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Zatoichi the Blind Swordsman, Vol. 2 - The Tale of Zatoichi Continues Director: Kazuo Mori Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Letterbox Format: Black & White, Widescreen Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Running Time: 72 minutes Studio: Home Vision Entertainment Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Region Code: 1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2002-05-14 Buy from Amazon |
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From Amazon.com The wild success of The Tale of Zatoichi demanded a sequel and star Shintaro Katsu was only too happy to reprise his role as the traveling masseur and blind swordsman. Star Katsu and director Kazuo Mori flesh out the enigmatic Ichi in this outing, creating a more haunted and less conniving character who prefers to keep his identity shrouded and his sword sheathed. Nonetheless the peace-loving swordsman is reluctantly and repeatedly forced to fight when he's attacked by a government goon squad, a gang of hoodlums, and an angry one-armed swordsman whose interest in Ichi is purely personal. This action-packed entry, which ultimately brings our hero back to the site of his previous film for the furious climax, practically revels in the concentrated bursts of Ichi's lightning attack. The newly restored DVD features a small stills gallery, a fold-out insert with an essay by Tatsu Aoki (a self described "Ichi Freak"), and four collector cards. --Sean Axmaker From Description Non-stop action, a deadly love triangle, and a mysterious one-armed samurai round out the second installment in the legendary Zatoichi series. When Zatoichi discovers the lord who has hired him suffers from a madness that -- if made public -- would bring ruin to his empire and the livelihood of the samurai warriors he employs, the blind masseur becomes a wanted man for the secret he now possesses. Attacked at every turn by the crazed lord’s samurais and hired yakuza thugs, Zatoichi manages to escape relatively unscathed. But in a final duel, masseur Ichi must face his old foe, the infamous one-armed samurai (played by Tomisaburo Wakayama, the brother of star Shintaro Katsu). |
 "Great Samurai Story & Series"I really appreciate Home Vision Entertainments production of the Zatoichi movie series. Each release has been an excellent presentation of Zatoichi. As a Japenese Samurai Movie fan I think that this series of DVD's is the best. The character of Zatoichi is very compelling and each story helps you identify with this Blind Swordsman who is always trying to do good for others. The examples of Japenese culture during this time period is very beautiful and detailed. Shintaro Katsu displays a wide range of emotions as Zatoichi and his display of swordmanship is excellent.  "Top notch Ichi."Yet another good offerring in the Zatoichi series of films. About the only thing I can offer that I have not seen mentioned before in any of the reviews is that this one is a fair bit shorter than part one but it has quite a bit more action than the first. At any rate, and most importantly, if you liked the first, you will like the second as well as the rest of the recent releases on dvd( of which they are apparantly going to release the first seventeen films in the Zatoichi series.). Also, a company called animeigo has the rights to a few of the later Zatoichi films and are supposedly planning on releasing them in the near future as well. "Another great installment"The second in the series developes Ichi even more, he can be truly kind to the lower classes but has disdain for the general samurai class as a whole but has much respect for what he considers honorable men. He can be kind and then brutal in seconds, his mind weighs heavy on his deeds as seen when he is thinking of his samurai friend Master Hitaro Miki, whom he had to kill. This installment is another must have, can't wait for the rest. "Good sequel to the first Zatoichi DVD"After watching and enjoying the first Zatoichi DVD, I decided to buy the second installment. I'm glad I did because its even better than the first. After being hired to massage a distinguished lord, Zatoichi discovers a secret that could ruin the lord's clan. This sets the story in motion as the lord's retainers send thier samurai and local gangsters after the blind masseur. In this movie we learn a little bit of Ichi's past. In fact a mysterious rival from his past turns up. We are also treated to more of Shintaro Katsu's excellent swordmanship which is even better in this movie than the first. "Zatoichi's Best."I've seen basically all of the 'Zatoichi' films and this is far and away the best. Although it's relatively short (75 minutes or so), it's got well-coreographed fight scenes, great acting (when he's not killing three people at a time, you'd think Shintaro Katsu was really blind), and all sorts of wonderful plot twists. In this film, Zatoichi develops more as a character rather than as a gimmick. Although the first film was superb, we really only got to see that he was this avenging angel from the yakuza, if such a thing is not a contradiction in terms. This time around, however, we get to see more of what motivates Ichi as well as some more insight into his past. We are introduced in this chapter to Ichi's law-breaking brother, played by Tomisaburo Wakayama (who was Shintaro Katsu's brother in real life as well). We learn that the two had previously feuded over the same woman to the point that Ichi cut off his brother's arm in a fit of rage. While all this is going on, Ichi is being pursued by Kanbei, an assassin sent to dispatch Ichi before he can tell of Kanbei's lord's insanity. In his pursuit of Ichi, Kanbei hooks up with Sukegoro, Ichi's employer from the previous installment who has a score to settle with the blind swordsman. These various groups all come into conflict with one another at various points and make for a film that is simultaneously action-packed and well thought out. Highest recommendations. |
