Zatôichi kyôjô-tabi (1963) watch online HD

MASSEUR ICHI, THE FUGITIVE (1963) is the fourth in the series of Japanese swordplay films devoted to the exploits of Zatoichi, the blind swordsman whose super-hearing and sensitivity enabled him to perform impressive feats of derring-do. This entry is somewhat slower-paced and less action-packed than would become the norm in later Zatoichi films (which would continue to be produced through 1973). There is only one major swordfight, near the very end, but at least it's a spectacular one, with Zatoichi (Shintaro Katsu) slashing opponents right, left, front and back, although the spurting bloodshed which would soon become a distinct feature of samurai films is noticeably absent here. Zatoichi himself is also considerably less superhuman than he appears in later films.

Instead, the emphasis is Zatoichi's role as mediator in a conflict between gang bosses in a town he is visiting solely to pay respects to the mother of a gang member he'd killed who'd been seeking the ten gold coin bounty on Zatoichi's head. The complex interrelationships among the characters center chiefly around two young women, one of them a former lover of Zatoichi's who is now the wife of a sword-for-hire seeking to sell his services to one of the wily bosses. Zatoichi sides with the underdog, Sakichi, who'd reluctantly inherited his father's territory but would rather marry the other young woman, Onobu (Miwa Takada), the pretty young daughter of the innkeeper, a once-powerful gang boss bearing a powerful grudge because he'd lost his territory to Sakichi's father. The gang bosses pressure the vulnerable Sakichi to use Zatoichi's trust to set a trap for him. The stage is then set for a series of confrontations that culminate in the final battle.

It may be slow going for most action and swordplay buffs, but it has a formal beauty that later films in the series dispensed with in favor of more visceral thrills. The polished camerawork, largely on location, gives us stately compositions focused on the characters and their relationships. A sparing score by venerated composer Akira Ifukube adds a touch of class. Samurai films of the time routinely boasted such visual and aural elegance long before the audience demanded more bloodshed and a more excessive approach in later films (see, especially, the "Lone Wolf and Cub" series).

that our hero Zatoichi cannot control.

The fourth film in the Zatoichi series contains many characters and sub-plots. At times it's hard to know where it is all leading, but the viewer gains a better understanding of Zatoichi's motives. Zatoichi seeks a peaceful resolution of the typical turf war. Zatoichi supports the young, weak yakuza in his desire to wed a former rival's daughter. Zatoichi also encounters an slightly older, and far less pure Tane, his love interest from film #1.

There is little action in the first hour of the film, but the final scene is hectic and full of carnage. Zatoichi finally loses restraint and goes on a blood-letting rampage that leads to the final confrontation with the truly black-hearted lover of Tane.

It's a solid entry in the series.

I enjoyed the sumo tournament at the beginning of the film. Yes, our hero is multi-talented. He played the shamizen in film #3, wrestles in film #4 and has other hidden skills to reveal in later movies.

And once again, Zatoichi finishes the film minus his cane sword. Where does he get another cane sword for film #5?

Zatoichi the Fugitive is the fourth Zatoichi film and the second one in a row directed by Tokuzo Tanaka. I must say I didn't really like this one. It's kinda forgettable and blends in with the previous film for me even though the storyline is quite different.

The story to this movie was really complicated for me to follow and I quick lost track on who is who. Not only that, but the pace was too slow for my taste this time, so I didn't enjoy following the goings-on here at all. The movie gets significantly better during the final fight scene of Zatoichi vs. a group of nameless thugs, and the final duel with the main villain, and this particular scene looks like it just came out of a Sergio Leone film. Tane (from the first two films) re-appears, and personally I don't really like that the series is still burdened by continuity; I'd rather see Zatoichi meet new people and all.

The score by Akira Ifukube (who also scored Godzilla) is really good and fits in nicely, and the cinematography (done by the same person who shot the previous film, Chishi Makiura) is once again really nice and the shots are a pleasure to look at. I especially like the way the actors look when captured on this particular type of color film, the way their faces are pale and covered in plenty of dark shadows.

