When I picked this month's theme out of the hat, I had secretly hoped that Mr. X would deliver a Zatoichi film to my hands. I've heard of the series before, in the context of both Lone Wolf & Cub and the 80s Rutger Hauer film Blind Fury. I knew that Blind Fury was actually an American remake of a Zatoichi film, and I've always been interested in seeing the source material but never got around to it. Well now I have. And the movie didn't disappoint. According to the DVD case, Zatoichi featured in 27 films and 100 television episodes. It's easy to see why: Ichi (as he's nicknamed in this first film) is an enigmatic, charismatic Catalyst Hero. He enters a story like a force of nature, affecting everything around him but essentially remaining the same. The basic plot is as follows:
Blind ex-masseur Zatoichi enters the compound of yakuza boss Iioka at the boss' request. Iioka believes that rival boss Sasagawa is preparing for a gang war and knows that Sasagawa has hired his own samurai, Hitake, to help bolster his smaller army of gangsters. Ichi meets Iioka's gangsters, who upon first meeting try to con Ichi out of his money but are conned in turn by the wise blind man. Gangster Tate, who almost kills Ichi to get back the gang's money, is put in charge of Ichi. Tate's sister Tane is married to Seisuke, Iioka's second-in-command and a violent jerk. Tane has left Seisuke and desperately wants to escape him completely. Tate has his own drama as he has impregnated a local girl and doesn't want to accept responsibility. Ichi overhears these little intrigues, sometimes counseling and sometimes keeping his mouth shut. Ichi also arranges to meet Hitake to take the measure of the man and finds that he's the only honorable man around. Unfortunately, Hitake has tuberculosis and has little reason to live. As Ichi attempts to get out of fighting in Iioka's war for the sake of his own sense of honor and Hitake begins to seriously suffer the ravages of his disease, Sasagawa plots to get Hitake involved in the fight. Tate's pregnant girl is found floating dead in the river and Seisuke threatens Tane's life. Tate claims ignorance of the pregnant girl's demise and Tane begs Ichi, who is kind in a way that her husband is not, to take her away. On the day of the battle, Sasagawa tells Hitake that he's going to use a rifle to remove the threat of Ichi. Hitake refuses to allow Ichi such an ignoble death and vows to fight. Ichi is told about Hitake and refuses to allow Hitake to take his own life so foolishly. Sasagawa's men put up a decent fight, particularly as Hitake cuts down Iioka's goons easily. Both sides momentarily cease fighting as Ichi meets Hitake on a bridge for a final showdown. Ichi asks Hitake to cease the fighting and care for his health, but Hitake cares only for their impending fight. Ichi agrees and the two men clash. Hitake is fatally pierced and dies leaning against Ichi's back. Ichi takes Hitake's body back to the temple and insures that the fallen samurai will receive a noble burial. Ichi tells Iioka that his men have died needlessly and that he, as their boss, should be ashamed. Ichi leaves his sword-cane, which is too connected with Hitake's death for him to bear, with Hitake's body and heads out of town. On his way out, Tate takes a chance for infamy and tries to sneak-attack Ichi, but Ichi dodges the blow and knocks Tate into the same river where his pregnant victim drowned. We watch Ichi walk through the woods along the main road, careful to avoid Tane and maintain his solitary, lonely existence.
I know when I first talked about this blog that I wasn't going to focus much on the technical stuff. Well, that's hard to do when the film is a classic Japanese samurai film. There's something about the cinematography of this region in this time period that is absolutely stunning. The quality of the image, from lighting and framing to camera movement and mis-en-scene, is among the best ever put to film. This isn't to say that all Japenese samurai films from the 50s and 60s are beautiful because they aren't. But the work of Kurosawa certainly is, and director Misumi clearly also has a grasp of poetic image-making. The DVD transfer in the first few minutes was pretty crap, which made me angry. But eventually the transfer evened out, leaving me with a gorgeous film. In particular, I was impressed by the long takes and camera movement. These visual elements are so important to a film in the martial arts genre. Combatants are so focused on the discipline and fluidity of movement, it only makes sense for the image to be equally focused. This is even more important for a Zatoichi film as quick-cutting would feel out of place for the sightless protagonist. We as the audience must be able to take in as much information as possible with as few distractions as possible, like Ichi himself.
The character of Zatoichi lives on in 26 sequels and a television show, so it's no surprise that he's a protagonist worth following. Like many of the protagonists in this month's theme, Ichi struggles for self-respect in the face of his handicap. People dismiss him out of hand and often don't even realize that he's present. Ichi's also fascinating because he's so much an enigma. He hides his status as a great swordsman, he doesn't talk about how he was blinded, he never expresses a desire for himself. Ichi is a humble man who accepts that he has a certain reputation and just tries to get by without people taking advantage of him. Humility and mystery are dual pulls on an audience. We want to know more about this man, but he clearly doesn't think he's that interesting. It's a hilarious tease if you know anything about storytelling, and it's incredibly effective. Ichi also benefits from being surrounded by scumbags. Because of his condition and his prior work as a masseur (considered by Japanese culture of the time to be a lowly position - Google it!), Ichi lives among the low, which puts him in contact with the criminal element. Ichi may have to work for yakuza, but he maintains a personal code and expects other yakuza to live by one as well. Bad guys being bad guys, of course the majority of Ichi's peers are honorless. Tate murders the girl he knocked up, Iioka doesn't give a shit about anyone but himself, and the other thugs would rob and kill a blind man. The only other character in the film with any honor is Hatake, which makes his status as antagonist complex and engrossing, like the best antagonists in film.
