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The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi
Blind traveler Zatoichi (Beat Takeshi) is a master swordsman and a masseur with a fondness for gambling on dice games. When coming to a town in control of warring gangs, bunking with a farming family, he meets two women with their own agenda.
















3 November 1948, Ginza, Tokyo, Japan

25 January 1943, Tokyo, Japan


19 April 1960, Osaka, Japan





9 January 1947, Kyoto, Japan




10 April 1954, Tokyo, Japan




16 December 1956, Shizuoka-ken, Japan


1 June 1968, Kumamoto, Japan

27 January 1987, Japan

27 August 1965, Fukui, Japan

1 June 1958, Shizuoka-ken, Japan

27 November 1973, Yokohama, Japan










September 17, 2009
Three-frame cuts of the action from multiple camera angles, hose-spurted blood and superimposed wounds do what they can in their primitive way to get you past the problem of improbability.
April 29, 2009
Beat Takeshi's take on the Zatoichi storyline is very entertaining and continuously original...
September 27, 2009
Violent and bloody, carefully choreographed and filled with dry humor, Takeshi Kitano's modern take on the classic Japanese character is a unique vision that's told with confidence.
September 30, 2004
For those unfamiliar with such films, Zatoichi might be a little off-putting. But given a chance, the movie can be pretty entertaining.
December 28, 2010
This non-traditional samurai movie isn't for kids.
August 27, 2004
This isn't arty violence, just violence, and pretty pedestrian for a samurai picture.
November 01, 2007
Zatoichi is a mix-and-match crowd-pleaser that shouldn't add up, but delightfully does.
September 22, 2009
Zatoichi is a bloody film that also manages to be beautiful and funny.
February 09, 2006
However improbably, Kitano pulls it off quite gloriously. Admittedly, this isn't one of his most idiosyncratic, innovative or, indeed, satisfying works, but it's without doubt fast, funny, fabulous to behold.
August 20, 2004
This is a wonderfully odd movie, proof that an artist can leave his personal stamp on any film, no matter the genre.
May 27, 2011
The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi begins life as a straight-up samurai movie, evolves into a slapstick comedy and ends as a rousing, tap-dancing musical.