There is an indelible connection between this saga of the samurai masseur Zatoichi, blind but invincible and avenger of injustice, and spaghetti westerns, at their best, such as the work of Sergio Leone.
Kurosawa set the tone, with masterpieces such as Seven Samurai (1954) or Yojimbo (1961), both adapted into westerns, the second by Leone in A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and the first by John Sturges in The Magnificent Seven (1960), this one with several sequels.
Also Zatoichi, debuted in cinema in 1962, based on a literary character created by novelist Kan Shimozawa in 1928, is a direct heir of Yojimbo, Kambei Shimada and his North American disciples, played by Yul Brynner and Clint Eastwood, among others. And it originated 26 films and a 100-episode television series, with a North American remake of the seventeenth film in the series, Zatoichi Challenged, under the name Blind Fury (1989), directed by Philip Noyce.
We are thus faced with an institution of Japanese cinema and television, which I cannot help but see as an extension of these classics, of Kurosawa and Sergio Leone's solitary hero-villains.
This episode, Zatoichi's Pilgrimage, the thirteenth in the series, is particularly evocative of Yojimbo and, therefore, of Toshiro Mifune and Clint Eastwood, at their best. And Shintarô Katsu, the man who embodied Zatoichi, during 26 films and 100 television episodes, between 1962 and 1979 (with a final film in 1989 which he also directed), is certainly not behind them, in terms of the charisma and talent with which he enriches the character.
Out of curiosity, it appears that Miramax purchased the rights to this film, allegedly to make a remake, directed by Quentin Tarantino.