Highlight of the film: the villain threatens Zatoichi by cutting a sake bottle in half with his blade. Zatoichi responds by perfectly throwing a dice into the second sake bottle (which some guy is holding), then swings his katana in the air. The guy drops the bottle, which is revealed to be bisected in half, same as the dice that was inside it.

One might mistake this for the first Zatôichi in colour, so bold are the colours during the opening credits that they'd challenge even Imamura's hyper-lush "Kamigami no yakubo" (1968).

What the films achieve wonderfully is that they still allow the necessary plotting to take its time. In modern fare I think we'd be having all the quiet moments and hesitations removed, let alone all the human drama. Thus the film really has genuinely suspenseful moments and genuine drama. Otane reappears, and we are allowed to see a loose end tied in the drama.

I'm going through the films in chronological order just now. It will be interesting to see where the series goes as it matures; these early films have all been very brilliant.

Masseur Ichi, the Fugitive (1963)

*** (out of 4)

The blind swordsman Ichi (Shintaro Katsu) angers a large yakuza after defeating them in a wrestling match, which will lead to a bigger fight. Directed by Tokuzo Tanaka. This here was my second film in the series and while I enjoyed most of the first one, this one here just doesn't cut it. There's way too much talking going on and none of it is even mildly interesting. Even worse is that the actual swordfights are rather lame as well. The concept of a blind swordsman is really the only thing that keeps this film (and perhaps series?) afloat.

this is one of the so-so add-on(s) of this 'blind swordsman' series. after couple of the prequel and sequel in black and white, it suddenly turned into a colored one. but there were many flaws in this series that by nowadays standard, they were so obvious and inevitably decreased the greatness of this series:

1) In this follow-up film, Zatoichi's short hairdo suddenly fashioned in modern cut. his short hair was trimmed so evenly and nicely and blow dry up and held on his head firmly. a wandering Yakuza blind masseur would have such fashion taste to have his hairdo nicely treated in an expensive saloon was beyond my comprehension.

2) The fighting scenes looked more false and phony once in colors. the swords never cut open the clothes and no blood was splashed all over the places, even when cut by Zatoichi's sword and fell into the pond, no blood ever showed up in the water, yet when Zatoichi was cut by his opponent's sword, his arm would have blood. but judging by where it was cut, the artery on his arm should have cut deeply and the blood would never be so easily to be stopped. but the worst effect of such synchronized swords fighting was those clothes never being slashed open and no blood appeared whatsoever, it just looked so fake and unconvincing, more like the stupid productions of Chinese 'Shaw Brothers' Kung-Fu movies, all of them just looked so stupidly fake and moronically synchronized.

3) For a blind man, no matter how sensitive his hearing ability, there's no way he could have detected the positions and locations of so many enemies around him. but Zatoichi seemed to have the supernatural power to rightly detect his enemies' locations and where to lodge and cut his opponents' bodies. the most unconvincing flaw of Japanese samurai movies was the sudden stop in action when one of the guys was cut and the others just stood around to await the next synchronized movement. it seems when all the people surrounding their targeted person would allow the guy to finish the fatal cut of their comrades to be completed thoroughly and then to start the next fighting sequence. this is such a unbearable fake scene almost appeared in every Japanese samurai movie.

4) When a hunting rifle was implemented in this film, the primitive long gun seemed to be very easily reloaded. by judging this movie series era, the primitive rifle would need fuse to ignite the gun powder to push a round bullet ball out of the barrel, it would need gun powder to be stuffed into the barrel and chamber first then inserted the lead ball bullet to complete the reload, yet in this film and all the other series, the rifle simply operated so modern than what we usually saw in the fighting scenes of the American Civil War.

The screenplay of this film is just too bland and lukewarm to make this particularly a great and memorable one.

