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March 28, 2024, 09:28:05 AM

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Zatoichi

Started by glitch, March 21, 2004, 09:49:08 AM

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glitch

Anyone seen this? I saw it at the Soho Curzon yesterday and was blown away, especially by the soundtrack.

Very recommended. Enjoyed the non-Hollywood fight scenes too, much better than anything Tarantino could handle in Kill Bill.

Narshty

To answer your question upfront, no, but if you liked that, the Prince Charles in Leicester Square are doing a whole day of Takeshi Kitano films on Tuesday. I'm going, if only to hear the whole audience gasp when Kitano stabs the debt-collector in the eye with chopsticks in Hana-bi. If you hear anyone chuckling, that'll be me.

mr rou-rou

silly question, the new one directed by 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano? as opposed to the old 70's ones?

Trailer with typical Hollywood voice over :/

http://www.apple.com/trailers/miramax/zatoichi.html <shit trailer by the way

Does this mean all my old faves are going to get remakes, I could cry at the thought of it.

small wager says from the success of this they remake the Lone Wolf series.

Remember 'Blind Fury' with Rutger Hauer :D hahahahaha

more blind ones,

Master of the Flying Guillotine (1976)  :) class

glitch

Quote from: "Narshty"To answer your question upfront, no, but if you liked that, the Prince Charles in Leicester Square are doing a whole day of Takeshi Kitano films on Tuesday. I'm going, if only to hear the whole audience gasp when Kitano stabs the debt-collector in the eye with chopsticks in Hana-bi. If you hear anyone chuckling, that'll be me.

Thanks for the info. I might pop along, depending on uni.

I'll be the one who stands up, looking in the direction of laughter.

mr rou-rou - yeah, the remake. AFAIK the original series hasn't been subbed/dubbed ever?

mr rou-rou

AFAIK is not an abbreviation I can work out,

if it's Zatoichi then yup, VHS were selling years ago from dodgy video shops that had subs, you can pick them up on DVD, don't know how long the DVD releases have been going, or you can get them, or could get them, from the asia edonkey/emule websites.

http://playcom.at/cookdandbombd?DURL=http://www.play.com/play247.asp?page=title&r=R2&title=115300&p=57&c=&g=72

If the AFAIK referes to the Lone Wolf series then they are also all subtitled

glitch

AFAIK = As Far As I Know

Cheers for the info, I'll have a look for them.

Oh and here's my review of the film, crossposted from my blog:

QuoteSo yesterday I went with some uni kids to see Zatôichi at the Curzon Soho.

It's a Japanese period drama set in the last days of the samurai (as evidenced by the brief use of a firearm in the film), with Beat Takeshi taking the role of a blind masseur named Zatôichi who shuffles from town to town, gambling as he goes. The main plot of the story involves Zatôichi walking into the middle of a conflict between rival clans battling for control of a small village and the spoils of the protection racket. Throughout the course of the film it is revealed that though he may be blind, Zatôichi is also an unparalleled swordsman who wields a katana hidden in his cane.

The plot is a little confusing, mainly due to the rate at which characters are introduced and keeping track of the clans and main antagonists (and their relevance to the main plot) can be a bit difficult. The sub-plot involving the ronin also seems unfinished... a lot of importance is placed on his character throughout the film, but the character lacks dénouement and his downfall is anticlimactic, although powerful and well directed.

The film blends action and drama with a healthy dose of playful comedy - there are (literal) running gags such as the idiot neighbour who dreams of being a samurai throughout the film, as well as humour at some really unexpected moments - the opening fight sequence being a case in point. The plot of the geisha dancers also adds a touch of tragedy (and the necessary revenge) to the film, while introducing Osei as one of the main comic devices.

The cinematography is this film is breathtaking - any number of frames could be taken from the film and used as promotional shots and would serve this alternative purpose well. I really enjoyed the soundtrack, a mixture of traditional Japanese music with glitch and drum 'n' bass influences, several times throughout the film the visual action is synchronised perfectly with the audio. I was really dismayed that Virgin didn't stock the OST, but Soulseek is taking care of that now.

Overall this film is visually and audibly stunning, with obvious care taken with the script and direction. It's a great deal of fun to watch and I'd recommend it to many people, even those who don't generally like films with such an obvious martial arts/hacknslash direction. I'll take this over Kill Bill any day. See it now.

Oh and that finale is toe-tapping fantastic.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

jutl

Just seen this.



A much more traditional, plot-driven film than your average Takeshi Kitano movie.  No really lingering landscape shots, and (for the first time ever I think) no sea. Other Takeshi traits persist though - flashbacks with no flagging, sudden brief horrifying violence and childish humour. I'm a bit torn here - I liked the film an awful lot, but it's neither a great Takeshi movie, nor a great samurai movie... Brother managed to be a genre movie while retaining a lot of quirky beauty - Zatoichi seems to make a real effort to reign in the impressionism and be a decent genre piece. Whether this is a good thing or not will depend on your point of view, I suppose.

This is a revised subtitles file I knocked out for the HLS XviD release of this movie - fixing the spelling and correcting some of the weirder expressions. (I don't speak Japanese, so it's  just a proofing job really).

Regular John

I loved Zatoichi, the blunt violence is Kitano's real speciality!

The usual seaside scene was kinda there with the lakeside and the retarded Samurai kid reminded me of the kid in Boiling Point :)

MojoJojo

Saw this the other night.... Was pretty good, although a bit hard to follow.
It felt a bit like the main plot was not central to the story at times, i.e. it was more of something to hang the scenes off. This is probably because I couldn't follow the plot properly.

Enjoyable though. Just watched Kill BIll Vol 1 too, so I'm overdosing on bloody samuarai sword induced violence at the moment.

Panodil Tabletter

Quote from: "jutl"This is a revised subtitles file I knocked out for the HLS XviD release of this movie - fixing the spelling and correcting some of the weirder expressions. (I don't speak Japanese, so it's  just a proofing job really).

Fantastic subtitles! Particularly enjoyed the "You fucking twat" scene, but it would seem that the last 10 minutes of the film is missing in the file.

Silencer

I would love to go to the cinema to see this but IU know it won't get a release anywhere near me.  The thought of a Kitano all-dayer blows my mind.  Though it would be pretty damn depressed.

It sucks being in Hull.