Konterr Brilliant and touching

Sabah Hensley This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Paynbob It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

TheJackie The positive response this film has received here on IMDb makes me think that most people didn't truly appreciate the originals, and what made them so unique and beautiful.It seems as if Shintaro is barely acting. He has lost most of his mannerisms, and the rich facial expressions have all disappeared. The violence is obscene and the drama is lifeless. The camera work and a lot of the music is just plain awful.I wish I hadn't seen it. I have such a deep love and respect for the originals, and the younger Shintaro's acting ability. Watching this was really painful. Please, take my advice, give this one a miss and re watch one of your old favourites instead.Unless of course, all you watched zatoichi for was the swordplay.

winner55 this is the last appearance of katsu shintaro as zaotichi, and for my money the best.if you like action films, you must see this film.if you like Japanese film, you must see this.if you ever wondered what 'the wild bunch' might look like in Japanese, you must see this film.in short this is the Japanese film that crosses all the boundaries the Japanese themselves recognize; you really must see this film.absolutely exquisitely mounted; beautifully shot and edited. the only odd flaw is the weird soul-song that functions as the theme song - but, fortunately, it is not the theme music.everything else about this film is fine. what a great farewell to a great serial character.absolutely, you must see this.

galensaysyes This is to the Zatoichi movies as the "Star Trek" movies were to "Star Trek"--except that in this case every one of the originals was more entertaining and interesting than this big, shiny re-do, and also better made, if substance is more important than surface. Had I never seen them, I would have thought this good-looking but empty; since I had, I thought its style inappropriate and its content insufficient. The idea of reviving the character in a bigger, slicker production must have sounded good, but there was no point in it, other than the hope of making money; it's just a show, which mostly fails to capture the atmosphere of the character's world and wholly fails to take the character anywhere he hasn't been already (also, the actor wasn't at his best). I'd been hoping to see Ichi at a late stage of life, in a story that would see him out gracefully and draw some conclusion from his experience overall; this just rehashes bits and pieces from the other movies, seasoned with more sex and sfx violence. Not the same experience at all.

MartinHafer When I read MOST of the other comments, I felt they were way too glowing for this movie. I found it had completely lost the spark found in the earlier Zatoichi movies and just goes to prove that after a long absence from the screen, it's often best to just let things be. I completely agreed with the Star Trek analogy from another reviewer who compared the FIRST Star Trek movie to the original series---millions of excited fans were waiting and waiting and waiting for the return of the show and were forced to watch a bland and sterile approximation of the original.The plot is at times incomprehensible, it is terribly gory (though the recent NEW Zatoichi by Beat Takeshi is much bloodier) and lacks the heart of the originals. I didn't mind the blood at all, but some may be turned off by it (particularly the scenes with the severed nose and the severed heads). In addition, time has not been good to Ichi--he seems a broken and sad man in this film (much, much more than usual)--and that's something fans of the series may not really want to see.This was a very sorry return for Zatoichi. Unless you are like me and want to see EVERY Zatoichi film, this one is very skipable. See one of the earlier versions or the 2003 ALL-NEW version.