Zatoichi, the Fugitive is the fourth entry in the franchise and the second film to be shot in color. It's the second of three films released within the same year. The movie starts with Zatoichi being attacked by an inexperienced yakuza who wants to earn the bounty on Zatoichi's head. Zatoichi easily kills his opponent and wants to find out who wants to pay the reward for seeing him dead. The blind masseur travels to a nearby town where he confesses to the bounty hunter's mother that he killed her son. While the mother pardons Zatoichi, a group of samurai wants to avenge the bounty hunter's death. As if that weren't enough, Zatoichi also has to deal with the weak inheritor of a local yakuza who seeks Zatoichi's help but who is also pressured to kill Zatoichi by his peers to prove his strength. In addition to this, Zatoichi meets Otane again, a woman he carried passionate feelings for in the first two films. He realizes she is unhappily married to a quick-tempered ronin and decides to challenge him. Soon, Zatoichi has to face a group of vindictive samurai, a mean ronin and an untrustworthy inheritor all at once.

The main problem with this film is that the plot is at times tough to follow with its numerous characters. It's not always clear why and when the inheritor changes his mind and is Zatoichi's partner, just to become his opponent and to end up supporting him once again. The numerous yakuza bosses and their motives for wanting Zatoichi dead are also quite confusing. Even the return of Otane is somewhat strange as she seems to be torn between Zatoichi and her husband. In one scene, she almost romantically walks around with Zatoichi and opens up to him about how her life has changed for the worse and the next day she apparently tries to trick him in order to kill him and get the bounty on his head. The movie would have been much more enjoyable with less characters who have clearer objectives. This film's epic proportions made me feel lost at times.

On the positive side, the wild Japanese landscapes and colourful towns are still fascinating to watch and especially the abandoned house in the meadows where the final showdown happens is a gorgeous location. The final fight sequences are beautifully and cleverly choreographed. The entertaining last twenty minutes save the movie from being just average or worse.

In the end, Zatoichi, the Fugitive is the weakest film of the franchise so far but it's saved by a fast-paced closing twenty minutes and the charming use of traditional rural Japanese locations. Fans and followers of the franchise can give this film a try but occasional fans of Chanbara or samurai films can skip this entry without any regrets.

This fourth Zatoichi film in fourteen months

The recurrence of a lost love might have made for an interesting change of pace, and change of tone for this series, but that mostly takes second stage to a contrived, yet shallow, story of redemption, without much resolution.

The climactic battles are reasonably good here, but it all feels alternately a bit too choreographed, and poorly choreographed, as the innumerable thugs all seem to politely wait their turn to attack Ichi, who barely gives them a passing glance, before they fall over dead, bloodlessly, and without even so much as a tear to their clothing.

I found the sake bottle scene to be too silly of a gimmick, like the slicing of candles with his sword, as well.

Still watchable, though, but a drop in quality from the earlier installments.

Perhaps I would have liked this fourth episode in the Zatôichi franchise had I not watched the third one the same day. The third, "Shin Zatoichi Monogatari", is probably my favorite of the series and after watching it for the second time, it just reinforced this in my mind. The fourth episode, unfortunately, just doesn't have the same depth of story--though it is well worth seeing nonetheless.

The film starts with our hero Zatôichi fighting sumo matches at a festival and winning them all. It's an interesting juxtaposition to go from the height of success to a crushing defeat so quickly, as almost immediately after the matches, a lone knucklehead tries to kill Zatôichi--quite unsuccessfully, I might add. As the man dies, Zatôichi begs him to tell him why he tried to kill him. It seems he needed the money for his mother. In an odd case of contrition, Zatôichi goes to the dead man's mother and begs forgiveness--and gives her the bounty that was on his own head. Surprisingly, the lady stated that her son was no good and quickly forgives Zatôichi for having to kill him in self-defense.

In this same town, there is the usual power-struggle. This time a young and weak yakuza recently inherited his father's business but is beset by rivals vying for his power. One of the men, interestingly enough, is with a woman who loved Zatôichi in his youth. Will Zatôichi get her back? Is she worth getting back? Will her current significant other kill Zatôichi? And, what of the young boss? Tune in to find out all these answers. Sadly, however, none of them seemed all that compelling to me--just the typical Zatôichi film plots and not a lot more--other than the relationship between Zatôichi and the mother of the man he killed at the beginning of the film.

The usual excellent camera-work, writing, music and more is all here. It's just that with almost 30 films in the series, this one doesn't have a lot to make it stand out from the crowd.