Review of Zatoichi (2003) by Riren — 30 Jan 2007
An unflinching revival of the Zatoichi series, this movie requires no knowledge of prior films, or even Japanese film history - though every drop of knowledge helps. All you really need to know is that this is an expert's product in the new kind of film, that which will do whatever it wants whenever it wants.
What Zatoichi does that others fail at is earn at or amuse with everything it decides to do, from dance scenes to fight scenes, from innuendo to philosophy. It's not as pretty as Hero or Curse of the Golden Flower, nor are its actors as internationally recognizable - but it is considerably better at doing almost everything that those two movies do, short the wire teams.
Give it a try, and bring your friends.
This review of Zatoichi (2003) was written by Riren on 30 Jan 2007.
Zatoichi has generally received positive reviews.
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