Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo - 1970

 I wrote a big ol review for Ugetsu and Sansho the Bailiff and I guess the blog...deleted it?  Fuck!  C'mon man!

I was high school-ish age when I got really into Zatoichi, Lone Wolf and Cub, Kurosawa, and everything else samurai related.  I saw a ton of these Zatoichi films, and I don't remember any of them.  I remember some of the Lone Wolf and Cub films, and in fact I recently rewatched one of them under a different title.

I did not remember this movie, although I feel pretty confident that being a huge Kurosawa fan, I had likely seen it before.  17 year old Theo, Tim's Potato Chips in one had, Dr. Pepper or Cherry Coke in the other, maybe some cocktail pepperoni and some random ass Japanese candy, sitting there chowing down and chilling out on a weekend...  Life huh?

Zatoichi is reprised by Katsu Shintaro, who played the character all throughout this era.  He is a blind masseur and swordsman, renowned in some areas, unknown in others.  He strolls into town and has a 100 or 200 ryo price on his head, we discover through dialogue.  Various people in the town help him, and he has an old relationship with a prostitute Umeno that he rekindles.

This is great n all, but also in the town is Mifune Toshiro as Yojimbo, who oddly enough is never really given a name I realized.  Google tells me it's Daisaku Sasa?  Weird name bruh.  Sasa and Ichi meet and are after the same girl, plus Ichi has that money on his head, so their relationship is contentious to say the least.

The main thing about this, is know it's almost 2 hours and know that those two hours can be quite slow.  This movie does drag a lot, because we have little moments of tiny bits of action with a looooottttttt of standing around in between.  It's more about the relationships in the town than about the swords, and when you see the swords, especially the fight between Ichi and Sasa, it's so short it's barely worth mentioning.

Considering that, it is not so much an action movie as a drama, expect the plot's not really interesting either, so it sorta just lays there, and you kinds look down at it with mild interest.  It like seeing a penny on the road.  You might reach down for it, you might say fuck it and go back into the strip club.  

For that reason, it's a 2.  Or even a 1.5.