Gen Kimura

While on the road, Zatoichi befriends a young mother right before she is savagely murdered. Promising her that he will hand over her baby to its father, the blind masseur embarks on an adventure both sentimental and beset by perilous action. This eighth Zatoichi feature is an excellent showcase for star Shintaro Katsu, who evinces an extraordinary physical and emotional range.

Zatoichi encounters a dying man, who asks the itinerant masseur to deliver a bag of money to his young son; he agrees to fulfill the request, finding the boy in a village terrorized by criminals. This is the first entry to scrutinize the swordsman’s methods, as a blind monk confronts Zatoichi about his violent approach to problem solving and Zatoichi finds the child turning to the same bloodstained path.

The blind swordsman wanders into a town to celebrate the New Year. There, he befriends a young woman whose father has gone missing; as he tries to help her find him, he becomes entangled in a web of corruption and a series of tragic twists of fate. Returning director Kimiyoshi Yasuda and screenwriter Shozaburo Asai masterfully weave together a variety of narrative threads and tonal registers, all while playfully tweaking the conventions and motifs of the series.