Review of Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman (1971) by William W — 17 Sep 2010

Weaker entry in the series. The fights are good and much bloodier then usual but I really hated how the one-armed swordsman was able to leap around like a superhero. Also, Zatoichi spends most of the movie trying to help the one-armed swordsman but still ends up fighting him in the end? I don't know if I missed the betrayal scene because I was watching this at work and it was kind of loud or what but I definitely didn't know why they were fighting.

Beyond that, the film didn't explore the morality of the character the way the best of the series do so it was more just the spectacle of the fights. This is fine but left me longer for the one's that take the character a little more seriously.