Zatoichi the Blind Swordsman, Vol. 2 - The Tale of Zatoichi Continues

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The wild success of The Tale of Zatoichi demanded a sequel and star Shintaro Katsu was only too happy to reprise his role as the traveling masseur and blind swordsman. Star Katsu and director Kazuo Mori flesh out the enigmatic Ichi in this outing, creating a more haunted and less conniving character who prefers to keep his identity shrouded and his sword sheathed. Nonetheless the peace-loving swordsman is reluctantly and repeatedly forced to fight when he's attacked by a government goon squad, a gang of hoodlums, and an angry one-armed swordsman whose interest in Ichi is purely personal. This action-packed entry, which ultimately brings our hero back to the site of his previous film for the furious climax, practically revels in the concentrated bursts of Ichi's lightning attack.

The newly restored DVD features a small stills gallery, a fold-out insert with an essay by Tatsu Aoki (a self described "Ichi Freak"), and four collector cards. --Sean Axmaker

Description

Non-stop action, a deadly love triangle, and a mysterious one-armed samurai round out the second installment in the legendary Zatoichi series. When Zatoichi discovers the lord who has hired him suffers from a madness that -- if made public -- would bring ruin to his empire and the livelihood of the samurai warriors he employs, the blind masseur becomes a wanted man for the secret he now possesses. Attacked at every turn by the crazed lord's samurais and hired yakuza thugs, Zatoichi manages to escape relatively unscathed. But in a final duel, masseur Ichi must face his old foe, the infamous one-armed samurai (played by Tomisaburo Wakayama, the brother of star Shintaro Katsu).

Customer Reviews:

Zatoichi Vol. 2: The Tale of Zatoichi Continues.......2007-03-14

Not as good as the 1st but still decent. Story wasn't setup as well, and the "plot twist" was seen coming from a mile away. Short movie as well. Was kinda dissapointed what with my 3+ hour marathon movies of late. Shintaro Katsu is extremely likeable as the title character and better than Takeshi Kitano in this role.

#2: A GOOD FOLLOW UP FROM THE FIRST FILM.......2006-09-05

This is the last black-and-white episode of the Zatoichi films. And like the first episode, we find the protagonist Zatoichi [Shintaro Katsu] returning to the scene of the first episode. Ichi has come to pay his respects to the Ronin, Hirate, whom Ichi did not wish to kill. Ichi's brother, Yoshiro, [Tomisaburo Wakayama] in both the film, and in true life, is in the episode. And as usual he is larger than life. The film starts off with the usual Ichi trademark of humor, which will become more pronounced as the episodes continue.

Yoshiro, the one-armed samurai is his brother: and his brother has a grudge with Ichi. At the same time, Yoshiro and his sidekick must elude the law, which have a bounty on his head.
Throughout the film Zatoichi gives off the nuances of humor which he will make a trademark of in regards to the character. As the episode begins, Ichi is asked to give a massage to the Lord to Edo, however, he discovers that the lord is a lunatic. The court retainers wish to keep this a secret, therefore, they attempt to kill Ichi because he has heard the antics of the Lord while giving him a massage. They don't yet realize who they are up against.

Zatoichi's reputation has not been cemented yet in this early installment, moreover, the action scenes in the second episode are limited in the beginning. Not so with the ending however, and as the film nears the end Zatoichi has begun to cement his reputation as a swordsman to be reckoned with. The cinematography is very good, and they will only get better as the Zatoichi saga continues. I do not wish to spoil the ending for you, but if you hang in there with the plot, you will see the beginnig stages of this magnificent swordsman. Highly recommended.

Katsu's real life brother(Lone Wolf and Cub) plays his foe .......2006-07-30

So obviously the acting could not get any better. But the story is the thing to watch. If you have not seen the first episode let me catch you up. Zatoichi came into town and was unsuccessfully hired to help take out a rival gang in town. One side had already hired a master samurai. When that samurai became sick the other gang thought they weren't going to fight. But he shook off his sickness for a final heroic stand and helped the gang he was hired from beat out the other one even though they were outnumbered by double the swordsman. But then the samurai decided that he must face Zatoichi before he dies. "Better than dying at teh hands of goons". I am horrible at quotes but it was something like that. And then the table were turned and the gang that had more men ended up winning. Also from thsi Zatoichi became known as like a one man army.

Well in this one he is back in town one year later to visit the grave and pay his respects to this samurai. The story starts out almost a bit dumb but you forgtet it and it turns good minutes in when Ichi starts some sh** talking and though justified, he may have gone too far. Well these people are not happy and decide to try and kill him. What follows is a VERY good story about another samurai who we find all about. Ichi ends up meeting this "samurai" and we find out the connection between the 2. The whole movie I was deciding whether or not this should be a 4 or a 5, but then the end happened. You don't f*** with Zaoichi or anybody who is close too him.

The DVD is amazing picture quality, even though it is in black and white. Also perfectly letterboxed and some of the best subtitles you will ever see traslated for asian cinema.

Zatoichi the Blind Swordsman, Vol 2.......2006-02-26

In the early seventies, I was enamored of the Zatoichi and Sword of Vengence movies produced in Japan, and viewed at the Toho Brea Theatres in Los Angeles. When the Toho closed down, these movies were lost to me and others. Now, they are back, on DVD, with Japanese wording and good subtitles! Thank you for making these great works of Movie History available again! Everything about them is excellent!! 10 stars would be better!!

Zatoichi's Best........2004-10-20

I've seen basically all of the 'Zatoichi' films and this is far and away the best. Although it's relatively short (75 minutes or so), it's got well-coreographed fight scenes, great acting (when he's not killing three people at a time, you'd think Shintaro Katsu was really blind), and all sorts of wonderful plot twists. In this film, Zatoichi develops more as a character rather than as a gimmick. Although the first film was superb, we really only got to see that he was this avenging angel from the yakuza, if such a thing is not a contradiction in terms. This time around, however, we get to see more of what motivates Ichi as well as some more insight into his past. We are introduced in this chapter to Ichi's law-breaking brother, played by Tomisaburo Wakayama (who was Shintaro Katsu's brother in real life as well). We learn that the two had previously feuded over the same woman to the point that Ichi cut off his brother's arm in a fit of rage. While all this is going on, Ichi is being pursued by Kanbei, an assassin sent to dispatch Ichi before he can tell of Kanbei's lord's insanity. In his pursuit of Ichi, Kanbei hooks up with Sukegoro, Ichi's employer from the previous installment who has a score to settle with the blind swordsman. These various groups all come into conflict with one another at various points and make for a film that is simultaneously action-packed and well thought out. Highest recommendations.

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