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Movie Review: Fight, Zatoichi, Fight (Zatôichi kesshô-tabi)

Another early Zatoichi movie, where Zatoichi winds up having to take a baby back to its father after the baby's mother is accidentally killed in place of Zatoichi. He befriends a woman who is a criminal to help him take care of the baby, and they attempt to elude the regular types of people that pursue Zatoichi as they make their way to the village where the baby's father is. This reminded me a little of the Lone Wolf and Cub story, with a powerful swordsman taking care of a baby. Zatoichi reveals a much softer side than he normally does here, at one point deciding he would want to give up his lifestyle in order to raise the child. He also tries to reform the woman's behavior so that they don't bring shame to the baby. Is this how he really gives up the gangster lifestyle and begins looking for people to help. Since I am not seeing the movies in the order they were produced it is hard to tell how much character development there really is between the movies. But I liked this one, although some of the humor bits with the baby were a little overdone. It was also kind of interesting to see a little more openness about breastfeeding than I would have expected, especially the scene where Zatoichi tries to let the baby nurse on him while waiting for the woman to return with some rice milk.