Arriving there, Ichi learns that the daughter has to work as a prostitute for a yakuza clan. Ichi decides to free the girl from the hands of her cruel pimps. Why You Should Watch It: F...
The colossally popular Zatoichi films make up the longest-running action series in Japanese history and created one of the screen’s great heroes: an itinerant blind masseur who also happens to be a lightning-fast swordsman.
Feb 18, 2019 · Zatoichi: The Best Martial Arts Movie Series You’ve Never Heard Of. We take a dive into the whopping 25-film Blu-ray release of Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman – The Criterion Collection.
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