It's worth noting, as I did earlier, that Zatoichi is a Catalyst Hero. He doesn't change throughout the course of the story. You see this more outside of mainstream American film, which tends to favor a protagonist who arcs. Australia seems to favor the Catalyst Hero, particularly the Anti-Hero, which certainly also applies to Zatoichi. As something of an American cinema traditionalist, I find Zatoichi appealing but not as personally engrossing as the standard American arcing protagonist. Your mileage may vary depending on your own feelings about heroes. Especially action/adventure heroes. Zatoichi is a fuzzy character for me in particular because he's so much a mystery. I can appreciate that he has a personal code and tries to live honorably. I really like that he spends much of his time trying to show people how prejudiced they are against the handicapped. But I kinda wish I knew more about the guy, particularly what he WANTS. His personality is sufficiently intriguing to get me through the movie, but if there's any weakness to be found here it's that you aren't given a whole lot to work with from a character-attachment POV. I'll take guys like Riggs or John McClane over Zatoichi or The Man with No Name any day. Even though I like all four characters.
As usual, here are some random thoughts I jotted throughout my viewing:
- Janus films, eh? Good sign.
- Box says "fully restored image". Really? This transfer looks like shit.
- hahaha... idiots. Don't they know when they're being conned? I love hired goons in films. So stupid.
- Great, funny stuff with Iioka. Way to make the douche who was going to kill Ichi his slave.
- Are the governor's mistress' teeth black? What the fuck? (Note: A little internet research tells me that this was a custom among married women and that the dye actually helps preserve teeth.)
- Is Ichi hitting on Hitake? "come here often?"... hahaha
- I like the casualness of Ichi's admission to being a gangster.
- This is kind of an awesome scene, this meeting between hired swords. Modern films like Heat understand how powerful it is to keep the protagonist and antagonist apart until it's dramatically compelling to get them together, prior to the climax.
- So refreshing to see a swordfight movie with silent scabbards! American/Western expectations of sound (the ssshhhingggg sound) are so wrong-headed.
- Samurai movies are so good at push-ins and pull-outs. Is it the genre or the cameramen?
- Slicing the candle in two? Bad. Ass.
- hahaha... Ichi's head wrap makes him look like a Russian grandma
- Oh my god. The tension between Hitake and Ichi is so... homoerotic...
- (at random shot of Ichi between bamboo shoots) Man, look at that framing!
- I wonder if the writers/producers of The Incredible Hulk watched samurai films. There's definitely a similarity.
- This scene between Ichi and Tane is 1000% more sensual than anything in Daredevil, which tried 1000X harder to be all sexy.
- Rutger Hauer was a fantastic choice to play the American version of Ichi. He has that same world-weary sense of humor, that feeling that he's constantly, every second wryly amused. Kind of a shame that Blind Fury is the only U.S. attempt to adapt Zatoichi. (Note: it's not, according to a quick Google search. I'm a dummy. But it IS the only one that I've seen, if you don't count Book of Eli, and I don't. Oh, spoiler alert. Shut up, it's not that big a twist, trust me. You won't care.)
- Oh man, that is some awesome conflict set-up right there. Manipulating Ichi and Hitake both to fight each other...
- It seems to me like a lot of these samurai movie battles are a matter of one guy who actually takes time to concentrate and hit his target. The goons spaz out too easy and just end up shaking their swords and screaming a lot.
- The anticipation for the face-off between Ichi and Hitake is KILLER! That moment, before they strike? Man, so awesome.
- Watching Ichi's face as Hitake dies at his back is f'ing fantastic. Great acting.
- Awesome shot of Ichi walking with Tane in the background on the main road.
Did the movie live up to the theme? Eh, more or less. Ichi spends a lot of the movie proving how little a handicap being blind is, but then again he has samurai movie super-powers. It's my complaint about Daredevil as a character. Sure, he's blind, but he never really seems to be affected by that blindness. Ichi stumbles a bit, but the guy cuts a candle in half, length-wise, including the wick. Sorry, but that's not compensating for a disability, that's fucking MAGIC. It's cool, but it doesn't really, truly address the subject of blindness.
So there we have it. The Tale of Zatoichi. I'd definitely recommend the movie to anyone who's into samurai films. Straight-up action fans may not want to bother as there isn't a whole lot of actual action involved. The swordfights are mostly quick affairs. Film fans who love quality cinematography should DEFINITELY check this out. And anyone who's interested in Catalyst Heroes should also give the movie a view. Probably not a movie I'd watch over and over (I'm too much a fan of bigger, bloodier action) but a movie I'd put on for someone who is getting their feet wet in the art of cinema.
See you guys next week for Theme the Third: Cross-Dressers! It'll be interesting to see what movies Mr. X picks up for me as I've seen a LOT of cross-dressing films. ALSO: check here soon for a bonus review of Blind Fury. I'm not counting it as the standard Film Themantics review because I've already seen it AND I picked the movie myself. But it's been a long time since I last saw the movie and I don't really remember much of it. It should be fun, especially in light of today's film.
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