I'm not an Asian movie expert, or any kind of movie expert, and there are not many movies I bother watching. Most of them are boring dribble. However, I have a few Asian movies (Roshomon, Yojimbo, Raise the Red Lantern, Ten to Chi to), and I plan to add this one. I enjoyed the music, especially when it was synchronized with work movements and other actions. Mainstream humor is not usually funny to me. The humor in "Zatoichi" made me laugh out loud throughout the movie. And, I laughed the longest and hardest during the dance scene at the end because it was such a great ongoing parody of different musical genres and periods, involving 60 dancers and including a lot of the cast. It transitioned from Shintu performance, to river dance, to Hollywood 30s-like tap extravaganza, to the 3 out-front tap dancers in green (a la the Stepp Brothers - an act that performed in early Hollywood musicals, and I think maybe on the Ed Sullivan Show, as well), to a wrap-up with the look and style of a Bollywood musical production number (camera angles & smooth, flowing, synchronized movements). I was howling by then. That, in itself made watching "Zatoichi" worthwhile. But, I just really liked the whole movie, and I can't explain exactly why because the blood and gore were a bit over the top for me. There were many reasons, and then again, maybe it was just the anticipation of seeing what surprise would come next.
Review of The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi
