The Tale of Zatoichi (1962)

Original title

座頭市物語

Directed by

Kenji Misumi

Genre

drama film, samurai cinema, sword-and-sandal film

Country

Japan

Runtime

1h 35m

Rated

16

Rating

7.3 of 10 from 159 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A blind masseur and gambler who is also a master swordsman arrives in a town where two rival gangs are fighting for control. He gets caught in the middle of the conflict and must use his skills to survive.

slow-burntensemelancholicvisually lushgrittystoiccontemplativeviolent

What happens

The Tale of Zatoichi (Japanese: 座頭市物語, Hepburn: Zatōichi Monogatari) is a 1962 Japanese chanbara film directed by Kenji Misumi and based on the 1948 essay of the same name by Kan Shimozawa. It is the first installment in a long-running jidaigeki film series starring Shintaro Katsu as the blind swordsman Zatoichi. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

More like this

• Harakiri (1962)
• Yojimbo (1961)
• Sanjuro (1962)
• Long Swords of the Loyal Forty-Seven (1962)
• Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji (1955)
• Zatoichi the Outlaw (1967)
• The Blind Menace (1960)
• Zatoichi's Flashing Sword (1964)