In an odd way a sort of coda to the first movie rather than necessarily it's own thing, or maybe this series is more serialized than I thought it was. I don't know, we'll see. The first act you're kinda confused about what's going on, the second act is like "oh, this is following up the first movie!", then the third act is so shockingly strong that it elevates what came before. It's definitely a weaker plot than the first and is much shorter, but I feel like instead it focuses on expanding the character of Zatoichi in ways I certainly didn't expect. The ending is such a mic drop that I was stunned.

In an odd way a sort of coda to the first movie rather than necessarily it's own thing, or maybe this series is more serialized than I thought it was. I don't know, we'll see. The first act you're kinda confused about what's going on, the second act is like "oh, this is following up the first movie!", then the third act is so shockingly strong that it elevates what came before. It's definitely a weaker plot than the first and is much shorter, but I feel like instead it focuses on expanding the character of Zatoichi in ways I certainly didn't expect. The ending is such a mic drop that I was stunned.

Director- Mori Kazuo.This is the second film I have seen of his series with which I am another step closer to finishing the twenty-six.This film does few things better than part one but at the same time does more worse. The pace is a lot more fast-paced this time around. Due to this, there are seldom scenes that let us take a break. The runtime doesn't allow many events to occur.The action scenes are incredibly well shot and choreographed which makes the film appealing to watch. They appear grounded in a way that makes sense for their time but appear dated. The character development is much worse this time around. We don't get to see growth of characters that much. This makes it harder to separate characters. The editing makes it harder to do that as well. I couldn't get a good enough print of this so the visuals weren't much good.The part one had a much better written antagonist who was more rounded too. Hope I am not confused between Zatoichi 2003 and Tale of Zatoichi 1962.The inclusion and death of Katoichi's brother felt incredibly random and wasn't much good.The cliffhanger-type ending was good.Overall, it isn't exciting for me to watch the next part as much as I thought it would. The second part leaves a lot to be desired in terms of all aspects such as editing, writing, acting, etc.Hope the next part is better made otherwise it will be tougher for me to watch all of the rest.

Director- Mori Kazuo.This is the second film I have seen of his series with which I am another step closer to finishing the twenty-six.This film does few things better than part one but at the same time does more worse. The pace is a lot more fast-paced this time around. Due to this, there are seldom scenes that let us take a break. The runtime doesn't allow many events to occur.The action scenes are incredibly well shot and choreographed which makes the film appealing to watch. They appear grounded in a way that makes sense for their time but appear dated. The character development is much worse this time around. We don't get to see growth of characters that much. This makes it harder to separate characters. The editing makes it harder to do that as well. I couldn't get a good enough print of this so the visuals weren't much good.The part one had a much better written antagonist who was more rounded too. Hope I am not confused between Zatoichi 2003 and Tale of Zatoichi 1962.The inclusion and death of Katoichi's brother felt incredibly random and wasn't much good.The cliffhanger-type ending was good.Overall, it isn't exciting for me to watch the next part as much as I thought it would. The second part leaves a lot to be desired in terms of all aspects such as editing, writing, acting, etc.Hope the next part is better made otherwise it will be tougher for me to watch all of the rest.

Director- Mori Kazuo.This is the second film I have seen of his series with which I am another step closer to finishing the twenty-six.This film does few things better than part one but at the same time does more worse. The pace is a lot more fast-paced this time around. Due to this, there are seldom scenes that let us take a break. The runtime doesn't allow many events to occur.The action scenes are incredibly well shot and choreographed which makes the film appealing to watch. They appear grounded in a way that makes sense for their time but appear dated. The character development is much worse this time around. We don't get to see growth of characters that much. This makes it harder to separate characters. The editing makes it harder to do that as well. I couldn't get a good enough print of this so the visuals weren't much good.The part one had a much better written antagonist who was more rounded too. Hope I am not confused between Zatoichi 2003 and Tale of Zatoichi 1962.The inclusion and death of Katoichi's brother felt incredibly random and wasn't much good.The cliffhanger-type ending was good.Overall, it isn't exciting for me to watch the next part as much as I thought it would. The second part leaves a lot to be desired in terms of all aspects such as editing, writing, acting, etc.Hope the next part is better made otherwise it will be tougher for me to watch all of the rest.

Director- Mori Kazuo.This is the second film I have seen of his series with which I am another step closer to finishing the twenty-six.This film does few things better than part one but at the same time does more worse. The pace is a lot more fast-paced this time around. Due to this, there are seldom scenes that let us take a break. The runtime doesn't allow many events to occur.The action scenes are incredibly well shot and choreographed which makes the film appealing to watch. They appear grounded in a way that makes sense for their time but appear dated. The character development is much worse this time around. We don't get to see growth of characters that much. This makes it harder to separate characters. The editing makes it harder to do that as well. I couldn't get a good enough print of this so the visuals weren't much good.The part one had a much better written antagonist who was more rounded too. Hope I am not confused between Zatoichi 2003 and Tale of Zatoichi 1962.The inclusion and death of Katoichi's brother felt incredibly random and wasn't much good.The cliffhanger-type ending was good.Overall, it isn't exciting for me to watch the next part as much as I thought it would. The second part leaves a lot to be desired in terms of all aspects such as editing, writing, acting, etc.Hope the next part is better made otherwise it will be tougher for me to watch all of the rest.

This feels so much more tight than the first film even if the story isn’t as gripping. The heightened melodrama accompanied with the music stings is so good, honestly iconic. Everything feels more punchy, especially the fight sequences that have a lot more visual appeal to them, in my opinion.

This feels so much more tight than the first film even if the story isn’t as gripping. The heightened melodrama accompanied with the music stings is so good, honestly iconic. Everything feels more punchy, especially the fight sequences that have a lot more visual appeal to them, in my opinion.

Not too much happens in this one. I’m happy that the combat increased, but there isn’t much narrative to bounce it off of. The one-armed Samurai was a cool character and I liked that they retuned to the locations of the first film, but other than that, there wasn’t much more to get excited about.I also felt like there was a decrease in the quality of the cinematography. It definitely wasn’t bad, but nothing like the first.

Still, not bad.

Not too much happens in this one. I’m happy that the combat increased, but there isn’t much narrative to bounce it off of. The one-armed Samurai was a cool character and I liked that they retuned to the locations of the first film, but other than that, there wasn’t much more to get excited about.I also felt like there was a decrease in the quality of the cinematography. It definitely wasn’t bad, but nothing like the first.

Still, not bad.