Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

kluseba Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival is the twenty-first entry in the Japanese franchise about the blind masseur, skilled swordsman and lowly yakuza. This is also by far the most experimental movie in the series so far and comes as an unexpected positive surprise. The vivid story line features several subplots. Let's just focus on the most essential elements. Zatoichi assists a mistress auction where he gives massages to bosses who want to sell or purchase women. Zatoichi seems to be overwhelmed by emotions when the most beautiful woman is sold for a hefty fee and decides to rescue her. However, the woman doesn't react to Zatoichi's gentle behavior and the disappointed swordsman lets her go when he realizes she wants to rob him out and run away. Things turn sour when the woman's husband suspects his wife to have slept with Zatoichi and decides to slay her and follow and ultimately confront her savior throughout the movie. Zatoichi however attends the reunion of some of the bosses who were present at the auction and decides to provoke the arrogant criminals as he despises their self-important swagger. However, he comes across a quite unusual boss named Yamikubo who is blind like Zatoichi but respected by his underlings. The two blind men challenge each other philosophically, intellectually and finally physically. In order to get rid of the troublesome Zatoichi, Yamikubo assigns his assigned successor's daughter to kill the emotional swordsman. In addition to this, an androgynous pimp also wants to kill Zatoichi to become a yakuza. Zatoichi needs to deal with a clever boss, an ambitious drag queen, a seductive protegee and a clever boss in this dynamic film.Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival is my favorite film in the franchise so far for a multitude of reasons. First of all, the story is more adventurous than usual as it deals with unusual topics such as homosexuality and human trafficking. Secondly, the story is quite vivid and comes around with numerous memorable scenes. The bloody fight in the bath might be the most memorable fight scene in any film of the franchise and the final duel sees Zatoichi isolated on an artificial island surrounded by a ring of fire. Thirdly, the film takes some inspiration from Western cinema. The clever boss who challenges a dynamic Zatoichi reminds of Blofeld challenging James Bond in many aspects. The movie includes much more nudity than usually, including many naked yakuza as well as women whose phsyical features are presented in detail at an auction. Even the soundtrack has a vibe inspired by jazz and rock music at certain points but also still features Japanese folkloristic music. Fourthly, the characters in this film are all intriguing. This starts with unimportant side characters such as the bickering and slightly perverted couple who owns a teahouse. It goes on with supporting characters like the silent lady who is saved by Zatoichi or the homosexual pimp who wants to be seen as a real man. It culminates with two very interesting antagonists, the first being the jealous and nihilistic widow and the other one being the clever blind yakuza boss who is as cold as ice. Fifthly, the movie finds a perfectly balanced mixture between comic relief, tense fight sequences, a solid dose of suspense, a shot of tragic romance and some cultural elements thrown in to spice things up.Obviously, this film is over the top which impresses me but which might irritate those who prefer more traditional chambara films. Homosexuality and nudity are everything but typical components for this type of movie. Some psychedelic flashbacks and experimental cuts also show that this movie was shot in the wild seventies and not in the more traditional sixties. Depending on your taste, this film could be the best but also the worst of the series.To keep it short, watch this movie if you are craving for a more experimental take on traditional chambara movies after twenty rather streamlined entries in the franchise. Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival definitely stands out and is my favorite movie in the franchise up to that point. It deserves more acclaim and attention than it gets and could easily please to a wide audience. It's not the best film to start discovering the franchise because it's so experimental but it's a dynamic fun ride from start to finish you won't forget anytime soon.

Tweekums This instalment in the Zatoichi franchise opens by telling us that it is set during a period where Yakuza crime bosses extracted protection money from the peasantry and in turn paid money to Yamikubo the 'Boss of Bosses', AKA the Prince of Darkness. Before we meet him we see Zatoichi giving a massage to a man who buys a woman at an auction, she was reportedly the wife of a samurai. Later he rescues her but that night she sneaks off and is killed by her husband; he assumes Zatoichi has slept with her so swears to kill him. As the various bosses meet to pay tribute to Yamikubo, Zatoichi attends and offers one ryo, a deliberate insult. Yamikubo's people vote that he must be killed. His henchmen's first attempt fails so he tries something new; a instructs the beautiful Okiyo to get close to him and take his sword… but she ends up falling in love with him. She warns him not to accept Yamikubo's invitation to a festival but he attends anyway and almost meets a fiery end.This is a solid addition to the Zatoichi franchise; Yamikubo is a suitably evil main villain and the samurai bent on revenge is a good secondary antagonist. There are some great set pieces, most notably where Zatoichi fights a group of henchmen in a bath house where everybody is naked! The scene at the end where Yamikubo tries to have Zatoichi burnt alive is also pretty memorable. As well as plenty of decent action there are quite a few more comic scenes. Shintaro Katsu does a fine job in the title role one could easily believe that he really is blind. The rest of the cast are pretty good too. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of the series; if you haven't seen other instalments I think this could still be enjoyed.

