ZATOICHI #25
Directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda • 1973 • Japan
Everything comes full circle when Zatoichi returns to his hometown. Unfortunately, he finds that a childhood friend has become a feared crime lord, keeping the locals in debt and bilking them of their rice. Capping off Zatoichi’s feature film era before he made the transition to television in 1974, this chapter is suffused with melancholy, closing the series on a note of seriousness and emotional heft that it has well earned.
Up Next in Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman
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John Nathan on ZATOICHI
The following is a 2013 interview with filmmaker and Japanese-culture scholar John Nathan, who shares his memories of actor and filmmaker Shintaro Katsu, star of the ZATOICHI series.
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The Blind Swordsman
Directed by filmmaker and Japanese-culture scholar John Nathan, this documentary from 1978 takes a candid and unvarnished look at the professional and personal life of Shintaro Katsu, the star of the ZATOICHI series.
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Serialized Success
In this interview, conducted in 2013, Asian-film critic Tony Rayns offers his thoughts on the popularity of the ZATOICHI series, its main character, and some of the key talents involved in making it.
