Review of Zatoichi Challenged (1967) by Roman A — 04 Feb 2008

Like many of the Zatoichi movies, this one has plenty to offer, though a number of the elements (particularly the kid) are just annoying. And yet this movie stands out for me, not simply among the Zatoichi installments, but among the other films of the samurai genre. And it stands out because of one feature:

The sword fighting in this one is restrained; there is fairly little of Zatoichi staggering around, cutting up hundreds of Yakuza cannon fodder or corrupt officials. Most of that takes place off screen. The centerpiece, instead, is the final, climactic battle between Zatoichi and a single samurai, whom Zatoichi has come to know in the course of the movie, and with whom he has developed a rapport of mutual respect. This scene is one of the most beautifully choreographed fight scenes I have seen anywhere; but that is not why it stands out.

It stands out because, among all the portrayals of samurai I have seen in various media, this is the only one I have seen in which the samurai code itself is exposed as amoral. In a sense, this should be obvious: it is a bloody code that demands execution and suicide on command. But it is, also, a code extremely difficult to follow, and the strength of character required of a good samurai is certainly deserving of some glorification, which it amply receives all over the place. There are, of course, plenty of portrayals of corrupt samurai (in other Zatoichi installments, among other films). Sometimes these go so far as to attack the entire social framework of the samurai as hopelessly corrupt. But those criticisms almost inevitably portray the corruption as evil in opposition to a norm, and the norm is set by the samurai code. The corrupt samurai is evil precisely because he is corrupt, because he fails to live by his code, because he is concerned with wealth, or with love, or with glory more than with honor.

The criticism in this film is different. Zatoichi faces an opponent who is, in all respects, an upright samurai. And it is a strength of the film that it establishes the samurai as honorable: he may not be the most likable character, but as far as his honor goes, he seems beyond reproach.

What he lacks is not honor: it is morality. And this (aside from the choreography and the snow) is why the final showdown with Zatoichi is one of the most powerful scenes in samurai cinema: Zatoichi calls out his opponent not over his lack of honor, but precisely over his obsession with honor. The samurai has orders from the Shogun, and he must--as we know from every other samurai movie--obey those orders. But this is one case where obeying those orders would require him to kill an innocent man. And here the honor code fails: to be honorable and to live by the code is to surrender honor and to do evil. We--and the samurai--thus find a moral, but very un-samurai image of honor at the climactic moment when Zatoichi, to save the innocent man, flings away his sword in the middle of a fight, leaving himself defenseless.

By showing that genuine honor lies in being able to turn away from duty, Zatoichi essentially throws the entire samurai genre into turmoil. Whatever the failings of this film, this unique touch makes it worth seeing over and over (well, at least the ending--not the very ending, mind you; that part is annoying as hell).