Friday, June 22, 2012

Shin Zatôichi monogatari: Kasama no chimatsuri aka Zatoichi’s Conspiracy (Kimiyoshi Yasuda, 1973)


It’s always nice to watch Zatoichi movie, it’s like running into an old friend and having a pint over pleasant conversation.

This is 25th, one of the last and our favorite masseur is pretty tired and travels to his hometown for the first time in 20 years. Things have changed of course as well as his old friends. One in particular has turned into greedy asshole and has deceived villagers and has taken control over the local quarry. He has also cheated people over some rice tax but that part is not very clear to me. But it’s not really important because it’s clear who the bad guys are by that point.

Zatoichi is a surprisingly patient and gives this asshole even two chances to leave town peacefully. So we need to wait 50 minutes for the first limb to come off some unfortunate bastard who tried to cheat at gambling. And 15 minutes more after this mutilation there comes first real fight and massacre. But it’s well worth waiting for! Not only for the great action choreography and ridiculously high body count. We are used to these in Zatoichi flicks of course. 

What is well worth mentioning is strange camera work. It follows fighters really close and under strange angles and every now and then jumps into wide shot for a second or two so you really have a feeling that you are in the middle of the scene. Really good and effective, I’m surprised this technique is not used more nowadays.

7/10

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