Zatoichi and the Fugitives

Ichi, the blind masseur and swordsman, walks into a town on his road and works out quickly who is working for whom. A group of men on the run have the place under extortion, with a bribed official standing behind them. Ichi tries not to get involved, but the state of the townspeople and a kindness done to him push him toward the other side. In the end he settles accounts with a group far larger than himself. Through the sixties the Zatoichi series turned out several films almost every year and became one of the longest-running strings in Japanese cinema; this is one of its late-sixties links. The mould is fixed: Ichi arrives in a town, sees the injustice, holds off for a long time and finally draws. What keeps the film upright is that Shintaro Katsu had not worn the part out even across dozens of pictures. Takashi Shimura, from Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and Ikiru, is also in the cast.