Musings From New York

After seeing a totally kick-ass trailer on Apple Trailers, I was really looking forward to this movie. And I must say, it didn't disappoint. The action is top-notch, as is the plot with its twists & turns.

The premise is one that has built many a Hollywood action movie - especially Westerns (as an aside, why is it that Hollywood Westerns resonate so strongly with Japanese & Chinese movies? What is the common link?). Zatoichi is a blind samurai (d-uh!) that wanders into a village and is befriended by an old woman. Add to the woman's nephew looking for his identity (with hilarious consequences) and a pair of geishas (one's a transvestite) looking to avenge the murder of their parents a decade earlier. I could easily see an early Client Eastwood doing this movie, can't you?

One thing that struck me about the movie was the emphasis of sounds - Zatoichi is blind and relies of super-hearing (presumably, like Daredevil ... but I don't think the budget would've allowed any more SFX). As a result, the whole film visual takes backstage to the sounds of the movie. An example: when Zatoichi walks into the village, a group of farmers are hoeing their fields. At first I didn't understand why the film dwelt on the farmers for so long, but at a later point in the movie (during a torrential rainstorm), the farmers are dancing in the fields - and their feet make a squelching noise. Trust me, you gotta see the movie to understand what I'm talking about!

I did have a minor quibble - a lot of the action seemed to be out-of-context. There was a fight (for those who've seen the movie, it's the one where Zatoichi sliches the bamboo staff down the length, thereby chopping off the attackers thumb & fingers) ... and I had no idea if the fight was related to the plot, or if it was some sort of flashback ... I bulbed!

It's also a bit of a grisly movie (ref. the finger slicing above). And the fight scenes are defnitely shorter than what I'm used to. Hollywood movies always create these epic struggles where the hero gets the upper hand, loses it, regains it before slaying the boss villain. In this movie, I had to rewind and play back at a slow speed (almost frame-by frame) to figure out what happened! Of course, when you see what happens, your reaction is going to be "Ooooh! Cool!"

I highly recommend this movie to all!