01
13 Assassins
Why this pick
Its period violence is more expansive than Kitano’s, but it shares a clear-eyed moral rescue mission, patiently built menace, and sudden bursts of precisely staged swordplay.
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
MOVIE2003 1h 51m JPN
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Movies like
Zatoichi
AdventureDramaAction
CINEHUNCH / THE NEXT FRAME
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
If you loved Zatoichi, try these.
01
02
The Twilight Samurai
Why this pick
A humane, unhurried samurai drama whose restrained heroism and attention to ordinary hardship echo the tenderness beneath Zatoichi’s deadpan surface.
03
The Hidden Blade
Why this pick
This is another elegiac, intimate look at duty and social change, balancing quiet domestic observation with a few tense, meaningful confrontations.
04
Harakiri
Why this pick
For Zatoichi’s blend of social injustice and controlled violence: a deceptively measured chamber drama that steadily exposes cruelty before delivering devastating swordsmanship.
05
The Sword of Doom
Why this pick
Its stylised widescreen compositions, dry tonal edge, and unnervingly detached swordplay make a darker companion to Kitano’s minimalist chanbara.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
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01 / THE STORY
A little about the film.
The film's plot follows a traditional theme, with Zatoichi (a blind swordsman) coming to the defense of townspeople caught up in a local yakuza gang and being forced to pay excessive amounts of protection money. Meanwhile, Zatoichi befriends a local farmer and her gambler nephew and eventually offers his assistance to two geisha siblings (one of whom is actually a man) who are seeking revenge for the murder of their parents. The siblings are the only survivors of a robbery and massacre that was carried out on their family estate ten years ago. They soon discover the people responsible for the murders are the same yakuza wreaking havoc on the small town.
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02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
The people who bring it to life.
Takeshi Kitano
Zatoichi
Tadanobu Asano
Hattori, le garde du corps
Yui Natsukawa
Hattoris Frau
Saburo Ishikura
Ogi
Akira Emoto
Kneipenbesitzer