Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Paul Magne Haakonsen Being a fan of Asian cinema I am ashamed to say that I never really seen any of the Zatoichi movies, so I picked this up from Amazon to see what they were all about, and the movie had been praised so high, so it was bound to be good.Or so I thought.This movie was definitely not in my liking. I found it to be boring, slow moving and rather pointless. And just to prolong the suffering, the movie is about 2 hours long. I made it through the first 55 minutes, then I simply gave up out of sheer boredom, and because nothing much really had happened.The acting was adequate, as were the action scenes.Sure it was nicely shot and I am sure that there is a profound meaning to the movie. I just failed to find it. I prefer movies with a little bit more action or appeal. But I am sure for fans of the Zatoichi story or movies set in feudal Japan, then this movie would be great.Of course there is an audience for this particular type of movie, or this movie specifically, I just wasn't part of that audience. I will say that it is not amongst the worst of Japanese movies I have seen, it just failed to catch my interest.

TheJackie The positive response this film has received here on IMDb makes me think that most people didn't truly appreciate the originals, and what made them so unique and beautiful.It seems as if Shintaro is barely acting. He has lost most of his mannerisms, and the rich facial expressions have all disappeared. The violence is obscene and the drama is lifeless. The camera work and a lot of the music is just plain awful.I wish I hadn't seen it. I have such a deep love and respect for the originals, and the younger Shintaro's acting ability. Watching this was really painful. Please, take my advice, give this one a miss and re watch one of your old favourites instead.Unless of course, all you watched zatoichi for was the swordplay.

Liwataki Looked forward to seeing this last version by the original actor. But, aside from the color photography, violent swordsmanship, and invocations of past films, which deserve praise (if you recall the bloodless b&w films of the 60's), I really had trouble with the plot lines and trying to follow along the meandering trail of who was who, what was what, and why they were doing what they were doing.There were a lot of characters featured here, and the connections among them were not very clear. A scar faced villain appears early on, and then shows up toward the end to complete the circle. A woman who seems to have unexplained authority seduces the hero and then drops completely from sight. A minor character shows off his remarkable skill in effecting a kill and then dies rather unexpectedly and without fanfare at the end.The sword fighting in this movie explodes with unexpected suddenness, after long scene setting or mood setting intervals, in various parts of the film. The depiction of violence is pretty good, but some scenes are absurd, such as the one in which a leader who has donned a make shift suit of armor made up of metal coins (ryo pieces)is stabbed repeatedly and spurts blood all over, like that braggadocio knight in the first MONTY PYTHON picture.You have to suspend your disbelief that a blind man can survive against 30 or 40 or 50 to one odds, especially in one case where the bad guys have guns. Is the hero gifted like the Marvel Comics hero Daredevil with extraordinary hearing? And extra sensory perception? Well, that is the only explanation for his survival. Or the absolute incompetence of his enemies in being able to formulate a plan of attack against him.So many plot lines, so many unresolved issues. Zatoichi is like a tornado who comes to a village, gambles a bit, massages a bit, plays with kids, makes friends here and there, and then sweeps away many lives, leaving death and destruction, and then goes his lonely way down a dirt road. Ordinary folks may come out and cheer (as at the end of this film) for the presumed end of some oppression, but you are left wondering where were these people throughout the movie. What happens after he leaves? Finally, there is so much ethnic tradition being depicted here that many people may have a hard time understanding what is happening. So, I can't recommend this film highly -- unless a film goer has a lot of familiarity with the previous films featuring Zatoichi and can tolerate some of the problems I referred to above. Maybe the color photography may make things bright. "Painting the Clouds with Sunshine," as that old song goes. Here, though, it's blood red.

galensaysyes This is to the Zatoichi movies as the "Star Trek" movies were to "Star Trek"--except that in this case every one of the originals was more entertaining and interesting than this big, shiny re-do, and also better made, if substance is more important than surface. Had I never seen them, I would have thought this good-looking but empty; since I had, I thought its style inappropriate and its content insufficient. The idea of reviving the character in a bigger, slicker production must have sounded good, but there was no point in it, other than the hope of making money; it's just a show, which mostly fails to capture the atmosphere of the character's world and wholly fails to take the character anywhere he hasn't been already (also, the actor wasn't at his best). I'd been hoping to see Ichi at a late stage of life, in a story that would see him out gracefully and draw some conclusion from his experience overall; this just rehashes bits and pieces from the other movies, seasoned with more sex and sfx violence. Not the same experience at all.