Yakuza (gangsters) harass a band of blind masseurs travelling together on pilgrimmage. They bravely hide the one man the gangsters are looking for, i.e, Zatoichi, blind master of the iai fast-draw sword.
Afterward, they tell Ichi, "Don't let those sighted rogues harm you!" as he travels on in his own direction.
So begins Fight, Zatoichi, Fight (Zatoichi kessho tabi, 1964), the eighth film of the blind swordsman's adventures, from one of the finer directors of the whole series.
Kenji Misumi directed the very first Ichi film, The Life & Opinions of Masseur Ichi (Zatoichi monogatari, 1962), & after Fight, Zatoichi, Fight would direct four more of the twenty-six films total.
 We soon see Ichi giving his seat in a palanquin to Toyo, a weary mother travelling with newborn.
The gangsters waylay the palanquin thinking Ichi's in it, & stab the poor woman through the mat curtain.
Ichi feels it is his responsibility to find the infant's nearest relatives.
He heads off for Miyagi Village in Ina province, searching for the slain woman's husband, a silkworm broker named Unosuke (Nobuo Kaneko).
The small band of yakuza continue their pursuit of Ichi. They catch up with him in a narrow alley of a small town. Ichi cocks his head, eyes closed, & says, "I hear five. You must be the ones who killed that poor woman."
 The lead yakuza (Shosaku Sugiyama) spits back, "Forget her! We need you dead or it'll be a stain on our name!"
They've been paid to kill him & consider themselves professionals at such work.
Ichi says in a matter of fact manner, "So there's no point in my trying to avoid you guys, I guess."
"The Monju gang has never failed to kill a man it has targetted!" the head assassin assures Ichi, but they find they must withdraw, with one less man than before.
Mostly a straightforward travel tale, the beauty of the countryside, & how a blind man manages to feed & diaper an unweaned infant, makes up the bulk of the journey, punctuated with moments of deadly swordplay with yakuza assassins after his life.
 Encounters with a nursing woman, who can feed the child, or a scarecrow whose shirt can become diapers, or taking the little one with him to a gambling hall, are scenes treated with equal importance to the action.
It is one of the great things about the long-running series, as well as this episode, that character is no less important than swordplay.
There is a night scene, shot in near darkness, after Ichi leaves the gambling deen, having seen through an intended cheat & (after a clever display of his fast-draw technique) won a tidy little sum. The crooked gangsters don't intend to let him keep his winnings.
 He cuts his attackers down one by one, shushing them as he does, so as not to wake the baby.
This perfect balance of violence & humor is never kitschy; it's easy to believe everyone would behave in exactly this manner, given these circumstances.
Ichi gigglingly suckles the kid on his own nipple to get it to sleep, a cute scene. Much of the tale is a veritable idyll, the duels kept short, contrasting to long scenes of laughter & fun with the infant.
He's eventually assisted by Ko (Hizuru Takachiho), a woman pickpocket whom he tries to convince to change her way of life.
 They become something of an ad hoc family on the road together, though in the end he's rather abusive to her, it having become his habit throughout the series to discourage women's interest in him.
Having to part with the boy in Miyagi is a terrible agony for Ichi. He would've been such an attentive, loving parent. And Shintaro Katsu is such a fine actor for this seminal role, you can't help but feel the awful pain of their parting. But it shan't be with the father the child is placed.
Still pursued by the last of the Monju gang, Ichi comes to the child's father's house, discovering the man is no longer a silkworm cocoon broker, but a gangster boss.
Unosuke has no interest in the child. He even denies ever having had a wife named Toyo, for he is to marry the daughter of a boss of bosses. Ichi is indignant & horrified.
 "I'll raise him myself!" Ichi says hotly. "I'll raise him to be a good man for Toyo's sake!"
Unosuke's response is to assist the last assassin of the Monju gang in his desire to take down Ichi once & for all.
The old monk who did the death ritual for Toyo forces Ichi to face the reality of his drifter's lifestyle, & the danger the child would experience tagging along with a man of such criminal notoriety. If he loves the boy, he'll leave him at the temple.
This is like a slap in Ichi's face, but he knows it's true, for even now, as the monk addresses him, a gang of murderous yakuza gathers with intent to kill him.
 The final one-against-all has Ichi surrounded by burning torches used like long spears.
His attackers manage to set his sleeve & leggings afire, so that he has to fight & try to role on the ground at the same time.
As always, in the end, Ichi is once again the lonely drifter. The band of blind men on pilgrimage happen to parade by him, potentially welcoming. But he is the tragic loner through & through, & were he to join them on their journey, he would only endanger their lives.
This is one of the greater episodes with a stronger emotional impact than usual. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wince at the bloodshed. No wonder this series is so legendary.
copyright © by Paghat the Ratgirl
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