Zatoichi on the Road

On the road Ichi comes across a dying man. The man asks one last thing of him: to take his master's daughter somewhere safe. Ichi agrees. The young woman is running, two separate yakuza clans are after her, and a territorial war in the area comes into it as well. Ichi can trust no one and falls between both sides in keeping his word. Kimiyoshi Yasuda's film is one of the early entries in the Zatoichi series. The narrative is built on a simple task of protection, but Ichi's moral position grows a little more complicated with each film; here the point is that he keeps a promise he owes to nobody. Shintarō Katsu plays Ichi. The fights are short and sharp, in the manner the series kept throughout. Who it's for: Viewers who like Japanese period films, swordplay, and serial-hero narratives. Who it's not for: The narrative closely resembles the other films in the series. The woman also never leaves the position of someone to be protected.