Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo

The blind swordsman Zatoichi returns to an old town looking for peace and does not recognise it: two rival families have divided it, and there is a matter of hidden gold. A filthy, drunken ronin is loose in the same town, and the two men begin measuring each other. Kihachi Okamoto directs. Shintaro Katsu plays Zatoichi and Toshiro Mifune plays the ronin. Its place in the series matters: this is the twentieth Zatoichi film, and Katsu's own company produced it. That is where the idea of putting the two stars together came from. But the man Mifune plays is not Sanjuro from Kurosawa's Yojimbo. The rights belonged to another studio, so the character was given a different name. The film evokes him without formally being him, and the title's promise and what is on screen do not quite line up. Okamoto's register is darker and dirtier than the series' norm. Zatoichi's customary courtesy does not function here. There is no good side in this town, and the film says so plainly. Who it is for: viewers curious about samurai cinema and about these two actors meeting. Who it is not for: neither character is quite the one you know, the plot is crowded, and the business of the gold takes up more room than it deserves.