Zatoichi Tv - Grand Finale

[daisho2004]

ZATOICHI TV - GRAND FINALE

For the first time ever, the Grand Finale of the Zato Ichi story comes to DVD. These two episodes were written and directed by one of Japan's most distinguished filmmakers Teshigahara Hiroshi and elevate the Blind Swordsman from genre hero to fine art. After 25 feature films from 1962 through 1974, the television series lasted 4 years and helped keep alive the legend of the blind wandering gambler/masseur with the lightning fast sword. There were 100 episodes over the 4 seasons and while all of them are very good to excellent, this 2 part finale brings the series and the character to an exciting conclusion unlike anything that ever went before or after.

Episode 99: "The Rainbow Journey" takes Ichi to the inner chambers of a daimyo lord's concubine. A beautiful woman with a deadly secret holds the key to a treasure chest containing 1,000 gold coins. Can Ichi survive against the political activists who want to bring down the government with their bloody blades?

Episode 100: "The Dream Journey" intersperses Ichi's innermost fears and desires with the harsh realities of being a blind man who dreams only of being able to see the sun once more before he dies. With spectacular cinematography and plenty of dynamic swordplay, can Ichi conquer fear and defeat his most formidable adversary?

OK my review of the last episode: OK I'm going to go against the grain right here and say that I really didn't care for the last episode all that much, yes the part where he was dreaming that he could see again was very well done, but there was a part in which he was in a Hot Tub which was just plain stupid and really just ruined the episode for me, there was no need for that. Its was like something out of "Tales from the Darkside" I thought after a 100 TV episodes and 26 movies it could've ended much better than it did.

[Le Péril Jaune]

SPOILERS!!!

A very brave and original, and rather nihilistic, episode. I'd read that Ichi would regain his sight, I don't believe everything I read but I did expect it to happen even after it turned out to be a dream :o. Even though the final episode is inconclusive, I think it states that Ichi's lifestyle has gotten to him, already in the 99th episode he kills a wounded robber hiding in a bush to save himself. It's not like Ichi to deliberately kill unnecessarily, although it does happen, but in the final episode there's no longer any doubt: it's a darker, more brutal Ichi waking from his drunken nightmare, suffocating an already dying assassin with his foot is out of character for the Ichi of "old", he never had the need to humiliate his victims before, not even in his darkest gloom.

I was also a little disappointed at first with the last episode, after the brilliant 99th episode my expectations were very high and I definitely wasn't prepared for surrealism being the order of the day in the final episode. But in hindsight I'm impressed, it was very imaginatively done and brilliantly filmed and to be fair, given the high standard of the series it would have been impossible to make an episode to top them all. And how should the series end? The result would only disappoint so the solution to try something completely new works well. I do prefer the more "traditional" episodes though, I couldn't watch the last episode too many times without getting tired of it.

[Tosh]

Where can a buy these at? Is this the ending to everything, movies included?

[daisho2004]

Tosh, Merlin over@ SamuraiDVD has this DVD he subtitled these last 2 episodes himself.

BTW put yourself on his email list.
http://www.samuraidvd.net/

[daisho2004]

Tosh sorry I didn't answer you whole question but he is my review: I always thought that Zatoichi would've found his place in the sun, so to speak where he could just relax and have no more worries, that would've been the best way to end this great series. Like in The last movie Zatoichi 89' when he was with the little kids I thought he would've stayed with the kids after destroying the entire Gang, but he continued on his journey I thought that was sad, and your left to think that he just dies on the road never knowing happiness except for a brief moment,every now and then. And this last episode was the samething as the rest he just continues on his Journey, yes it was a little darker than some of the other Movies & TV episodes but it was far from being a Great Fan Finale. And that really disappointed me the most.

[Shaolindogma]

This is great news... i freakin love Zatoichi. And love your Mute Samurai avatar btw Daisho. I have every episode of Zatoichi and Mute Samurai enjoy them immensely, ive probably seen each episode a couple of times.

[daisho2004]

Shaolindogma, I feel the sameway about these 2 series, BTW did you see the Bounty Hunter series with Wakayama? Great series as well.

[Shaolindogma]

Daisho, could you give me some more info about that series. Ive never heard of it. I absolutely love anything with them in it. A while ago when I first got into samurai movies, i found out that Katsu died from throat cancer... i was heart broken.

[daisho2004]

Shaolindogma go to the top page where I posted Samurai Movies/TV series and scroll down you'll see some info on the Bounty Hunter series, he did a 3 part movie before it became a TV series the 1st. Movie was called Killers Mission Great Movie! I only have the 1st. movie so far and the 1st.&2nd volumes of the TV series. There Great also, but anything with Wakayama is Great! If you need more info I will post a thread soon about the Bounty Hunter series.

[MrGranger]

I'd love this...but I don't want to see these episodes before I can get my hands on the rest of the seasons.