Free Sunday Matinee! Samurai Film: Zatoichi - the Blind Swordsman

Recently, due to the earthquake, tsunami and the subsequent nuclear accident at Fukushima, this blog (and everyone else) has been completely preoccupied with those events. Several regular readers have asked that I start the free Sunday Japanese cinema again.

You asked for it, you got it. Here is a well known story in Japan. It is called Satoichi - the Blind Swordsman. Wikipedia says:

Zatoichi (座頭市 Zatōichi) is a fictional character featured in one of Japan's longest running series of films and a television series set in the Edo period. The character, a blind masseur and swordmaster, was created by novelist Kan Shimozawa (子母澤 寛 Shimozawa Kan). This originally minor character was developed for the screen by Daiei Studios (now Kadokawa Pictures) and actor Shintaro Katsu, who created the screen version. A total of 26 films were made from 1962 to 1989. From 1972 to 1974, a television series of the same name was made. One hundred and twelve episodes were aired before the "Zatoichi" television series was cancelled.

Film number 17 of the original series was remade in America in 1990 (by TriStar Pictures) as Blind Fury, an action movie starring Rutger Hauer.

Today, we will watch, in full the 2003 remake starring Takeshi Kitano directed by Takashi Miike. Satoichi is a much loved character in Japanese modern day folklore and this samurai film is quite possibly one of the best of the modern samurai movies. It has a quite bizarre ending too! Enjoy!

Zatoichi - the Blind Swordsman 1/13

Zatoichi - the Blind Swordsman 2/13



Zatoichi - the Blind Swordsman 3/13



Zatoichi - the Blind Swordsman 4/13

Zatoichi - the Blind Swordsman 5/13

Zatoichi - the Blind Swordsman 6/13

Zatoichi - the Blind Swordsman 7/13

Zatoichi - the Blind Swordsman 8/13

Zatoichi - the Blind Swordsman 9/13

Zatoichi - the Blind Swordsman 10/13

Zatoichi - the Blind Swordsman 11/13

Zatoichi - the Blind Swordsman 12/13

Zatoichi - the Blind Swordsman 13/13

Conquest of Space 1955 - Campy Cinema Before Japan!

This is fab! In 1955 they already knew exactly how space exploration was going to be. How did they know?!



Even though this was made in 1955, it is uncanny how much this looks like today's Japanese Super-Hero or space movies! It seems obvious to me that this was an inspirational film.

Chuckle!


From Internet Archives

Marketing Japan: Akira Kurosawa and Other Short, Fun Japanese Videos Online!

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

A lot of cinema fans in the west just love Japanese movie director Akira Kurosawa, but did you know that he is more famous in the west than he is in Japan? Actually, that happens a lot with artists and musicians from Japan; they are popular in the west, but not so much in Japan.

Kurosawa didn't become even remotely popular in Japan until years after Seven Samurai was released in 1954 and remade in the USA as "The Magnificent Seven," starring Yul Brenner, Eli Wallach and Steve McQueen in 1960. 

Many people believe that Seven Samurai is one of the ten greatest movies ever made and is the very first action movie. 

Japanese poster for Seven Samurai

So, today, for your Sunday morning pleasure, I wanted to show you  few things that I found that are very nice and I thought very culturally interesting for your enjoyment. The first is a one minute short film montage of Japanese posters of the films directed by Akira Kurosawa, played to the theme music of "Yojimbo." It is only one minute long and very fun!

Double click on video for full screen

Double click on video for full screen

Here is also a great Akira Kurosawa documentary (about 11 minutes) that talks about the director's life with much detail about Seven Samurai.

Double click on video for full screen

Double click on video for full screen

This material is from an Internet site that I often enjoy going to and searching around. It is called the Internet Archive - it is absolutely free - and it is full of rights free materials that can be used for student films and other non-profit uses. To show you what can be done using the materials here, I used one here for a Punk Rock and Horror video that I made with Ken Nishikawa a few years ago. It is for the Kyoto girl's punk band, The Soap. Watch it here:

Double click on video for full screen

Double click on video for full screen

Pretty cool, eh?

Anyway, I digress... The Internet Archive is full of great films, short and long and I highly recommend it.

The Internet Archive is here.

------
Keywords:
Japan, Akira Kurosawa, Eli Wallach, Mike Rogers, Seven Samurai, Marketing Japan, Mike in Tokyo Rogers, The Soap, Kyoto, Ken Nishikawa, Punk Rock, horror video, Yojimbo, Internet, Internet archive, cinema, Yul Brenner, Steve McQueen, Magnificent Seven