Zatoichi's Vengeance (1966)
78/100 - As I was watching this film, I started to wonder if Shintarô Katsu was beginning to think his Zatoichi character was being idolized by children, but for the wrong reason. When you look at the previous twelve films, Ichi kills on average, about twenty to thirty men over the course of a film's length. It wouldn't be any different with this film, but at least the storyline has Ichi pondering, thanks to meeting a blind monk who points out his violent nature to him, the possible influence he has on a young child. In some ways, this blind monk is reminiscent of the chamberlain's wife in Kurosawa's
Tsubaki Sanjûrô, who points out to the ronin samurai that he is an unsheathed sword, dripping in blood. Her wisdom is that the most powerful sword, is the one that is never wielded, but remains in its scabbard. The monk tries to get Ichi to see his reckless disregard for human life and Ichi tries to make himself appear cowardly in front of the young boy. At first it works, but then the villagers are set upon by a yakuza boss, and Ichi goes back into blind badass mode. There's a lot of soul searching in this one, and it works. It makes this entry in the series, one of the most interesting so far, and a good lead in to the next film,
Zatoichi's Pilgrimage. Which was written by Kaneto Shindô, and follows the same philosophical storyline.