In only two years time, nine feature-length films starring Shintaro Katsu as the endearing blind masseur and swordsman Zatoichi were released. Adventures of Zatoichi came at the tail end, although this was far from his last adventure. The film repeats the formula that made each of its predecessors a success while adding new, colorful supporting characters and continuing to refine the legend.

I have to say that this series has many outstanding qualities but the greatest is the ever-present depiction of a crippled, low-class former yakuza member with a high-class heart and deadly skills as the champion of the little guy (or gal). The rise of the downtrodden was certainly the prevalent mood in the ’60s all around the free world, but subsequent chambara films in Japan eventually went back to showcasing the fancy shoguns, samurai, ninja, and mythical characters of their feudal and ancient past. Yet the Zatoichi series’ longevity is undoubtedly attributed by a great degree to the accessibility of the main character as perfectly portrayed by Katsu.

In Adventures of Zatoichi, Ichi initially shows his affinity for children, or more specifically the innocent nature of children. Past films allude to this, but he finally declares it just as one of the more darkly complex character draws him into a situation he would have rather avoided. Of course we can be glad he didn’t for the ensuing drama and swordplay action is magic.

Ichi is petitioned by an escaped convict to deliver a letter to his sister in a town where preparations for a New Year’s celebration are underway. Ichi shares room with two lovely ladies in a crowded inn, one of whom is Saki, a woman looking for her missing father. The convict shows up on a suicide mission to kill a corrupt local official named Jinbei. Ichi attempts to protect the convict’s sister, and in doing so discovers that the convict killed Saki’s father by order of the official. Ichi attempts to get Saki out of town for her own safety, but she’s kidnapped by Jinbei’s men after a man he has been kind to betrays him. With the aid of two streetwise youths who are in town as acrobatic performers, Ichi storms the official’s guardhouse in order to save Saki, while forced to trade sword strokes with dozens of men and one driven swordsman named Gounosuke.

This is an excellent entry in the series that has all of the fun stuff one comes to expect from a Zatoichi yarn. Ichi shows off his lightning fast sword skills on several occasions, there is another great gambling scene where he bests the cheaters, and there is lots of great humor best appreciated by someone who has seen at least a couple of the previous films in the series. The story is tightly woven together and the supporting cast is especially good this time around. For added comedy actors Daimaru and Racket Nakada play a pair of clowning performers. But one of the funniest scenes is reserved for one of several interactions with the two kids who aid Ichi as he starts choking on rice. If you know Ichi, you know he eats like a pig! The two kids are great and this is the first episode that puts child actors in prime roles. The women in the film are all “victims” and therefore forgettable. Miwa Takada returns to the series in an unrelated role after appearing in Zatoichi 4: The Fugitive. There is an odd swordsman hired who is smart enough to steer clear of Ichi, but he just fades from the story. Ichi’s main opponent is Gounosuke as played by Mikijiro Hira who plays the role a little to stiffly and generic for my tastes.

Where it really counts is the action and although portions of the film are slow in this regard, there are several excellent matches. By this point, Katsu has truly mastered the underhanded sword technique for screen fighting and looks extremely natural in his use of his cane sword. Interestingly, there is virtually no blood shown and certainly no dismemberment. But that’s not really the point of this series and Katsu would make up for it by producing the Lone Wolf and Cub series starring his brother.

Any real faults with Adventures of Zatoichi would lie solely with the noticeable setup for most of the scenes. This is a formula series and no matter how entertaining each episode is there is this feeling that we’ve been down this road before. But it’s such a wonderful road to travel. Like any great series, you as a viewer become emotionally attached to Ichi, which is not hard to do with Katsu’s gregarious, yet fierce character. Whether he’s offering to massage two women he just met as an ice breaker, accepting good-natured heckling from kids, or running the edge of his sword through the bellies of four attackers in a split second, you cannot help but cheer for this unlikely hero.

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