Zatoichi the Outlaw

Zatoichi the Outlaw (座頭市牢破り, Zatōichi rōyaburi) is a 1967 Japanese chambara film directed by Satsuo Yamamoto and starring Shintaro Katsu as the blind masseur Zatoichi. It was originally released by the Daiei Motion Picture Company (later acquired by Kadokawa Pictures), and is the first film produced by Katsu Productions (Katsu's own company).

Zatoichi the Outlaw
Japanese座頭市牢破り
HepburnZatōichi rōyaburi
Directed bySatsuo Yamamoto
Produced byMasaichi Nagata
Written byKoji Matsumoto
Takehiro Nakajima
Kiyokata Saruwaka
Based onZatoichi
by Kan Shimozawa
StarringShintaro Katsu
Rentarō Mikuni
Kō Nishimura
Toshiyuki Hosokawa
Music bySei Ikeno
CinematographyKazuo Miyagawa
Edited byKanji Suganuma
Production
company
Daiei Studios
Katsu Productions
Release date
  • 12 August 1967 (1967-08-12) (Japan)
Running time
96 minutes
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese

Zatoichi the Outlaw is the sixteenth episode in the 26-part film series devoted to the character of Zatoichi.

Plot

In a rural village, Zatoichi (Katsu) encounters Shushi Ohara (Suzuki; modeled after 18th-century agriculturalist Yagaku Ohara) a sword-less rōnin who defends himself against multiple attackers without killing them. Ohara leads a peasant movement advocating the abstention from gambling, drinking, and whoring.

Cast

Reception

In a contemporary review, "Chie." of Variety noted that this Zaotichi film was given a big name director Satuso Yamamoto and a well known actor Rentarō Mikuni which made the film "inflated [...] which, by comparison with the others, not very entertaining."[2]

J. Doyle Wallis, in a review for DVD Talk, wrote that "[t]his film has one of the better plots in the series, the almost hippie ex-samurai's teaching posing as a threat to the gangsters who prefer the villagers to lead debauched lives. Unfortunately some of the storytelling is sloppy, particularly the side-plot characters who Ichi becomes involved with. Their introductions and back story were told so quickly and incidentally, that when their stories began to get a third act wrap up, I had trouble recalling who they were in the first place."[3]

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References
  1. "Zatoichi the Outlaw". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  2. Variety's Film Reviews 1964-1967. 11. R. R. Bowker. 1983. There are no page numbers in this book. This entry is found under the header "September 6, 1967". ISBN 0-8352-2790-1.
  3. Wallis, J. Doyle (18 March 2004). "Zatoichi, the Outlaw". DVD Talk. Retrieved 3 May 2014.


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