Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman (1971)
Late-period entry in the series takes its cues from the series its Chinese guest star was famed for rather than the usual dry, prankish spirit that lives and breathes within Shintaro Katsu, which is a really drawn-out way for me to say that this film is really cheesy. The action scenes are ludicrous in an eye-rolling way rather than the usual "holy crap, can a blind guy really do that?" amazement kind of way. Also, there's way too much dumb language-barrier humor, which becomes doubly irritating at the end of the film when the story tries to play it straight and turn that into the theme of the film. Director Kimiyoshi Yasuda was a veteran of this series who had previously directed one of my favorite entries (On the Road); now he has one of the worst on his resume as well. He should be proud, I guess.
Grade: C
Late-period entry in the series takes its cues from the series its Chinese guest star was famed for rather than the usual dry, prankish spirit that lives and breathes within Shintaro Katsu, which is a really drawn-out way for me to say that this film is really cheesy. The action scenes are ludicrous in an eye-rolling way rather than the usual "holy crap, can a blind guy really do that?" amazement kind of way. Also, there's way too much dumb language-barrier humor, which becomes doubly irritating at the end of the film when the story tries to play it straight and turn that into the theme of the film. Director Kimiyoshi Yasuda was a veteran of this series who had previously directed one of my favorite entries (On the Road); now he has one of the worst on his resume as well. He should be proud, I guess.
Grade: C
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