Zatoichi 3: New Tale of Zatoichi

When the visiting Ichi (Shintaro Katsu) plans to marry the sister (Mikiko Tsubouchi) of his sword mentor (Seizaburo Kawazu), the angry teacher bars him from their house. Ichi soon discovers his beloved teacher has changed, embittered by his lack of recognition and success. He rudely rebuffs the blind masseur’s promise to give up gambling and carrying a sword and proves he is no longer the man Ichi once knew. Not only is he corrupt, but he may also be responsible for several murders — which inevitably leads to a tragic, action-packed confrontation between the two blade masters. Actor Seizaburo Kawazu had been a noted leading man since the silent era in Japan. In the late 1950s, he made the transition to being cast as the main villain in countless samurai and yakuza films, from classics like Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo (1961) to cult exploitation favorites like Norifumi Suzuki’s Sex and Fury (1973). Tokuzo Tanaka directs his initial outing of the Zatoichi series, which was also the first to be filmed in color (numbers 1 & 2, Tale of Zatoichi and The Tale of Zatoichi Continues were shot in black-and-white). —Japan Society