Now this is a great Zatoichi film. So far, the best Zatoichi film I’d seen in this series was Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold, which was the most visually striking of all the Zatoichi films. Zatoichi’s Revenge, however, really wants to dive into who Ichi is. This isn’t to say that Zatoichi’s Vengeance is not visually striking - the film opens with a short fight in a wheat field illuminated underneath a dark, blue sky - but rather that what they do with the character is so much more interesting than anything they could have done visually.

Ichi has always been this figure of violence as the answer to violence, but in this film he is confronted with the effects of that when he meets a biwa priest whose life with blindness has driven him to different conclusions than Ichi had come to. While the film makes no pretenses to imply that Ichi would ever give up killing, it does force Ichi to grapple with what exactly violence and killing means to him and why he feels the need to lean upon it.

As a result, we have characters of all kinds delivering fantastic performances. This film was made for these big emotional moments with cameras that linger on expressions, blocking that serves to accentuate a performance or a reveal, and fight choreography that is meant to mirror the emotional state of the combatants. It’s just utterly fantastic

Now this is a great Zatoichi film. So far, the best Zatoichi film I’d seen in this series was Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold, which was the most visually striking of all the Zatoichi films. Zatoichi’s Revenge, however, really wants to dive into who Ichi is. This isn’t to say that Zatoichi’s Vengeance is not visually striking - the film opens with a short fight in a wheat field illuminated underneath a dark, blue sky - but rather that what they do with the character is so much more interesting than anything they could have done visually.

Ichi has always been this figure of violence as the answer to violence, but in this film he is confronted with the effects of that when he meets a biwa priest whose life with blindness has driven him to different conclusions than Ichi had come to. While the film makes no pretenses to imply that Ichi would ever give up killing, it does force Ichi to grapple with what exactly violence and killing means to him and why he feels the need to lean upon it.

As a result, we have characters of all kinds delivering fantastic performances. This film was made for these big emotional moments with cameras that linger on expressions, blocking that serves to accentuate a performance or a reveal, and fight choreography that is meant to mirror the emotional state of the combatants. It’s just utterly fantastic

I’m actually not sure where the vengeance is here but there’s a couple possibilities 
The titles of these are essentially applicable to any other 

Regardless this one slapped with its action with the BEST 1v1 duel yet in the whole series
Maybe tied with some others, but the draw was defo the best
Like most of my favs so far, this stuck to the formula, then sliced things up here and there 
It didn’t do anything badly, but could’ve done more - this is true for every entry so far imo but I have faith one of these will break free and if not that is completely fine by me
The writers were NOT making that priest sound wise at all he sounded like he was just winging it whenever it was his time to shine 
He had some interesting points but then deliberately contradicted himself which was bizarre and quite funny

This might’ve been carried a bit more by the visuals I’ll add
Had this looked blander it definitely would’ve felt blander too but it had a nice vibe going for it, didn’t waste a shot but didn’t go crazy with many either

I’m actually not sure where the vengeance is here but there’s a couple possibilities 
The titles of these are essentially applicable to any other 

Regardless this one slapped with its action with the BEST 1v1 duel yet in the whole series
Maybe tied with some others, but the draw was defo the best
Like most of my favs so far, this stuck to the formula, then sliced things up here and there 
It didn’t do anything badly, but could’ve done more - this is true for every entry so far imo but I have faith one of these will break free and if not that is completely fine by me
The writers were NOT making that priest sound wise at all he sounded like he was just winging it whenever it was his time to shine 
He had some interesting points but then deliberately contradicted himself which was bizarre and quite funny

This might’ve been carried a bit more by the visuals I’ll add
Had this looked blander it definitely would’ve felt blander too but it had a nice vibe going for it, didn’t waste a shot but didn’t go crazy with many either

Halfway there.

Halfway there.