Zatoichi in Desperation

Zatoichi meets an old woman on a bridge and she falls and dies because of him. He carries the blame. He finds her daughter; the young woman is working in a brothel because of a debt. Zatoichi tries to put together the money to get her out of there. But the gang he is up against has no intention of letting the debt go, and things only get worse. Shintaro Katsu directed the film himself; the actor who had played the character for a decade also went behind the camera here. What came out is one of the darkest links in the series: the usual heroic mould is gone, Zatoichi makes things worse the harder he tries to do good, and the film does not rescue him. The look is harsh too; the camera is unsteady, the cutting is broken and the colours are washed out. Ninety-two minutes. It is the twenty-fourth film in the series.