MOVIE REVIEW- Zatoichi (2003)

OK, first a confession: I'm not a big movie goer, so I may not be able to post movie reviews for hot movies that just came out. Knowing me, I'll find a movie that's came out years ago that hardly everyone's heard about.

But don't worry, there will be some movies I'll review that came out recently.

If anything else, I'm showing you a movie you could watch if you were bored, or a movie to avoid.
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OK, so here's the plot: It's set in Feudal Japan around, I don't know, but it's got the samurais. The version I watched is the original Japanese version with the English subtitles.

Anyways, the plot revolves around this small Japanese town that's being harrassed by a gang of thugs until a blind "messer", a former Samurai comes tapping in with a cane that's really his sword. (He's disguising it in a case thingy)

Although the movie is from 2003, the picture makes looks like it was made in the 1970s, probably paying homage to the big Japanese movies that came out back then.

The comedy level here is great. Multiple times, I've let out a chuckle as I watched it on Youtube, attracting weird "wtf?" looks from those around me. They're not grandeous, obvious, "You should be laughing now" scenes. They're more subtle.

The effects of blood is mostly for humor, but it's not to the style of 300. I mean, it doesn't look fake, nor do we see a scene where a guy's missing a limb and blood keeps pouring out ala The Black Knight from Monty Python.

The mystery here is also intriguing. Not only is Zatoichi beating up thugs, he's also helping two girls get revenge for either a murder or insult done to their father.

The biggest comedy gold I find is in the end when the village appears on a stage and begins to do a dance sequence. (Zatoichi, however, does not appear) Not only do I think, "Wow, it's like 1970s pop meeting Feudal Japan", I found it totally ironic, as I'll show here in a picture:

WARNING: It has some spoilers.

Spoiler

I give this a good rating of...7-8.5/10!