1/5 unforgivable butchering of a masterpiece...
  by Kwisatz Haderack
OK, let me get this straight: the disc comes with a documentary where the director of photography EXPLICITLY details how and why the director agreed to go with a desaturated color palette for this film. Unfortunately for him, the American version of this disc simply chose to ignore their wishes, saturating the color to make the film look "normal" for American audiences (since we are a bunch of neophytes who could not understand that the color was desaturated on purpose). Joe six-pack apparently also wants films that have been oversharpened, distorting the original film look. This, and not providing us with a high quality version of the original Japanese soundtrack (naturally that is reserved for the dubbed English version, since, again, American audiences cannot bother to read subtitles or care about hearing the original language of the film) make this version of the film on Blu-Ray a slap to the face of any discerning film lover.

4/5 Updating a classic for the new millennium with THE BLIND SWORDSMAN: ZATOICHI
  by allangiven.com
The classic Japanese character of Zatoichi, the blind swordsman, who has been featured in dozens of films over the past four decades, has been revitalized and brought to the screen by the phenomenally talented Takeshi Kitano (BATTLE ROYALE), who not only stars as the celebrated title character, but also serves as the film's writer and director as well. In THE BLIND SWORDSMAN: ZATOICHI, Zatoichi wanders into a small town that is being terrorized by a local gang who are extorting the locals and causing everyone to live in fear. Zatoichi encounters a woman who gives him shelter and he soon befriends her nephew that has a penchant for gambling. The two meet a pair of geishas and learn that they are following their own vendetta of personal vengeance and soon all are engaged in an epic battle against the Yakuza. When the gang leader brings aboard the incredibly skilled ronin Hattori Genosuke (Tadanobu Asano) to serve as his personal bodyguard though, Zatoichi may have finally met his match.

With Kitano's revamped imagining of the Zatoichi legend, audiences are treated to an incredible film that focuses on the subtleties of character as opposed to the broadness of scope that elevates the character into mythological proportions. Kitano's Zatoichi is constantly listening, letting himself become immersed in his surroundings to the point of blending into the background. His mannerisms are comprised of incredibly small and almost delicate movements when in a normal setting, but these are quickly juxtaposed with lightning fast and explosive movements whenever he fights. This dichotomy of movement that Kitano adopts for his Zatoichi is what creates a remarkably fascinating character and is of paramount importance to the centrality of the theme of the movie.

In THE BLIND SWORDSMAN: ZATOICHI dualities are explored in all of the main characters, from the masks that the geishas must hide behind to conceal their identities, to the search to find the true clan boss, to the establishment of Hattori as not just an incredibly skilled swordsman, but one who is trying to regain his own honor. His character is one of the strongest in the film, and is played beautifully by Asano who instills a reserved façade of contained power into his portrayal. Working as a bodyguard for the local gang, he is never allowed to simply be seen as hired muscle or as a destructive force devoid of emotion. Kitano gives Hattori a sick wife at home that he must care for, and even though there is not much dialogue present in their brief scenes together, the audience will completely understand Hattori's motivations and will be immediately drawn into the development of his character and will in turn begin to empathize with him.

Further expanding on the theme of the containment of a reserved power lurking beneath the surface, the fight scenes in THE BLIND SWORDSMAN: ZATOICHI are unlike any that have been seen before in the series. While most sword fighting scenes feature drawn out back and forth exchanges of attacks and parries, in THE BLIND SWORDSMAN: ZATOICHI, the scenes are incredibly short, focusing instead on delivering a lethal strike when the samurai sword is drawn. This creates an interesting visual dynamic within the film and imbues it with its own unique style. A character will explode with action, inflict the maximum amount of damage and then immediately contract again into the self. This expansion and contraction of the fighting when coupled with the explosiveness of the approach of dispatching with one's opponents in the quickest manner possible, creates some truly well choreographed fights throughout the film and serve to drive the action of the narrative brilliantly.

