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Movie Review: Masseur Ichi Enters Again (Shin Zatoichi monogatari)

Another early Zatoichi movie has the classic elements of thes series, although it does seem like his character is still establishing himself. This time he travels back to his hometown and meets his old master. While staying there he begins to get involved with his master's sister, Yayoi. The standard fight scenes occur from Zatoichi's past catching up with him in the form of people who worked for someone he killed, and when Zatoichi discovers the truth about what his master has been doing since he left. There is only one gambling scene, but it plays out much more differently than usual. And the love interest this time is much deeper, and for a while it seems like Zatoichi will give up the yakuza lifestyle for Yayoi. While there is not as much philosophical depth in this entry in the series, I think it does a good job of building Zatoichi's character and his history, and we really get a good sense of how he became the force of good he is in the later movies. I guess when you have 20 movies in a series it is ok to take your time making your main character a good guy! This movie also had a lot of similar establishing shots through vegetation like the other early movie I saw, which is an interesting technique.