With the Zatoichi series running out of steam (there would be only two more of those releasing after 1972), actor/producer/director Shintaro Katsu and his newly formed production house Katsu Productions were looking to kickstart a new series of chanbara films as leading vehicles for the star, as well as to keep the company functioning. For this purpose, they turned their eye towards a gekiga (Japanese version of a graphic novel) by writer Kazuo Koike, an outlandish tale of an Edo-era law enforcer. For the first one, Katsu called upon Kenji Misumi, the director with the most directing credits on the Zatoichi features, and regular cinematographer Chikashi Makiura to lend their vision to this new tale. If, however, you go into the Hanzo films expecting anything similar to Zatoichi, you’re in for a very rude surprise!
This is the story of Hanzo Itami, an incorruptible magistrate...
This is the story of Hanzo Itami, an incorruptible magistrate...
- 3/5/2021
- by Rhythm Zaveri
- AsianMoviePulse
After “,The Tale of Zatoichi”, the first story of the now-legendary blind masseuse swordsman, and “Fight, Zatoichi, Fight”, one of the best entries in the whole series, director Kenji Misumi returned for the third time in as many years with another interesting entry, “Zatoichi and the Chess Expert”.
Zatoichi heads to Honshu Island by boat, on which he manages to win a lot of money gambling and also meets and befriends Tadasu Jumonji, an expert Shogi chess player and swordsman. Once he reaches Honshu Island though, a group of swordsmen, who Zatoichi won against in a game of dice on the boat journey, ambush him and a tussle ensues. Ichi ends up kicking a man who falls down a storey and lands near little Miki, severely injuring her foot. Feeling responsible for her pain, Ichi promises her aunt Otane to go to the nearby village and get Miki the medicine she needs,...
Zatoichi heads to Honshu Island by boat, on which he manages to win a lot of money gambling and also meets and befriends Tadasu Jumonji, an expert Shogi chess player and swordsman. Once he reaches Honshu Island though, a group of swordsmen, who Zatoichi won against in a game of dice on the boat journey, ambush him and a tussle ensues. Ichi ends up kicking a man who falls down a storey and lands near little Miki, severely injuring her foot. Feeling responsible for her pain, Ichi promises her aunt Otane to go to the nearby village and get Miki the medicine she needs,...
- 6/22/2020
- by Rhythm Zaveri
- AsianMoviePulse
Within the world of sports, when observing athletes competing in a race or training their bodies for the occasion, no one would deny the closeness of concepts such as purity and clarity in these images. Even though the world around us may be mostly chaotic, a mirror at times of our lives, the idea of sports, their clear aims and requirements are often what attracts people to join a sports club or at least go to the gym. At the same time, these images of purity have opened the door for interpretations driven by questionable or controversial ideologies, if we think, for example, of the way director Leni Riefenstahl portrays athletes following a deeply fascist agenda. In a similar way, the idea of perfecting the body and the mind, preparing the body to reach a state of absolute purity can also be found in the writings of author Yukio Mishima,...
- 3/15/2020
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
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