Zatoichi: Goes To The Fire Festival (DVD)
APPROX. 96 MINS. - PROD. YEAR: 1970 - MPA RATING: NR
" Japanese samurai movies are basically the equivalent of American westerns.
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Note: While Home Vision has licensed most of the "Zatoichi" films for distribution in the United States, AnimEigo bought the distribution rights to some of the movies back when VHS was the dominant home video format. The "Zatoichi--The Festival of Fire" DVD is one of AnimEigo´s releases.
"Star Trek" fans obsess over ten theatrical films and as many as four hundred TV episodes. "James Bond" fans live vicariously through the debonair spy via twenty-plus movies and Ian Fleming´s novels. All those tykes growing up with Harry Potter will have seven wonderful books and seven (hopefully as wonderful) silver screen experiences to enjoy.
Every culture and every generation offers its own mega-series of richly detailed, sharply defined fictional worlds. Beginning in the early-1960s, the Japanese created the phenomena known as Zatoichi. Zatoichi the blind swordsman (played by Shintaro Katsu) is the focus of a twenty-six-film series and approximately 100 TV episodes. Zatoichi wanders from town to town as a masseuse. However, given his reputation as a skillful warrior, Zatoichi manages to get involved in a variety of situations that require him to bust out a can of whoopass. :-)
The series begins with 1962´s "Zatoichi 1: The Tale of Zatoichi". Over the years, other Japanese stars appeared in the movies, including Shintaru Katsu´s brother, Tomisaburo Wakayama (the star of the "Lone Wolf and Cub" series, which was produced by Katsu) and Toshiro Mifune, the Robert DeNiro to Akira Kurosawa´s Martin Scorsese. Mifune´s appearance in a "Zatoichi" movie was a major event, kind of like having Tom Cruise (star of the "Mission: Impossible" films) joining forces with Pierce Brosnan (the current James Bond) in a spy movie.
In "Zatoichi--The Festival of Fire", the blind masseuse/swordsman passes through a town in which women are treated as pure commodities. Zatoichi doesn´t appreciate this sort of misogynistic attitude, so he tries to change things as he has done in other towns that treat women badly. However, his intentions are misunderstood by some (again), so everyone is after his head. Meanwhile, Zatoichi spends some time with a local boss who´s blind like him. The two men have much in common, but Zatoichi also has to figure out if the kindly boss is the power behind all that´s wrong in town.
Japanese samurai movies are basically the equivalent of American westerns. You have the lone hero who´s handy with weapons and travels from place to place doing things according to his own code of honor. However, the "Zatoichi" movies aren´t very grim or dark like most other samurai movies or westerns. Instead, the hero´s good humor and happy-go-lucky approach to life´s simple pleasures gives plenty of smiles and chuckles to viewers.
The "Zatoichi" movies offer fairly straightforward stories with maybe a twist or two to reward longtime followers. Most of the delights in watching these films come from the colorful characters that populate Zatoichi´s eventful life. There´s also the joy in watching our blind hero beating everyone at dice gambling (something that happens in every entry).
