Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold

In this 1964 entry in the Zatoichi series, the blind swordsman travels to the village of Itakura to visit the grave of a man he killed two years earlier. The tax money the villagers have gathered is stolen just as he arrives, the blame lands on him, and he has to recover it to clear his name. Under Kazuo Ikehiro the film keeps the series formula while being visually more ambitious than most. The main villain is played by Tomisaburō Wakayama, Shintarō Katsu's real-life older brother, who fights with a whip rather than a sword; the confrontation between the two brothers became one of the most remembered sequences in the run. Zatoichi films are short, fast and much alike, and this is one of the ones that stands out. Who it's for: viewers following chanbara cinema and Katsu's Zatoichi. Who it's not for: anyone using it as a first entry point without knowing the character; the film leans on what came before.