Zatoichi the Blind Swordsman, Vol. 12 - Zatoichi and the Chess Expert

Rating:
Summary: And Brains, Too!
Review: Another of the Zatoichi series. In this one, blind masseur and master swordsman Ichi is traveling to Enoshima on a ship, and gets in trouble with a gang for his usual gambling tricks. However, he is befriended by Jumonji, a loner, seemingly samurai, who denies the title, saying he's really a killer. Jumonji is a shogi (Japanese chess) master, and while aboard ship, the two play several games. After disembarking on the island, the thugs attack Ichi while he's playing a chess game with Jumonji, who thinks they're after him. In the ensuing fight, a passing child is hurt, and when she develops a fever, Ichi feels duty-bound to pay for her medicine and lodging. Jumonji offers him space in his carnival booth, where he earns 5-mon (?) pieces by catching them on a stick (Incredible? You don't know Zatoichi!). Ichi then buys the medicine, but is attacked on the way back. He succeeds in killing all the attackers, but loses the box of medicine. Will he find it? I'm not telling! Nor will I tell the rest of the story, but suffice it to say that the denouement of the plot really depends on Ichi's brains, and the swordplay, although exciting enough, is really secondary to the solution of a mystery, which only becomes apparent toward the end of the movie.

Rating:
Summary: One of the better ones in the Zatoichi series
Review: Zatoichi films were produced by different directors and the results varied from one to another. Misumi Kenji, who also directed the very first one, seemed to always spend more film footage on character development, resulting in more matured story lines with better-defined personalities. This "Zatoichi Jigokutabi" ( Zatoichi, trip through hell ) was one of the best in the series. Narita Mikio, playing the character Jumonji, was one of the most interesting villains to show up in the episodes, and, Hayashi Chizuru, as the sister seeking vengence, was the most attractive actress to appear in the 1960's Zaitoichi episodes.

Rating:
Summary: Not the best, but more than good enough
Review: Zatoichi is one of the most solid film series around. I've yet to see all of the entries, but of the dozen or so I have seen (including Katsu's 1989 rehash of the character and Takeshi Kitano's 2003 reinterpretation of it), there isn't a rotten egg in the bunch.

Zatoichi and the Chess Expert soars on it's character development and interesting relationships between characters. However, the action here is not the best in the series. Some of the technical aspects are a little off (the way some of the quicker, shorter fight scenes are edited is often jarring and unconvincing; most of the big, important fights though are quite good), and I would have liked to spend more time with some of the characters, a common complaint that I have with many of the series' entries.

Still, this is a film not to be missed. You can't go wrong with a Zatoichi film, and Zatoichi and the Chess Expert is certainly in at least the top third of the series, if only for it's great and complex characters and relationships.

Home Vision's DVD is beautiful! One of the best transfers of the bunch. Some of the closeups were sharper than transfers of movies made in the past five years. A really great disc of a classic, if slightly faulted, film.