THE BLIND SWORDSMAN: ZATOICHI is not without its flaws though. Two choices by Kitano to modernize the aesthetic of the film actually serve to undermine it. For the battle scenes, Kitano chose to add in CGI blood spurting out whenever someone is cut by a sword. This alone would have been fine, adding a distinctive visual flair to the picture, but Kitano takes it one step too far by adding in CGI swords in some moments. CGI sword tips are seen sticking out the other side of someone when they are impaled, or are seen flying through the air when a sword is thrown at someone. The fact is, the CGI in these short shots becomes distracting, and had Kitano opted to stick with physical effects to achieve the same shots, the visual result would have been more congruent with the rest of the film. Also, Kitano chose to include a tap dancing number, something that is normally not seen in a period piece set during the Edo period. While definitely a bold choice by the filmmaker, this too becomes more of a distraction than adding anything to the final product.

These flaws are only minimal criticisms though for an otherwise brilliant film. With its development of character and focus on showing the duality of human nature and the masks individuals choose to hide behind, and coupled with inventive fight choreography, THE BLIND SWORDSMAN: ZATOICHI definitely ranks as a classic and a must see in the samurai genre.

For the Blu-ray release, there is a wonderful forty minute documentary highlighting the making of the film with lots of behind the scenes footage and interviews with the cast and filmmakers. There is also a section of video interviews where crew members such as the cinematographer or the swordmaster each individually talk about some of the challenges they faced while shooting the movie. All in all some great bonus features that help give some good insight into the making of the remarkable movie.

3/5 Blu-ray: A film that I love but why is there no lossless Japanese audio soundtrack? And the PQ looks as if there is DNR and EE
  by Dennis A. Amith (kndy) (California)
A modernized samurai film and who best to create such a film that would appeal on a worldwide level, what better than Takeshi Kitano aka Takeshi Beat.

"The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi" is written and directed by Takeshi Kitano and is based on the novels by Kan Shimosawa. The film would go on to win many awards worldwide and receive positive reviews amongst the critics but would achieve success because of its modern-take on the samurai genre. Needless to say, Kitano fans have been waiting for another brilliant film from the popular actor/director and the film definitely received worldwide respect.

In Japan, Takeshi Kitano is one of those talents that can be seen on television via a variety show, a serious talk show and radio show and mostly a comedic talent that is known for making people laugh or bringing out subjects that people in Japan, often don't want talk about. But a a filmmaker, Kitano is world renown. From his role in "Taboo", "Hana-bi", "Battle Royale", "Brother" and "Dolls".

Known for also being tough in his yakuza-genre based films, he also shown his resilience after bouncing back from a nearly fatal motorcycle accident that paralyzed one side of his boy.

Although a celebrated filmmaker, Kitano is known to do things his way and his style and in 2003, he intended to do just that for a samurai film based on Shintaro Katsu's "Zatoichi" TV series. But again, in Kitano's style and not redoing things that people have already seen in the TV series. To give his own spin and also to not make things serious by utilizing CG-blood, Kitano would also have blonde hair and most interesting is that the film included a dance number at the end of the film.

"The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi" features Takeshi Kitano as Zatoichi, a samurai who is blind but wanders around the country using his senses to win at gambling and also his skills as a masseuse. But he's also, a samurai with tremendous skills and is a man who is known to protect the innocent and those who have been hurt or oppressed.

In this film, he enters a town which has suffered from the various Yakuza gangs and business owners are expected to pay them from monthly to weekly for "protection money". Unfortunately, a lot of these business owners are unable to afford to live with the earnings minus what they owe to the Yakuza and if they try to stand up to the Yakuza, they are either killed or beaten.

One of the women who has dealt with the Yakuza is Aunt Oome (Michiyo Ookusu) who has taken Zatoichi into her home temporarily.

Meanwhile, we learn of a talented ronin samurai named Hattori Genosuke (Tadanobu Asano) who has a wife that is sick and willing to take any job. Desperate in trying to make money to pay for medicine, he takes a job as an assassin for one of the Yakuza gangs (who are planning to eliminate the other two gangs and take sole control of the financial resources).

One night, Aunt Oome talks about the Yakuza's who try to take money from the farmers and also about her nephew Shinkichi who is a hardcore gambler. With Zatoichi being a big gambler himself, he wants to check out the various gambling spots in town. He manages to meet Shinkichi at the gambling area but also surprises him by his wins through using his heightened senses and the two end up becoming friends.

While the two continue to gamble, we are then introduced to two Geishas named Osei (Daigoro Tachibana) and Geisha Okinu (Yuko Daike) who appear to be geisha's that commit murder.

