Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo (Zatoichi to Yojinbo)
Directed by Kihachi Okamoto
Written by Kihachi Okamoto and Tetsuo Yoshida from characters created by Kan Shimozawa
1970/Japan
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel
Kuzuryu: You just lie around and drink. Don’t you ever take your job seriously?
Sassa the yojimbo: I get by.
Our invincible blind swordsman comes up against the invincible Toshiro Mifune. Great fun.
Zatoichi (Shintaro Katsu), having once again killed several men who ambushed him, returns to his home town for some peace and quiet. He gets anything but. The town is divided up into feuding gangs. The town boss is the son of the merchant that is rumored to have stolen gold from the Shogunate. The boss has hired Sesso the Yojimbo (Mifune) as his enforcer. Behind his back, Yojimbo is spying for the Shogunate and is also in love with prostitute Umeno, who is the merchant’s mistress and will be until she can repay a debt. Umeno also happens to be an old friend of Zatoichi. Zatoichi and Yojimbo dislike each other heartily but eventually achieve a grudging respect. All this plot is accompanied by the usual amount of action.
I will watch anything with Mifune in it and you know how I feel about our blind hero. I would say this movie has a better than average script for the series but less awesome action than the best of the bunch. I enjoyed it.
Trailer- no subtitles
