The title's question is of course a joke, but he's blind, it is 19th Century Japan, and he is also masseur on top of being drunkard and gambler.
His misfortune comes from also being a protector of the weak and for context, in this movie he found himself in a struggle between two Yakuza clans who didn't appreciate losing their members to his sword - thus the frequent assassinations attempts on his life.
Why I'm bringing up this movie? Well, I as many of you I'm sure, have been recently watching rather fantastic Shogun TV-series (finishing the 1st season). I wondered, how many of you like me needed their next fix until season 2?
Might I present to you probably the most famous (in the West) Samurai /Ronin series of movies from Japan. This one was actually the LAST one of otherwise 26 movies.
Yes, Twenty- F*cking-Six movies!
At least with the legendary Shintarô Katsu - playing Zatoichi - who played the role for 27 years!
Well, they churned out 25 movies in 11 years - it was that popular - then Shintarô Katsu
took the part of actor, director and writer 16 years later in this last one: Zatoichi (1989).
Zatoichi movies are set into the same Edo period as the Shogun TV-series!
Filmmakers of course tried for a remake twice:
1st. The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi (2003) - which was actually rather really good, if not excellent despite having different approach, but it also had a very strong lead - Takeshi Kitano, who is one of my favorite Japan's actors - and also Tadanobu Asano who played in the current Shogun TV-series the always confused "WTF is happening?" most entertaining character of Kashigi Yabushige, who also is quite famous / recognizable in the West, as he appeared in many Hollywood or other production movies.
My personal favorite being the lead (Temudjin) in Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan (2007) that we have clip of on this channel already.
2nd. Zatoichi: The Last (2010) - which I haven't seen, but since the response was rather negative to it and there are no recognizable actor playing in there, I'm not even planning to see it at some point.
But you never know.
Anyway. Looking for a quick fix whilst you wait for Shogun Season 2?
Why don't you give a chance to the mega-chad Shintarô Katsu in his legendary, life-long role of Zatoichi? (He sadly passed only 8 years later in 1997)
Naturally, it wouldn't be fair to say that was his only recognizable role, nor that he was only known as actor, since he was also a singer on top of it, but I personally noticed him in this specific role only.
* Now little bit of interesting trivia. *
During the shooting of this movie: Zatoichi (1989); his son Ryûtarô Gan (who played one of the Yakuza bosses in this movie) "accidentally" killed fellow actor Yukio Katô by stabbing him in the neck with the katana, who later died in hospital due to heavy blood loss.
I found that interesting, since Shintaro Katsu allegedly not only always performed with his eyes closed, but also with real swords for authenticity - sounds like a good idea, no?
Apparently there was a miss-match of a real sword with a prop-one due to it, and that's how the accident happened the court declaring it "professional negligence causing death", but I was unable to find the outcome (prison? no prison? who?).
Furthermore,
Tomisaburo Wakayama - Shintaro Katsu's brother who was also an actor, played in almost equally famous movie-series about a ronin with a small child: "Lone Wolf and Cub", that his brother Shintaro Katsu produced for him.
This movie-series would be my next "fix" :D, as they're equal blast of katana action.
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