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Movie Review: Zatôichi monogatari (The Tale of Zatoichi)

I haven't been keeping up with my Zatoichi movies lately, but I finally got around to watching the first Zatoichi movie. It had a little bit different tone to it than the later movies. Here, Zatoichi calls himself a gangster, and agrees to work for a crime boss just to make some money. It is almost like he does not have the confidence in trying to do good works that he gains in later movies. We do have the requisite master swordsman that you know he must face off against by the end, although the tragic way they fall into combat seems more meaningful here. There is also the love interest, which is played up even more here, as if Zatoichi hasn't yet learned to try not to get involved like that. Unfortunately Tivo missed the last couple of minutes of the movie, so I got to see the final battle but not the final wrap-up scenes. Overall, though, I thought it was interesting to see that there was some character growth between the first movie and some of the later movies.