MartinHafer I loved about 90% of 'Zatôichi abare-Himatsuri"--the part I didn't like and seemed unnecessary was the angry husband played by Tatsuya Nakadai. Still, because there was a lot of fresh (or reasonably fresh) material in this film, it stands as one of the better films in the series.Ichi is giving a massage to a man who is at an auction of high-priced mistresses. When an extremely beautiful woman is introduced, the place is a buzz--especially when the men are told she was the woman of a retainer (a high government official). However, Ichi being a Sir Galahad, of sorts, after the auction is over and the woman is being taken away, Ichi rescues her--though she doesn't seem all that relieved. Additionally, as soon as she is spirited away by Ichi, a crazed samurai appears and kills all the men who were transporting her--as well as her new master. The next morning, when she sneaks away from Ichi, this samurai appears and kills her as well. Then, throughout the film, this killer appears from out of no where to tell Ichi that he will kill him because he defiled his wife (which Ichi hadn't). This angry husband was a scary guy but also made little sense in the film. After a while, he seemed more like a plot device than a real person.Aside from this (and it was NOT a huge portion of the script), the film was exceptional. It seems that there's a super-boss who is incredibly rich and powerful--probably more than any Ichi had encountered before in other films. The surprise is that this boss is blind and at first he and Ichi are friends. However, the blind boss is at heart a major creep and naturally he orders Ichi's death (you'd think they'd learn and just leave Zatoichi alone).The assassination attempts help to elevate this film from the norm. The first is rather cheesy but also great fun. As Ichi is bathing in a public bath house, assassins converge and it's an all-out naked mêlée! While you see a lot of butts, it is funny seeing how the camera avoids showing any genitalia--and it's all pretty silly. When Ichi began tossing buckets on everyone's head and fighting, I must say I'd never seen a Zatoichi film like this before--and I've seen all but one of the films. The big "boss battle" at the end is also really exciting, as the blind boss uses his brain to defeat Ichi. The final scene on the island is once again unique--something you don't see in most of the Zatoichi films--where repetition is the norm.A few of the other unusual things to look for are the homosexual who falls for Ichi and tries to seduce him, the female assassin who naturally falls for Ichi instead of killing him and Ichi reading a form of Braille (which, I assume they did NOT have in Japan in the 1830s, as the country was essentially closed to foreigners and foreign influences, so they could not have known about Braille's innovation).Overall, very good. I just wish they'd hashed out the one character more or eliminated him from the film. That crazed husband just seemed crazy.

gkbazalo I couldn't believe it when I saw Tatsuya Nakadai (Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Harakiri, High and Low, Ran, etc,etc) pop up in this Zatoichi episode as a crazed, jilted husband out for revenge on almost everyone, including Zatoichi. I noticed the credits had a variation of his name (Nakayo, I think it was). We also have Masayuki Mori (Rashomon, The Idiot, etc) as the mandatory evil boss. Only this time, the evil boss is an evil SUPERBOSS, he's blind (and therefore obviously much more dangerous) and resembles Fritz Lang's Dr. Mabuse. We also have a great humorous side story with Peter (the blind younger brother in Ran) playing an effeminate pimp who tries to seduce and kill Zatoichi --a riot--in order to enter the local yakuza gang. There's also a very funny scene with two roadhouse employees that had me laughing out loud. The cast, characters and plot really set this one above many of the Zatoichi's, including the one Katsu did with Toshiro Mifune (Zatoichi vs. Yojimbo). The film is directed by Kenji Misumi, who directed some of the best Zatoichi films as well as several of the Lone Wolf and Cub series. An absolute must-see for Zatoichi fans and highly recommended for sumarai movie fans. As a Zatoichi movie, 11 out of 10, as a samurai movie or on any other basis, 9 of 10.