Review of ICHI (2008) by Ttt C — 05 Jan 2010

Having seen Beat Takeshi's take on the blind swordsman some time ago, I came into this film hoping for a more entertaining effort, and for the most part I was pleased.

However, the film wasn't w/o it's drawbacks; too long, too melodramatic and the main villains (re: Banki gang) were way, WAY too hokey. Maybe I'm losing something in the translation because it seemed like Shido Nakamura really hammed it up a la the late Raul Julia did in 'Street Fighter', But I didn't find him as nearly as entertaining. I think the script may have had something to do with that. Meanwhile, Yosuke Kubozuka is the same as he always is; does this guy play the same character, regardless of what era it is?

The film is not really heavy on action, but what little there is was entertaining. I hated the badly done CG blood in Takeshi's 'Zatoichi'. If there were any in 'Ichi', it wasn't nearly as blatant. Although, there are some practical effects and gore that are just just laughably bad. Still, seeing the blind swordswoman take down fighter after fighter in a creative number of ways was fun to watch.

I'd recommend 'Ichi' as a rental.