While becoming lucky at the gambling hall, both Zatoichi and Shinkichi go to celebrate their winnings and eventually look for some fun visiting various geisha but instead hook up with the two murdering Geisha's but Zatoichi quickly senses that these two are not who they think they are.

We learn that both geisha are actually brother and sister who want revenge after the Yakuza who killed their entire family. Due to circumstances, the four may end up needing to team up with each other, as each become targets of the Yakuza.

But for Zatoichi, he has heard enough of the oppression by this Yakuza group and the target becomes the Yakuza.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

"The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi" is presented in 1080p High Definition (1:85:1) and comes with mix results. Disney Blu-rays are typically known for their quality picture and audio quality but "Zatoichi" has been DNR'd (digital noise reduction) but not excessively.

Also, there are signs of edge enhancement as well and makes you wonder if the original film was in bad shape. Nevertheless, it would have been nice to have a more detailed image quality with its original grain but nevertheless, the picture quality is not vibrant as I have hoped. But for the most part, picture quality leans more to good than great.

As for audio quality, this is a heart-breaker as this is another film released by Disney that only the English dubbed track is featured in lossless DTS-HD quality (48 kHz/24-bit). Granted, the film's English dub is actually quite good and I found it interesting that even during the dub, the voice talent tend to pronounce some Japanese words with the R and L's and even adding the silent "u" after certain words. But compared to other Asian films that have been released via English dub, this one is one of the best (along with "HERO").

With the lossless track, some scenes utilize surround during the rain scenes but for the most part, the film is a front and center channel driven film. Dialogue and music is clear and the ending dance performance really features a wonderful musical soundtrack.

But for many of us who enjoy Asian films, we prefer to watch the film in its original language and unfortunately the Japanese is only featured in 5.1 Dolby Digital (Spanish 2.0 Dolby Digital is also included). It would have been nice to hear this film in its original language via lossless but at least it was offered.

SPECIAL FEATURES

"The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi" comes with the following two special features (in 480i, English 2.0 Dolby Digital, English SDH and Spanish subtitles):

* Behind-the-Scenes Special - (35:55) An informative behind-the-scenes featurette showing the viewers of the first press conference, shooting throughout the various weeks from start to finish and then the premiere of the films at the film festivals. Featuring interviews with director/writer/actor Takeshi Kitano and the cast members.
* Exclusive Interviews with Crew - Featuring individual interviews with Katsumi Yanagishima (Cinematographer), Norihiro Isoda (Production Designer), Kazuko Kurosawa (Costume Supervisor), Tatsumi Nikamoto (Master Swordsman).

JUDGMENT CALL:

"The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi" is one of those films that you can't help but enjoy. In fact, I have enjoyed this film so much that I don't know many times I've watched it. I really enjoyed the modernizing of the samurai film and respect Kitano not wanting to emulate the classic but to do something different for the modern crowd.

Where the classic samurai films will always be there, Kitano wanted to bring some energy into the film with adding humor after major battle scenes, making the blood after a person gets slashed via CG but how it sprays, his goal was to make it more artistic. But possibly the most surprising of the film is how it ends with a beautiful dance. Where many samurai films end with the lone samurai leaving and happy villagers celebrating, he wanted to showcase that celebration through a more modernized Japanese dance that would include tap dancing.

I know for some hardcore samurai film fans, they may have a hard time seeing "Zatoichi" so far from the original television series but knowing Kitano's films and his humor, this was definitely one of those films that has his style but also capturing the spirit of those classic samurai films.

As much as I have loved the film, I still have some problems with the Blu-ray release and its decision to feature it via DNR for the picture quality and to find out that the original Japanese language is not in lossless audio but for the most part, Disney is not the only one who has done this as other Asian (especially anime) films or television shows feature the original language without the lossless audio.

But by no means is this a bad Blu-ray release, the picture quality is not terrible and truthfully, with the videophiles as the exception, most viewers may feel the picture quality to be clean and satisfactory and as for the English dub, for those who hate reading subtitles can find solace in knowing there is a solid English dub included. I'm not so much into dubs but I have to admit that "The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi" does have a solid English dub.

Overall, "The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi" is not going to be anywhere near reference quality nor will it be up there for great Blu-ray releases but for fans of the "Zatoichi", it's still a wonderful film that is worth checking out!