Ichi the Blind lowers his sword to embark on a different game of strategy (Shintauro Katsu, opposite Mikio Narita) in ZATOICHI 12: ZATOICHI AND THE CHESS EXPERT.
the territory posing as the infa- mous Ichi in order to sell sword- wielding services he has no intention of honoring. In time, Ichi uncovers the plot between Senpachi and Jubei—to have the popular Shimazo executed so that they may control the terri- tory around Kashima Bay—and the film climaxes with one of the most ambitiously mounted battles of the series, as Jubei sends a veri- table army to dispatch our hero along a misty stretch of beach. This alternately humorous
and meditative entry in the se- ries finds our hero atop a cliff at one point, trying to visualize an ocean he has never seen. Poignantly reminding us of Japan’s then-isolation from the world, a child tells him there is no other side: “It goes on and on as far as the eye can see.” Ichi seems as awed by this as he is by the uncanny power he possesses and the unfathom- able forces that drive him to continually use it. Home Vision’s transfer is
expectedly superb; occasional distortions of the music track hail from the source material and shouldn’t be blamed on HVE. Extras consist of three original
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theatrical trailers, a fold-out poster and thoughtfully written liner notes by Michael Jeck.
ZATOICHI 12: ZATOICHI AND THE CHESS EXPERT
1965, Home Vision Entertainment, DD-2.0/16:9/LB/ST/+, $19.95, 87m 1s, DVD-1 By Bill Cooke
This movie’s title doesn’t in-
spire a lot of hope for the action fan, but pure samurai films are rarely action-filled, instead con- centrating on long, meditative build-ups to brief, violent out- bursts. Directed by Kenj i Misumo, who helmed the first ZATOICHI and would later direct four LONE WOLF AND CUB pro- ductions, this twelfth episode in Daiei’s blind swordsman series is marked by a water-logged mise- en-scène, which begins on a ferry bound for Miura and ends up at the baths at Hakone, where it is constantly raining. Ichi the Blind (Shintaro Katsu) becomes friends with a stoic samurai, and one takes note of the other’s fight- ing style by the way he plays chess. To even the odds, Jumonji (Mikio Narita) plays the
game blindfolded and admits “I kill to win.” At one point, in com- plete silence, the players stand poised on either side of a shoji door, their hands hovering over weapons in a dramatic montage of tight shots worthy of Sergio Leone. When a brother and sis- ter arrive, seeking the man who murdered their father over a game of chess, Ichi puts two and two together. Refreshingly, our hero is
not so infallible this time: he stumbles and falls, and actually loses all of his money in the big gambling scene (karmic punish- ment for his inadvertent wound- ing of a little girl). Ichi has another of his almost-romances (the woman bears the name of his dead, beloved Tane), and the scene where she opens her heart to him is more emotional than usual for this genre. Unfortu- nately, the final showdown dis- appoints: Jumonji, who earlier practiced sensing objects blind, does not “even the odds” and close his eyes for the fight. The film has a drab aesthetic
that comes through fine, though resolution is slightly inferior to Home Vision’s previous anamor- phic renderings for this series.
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