The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi movie review (2004)

And then there is the matter of the music of syncopation. Kitano often combines violence with artistic excursions of the most unexpected sorts, and here he weaves a thread of percussive rhythm through the film. In an early scene, we see four men with hoes, breaking up the earth in a field, and their tools strike the ground in a rhythm that the sound track subtly syncopates with music. Later, there is a duet for music and raindrops. Still later, the men with hoes are stomping in their field, again in rhythm. There is a scene of house-building where the hammers of all the workmen are timed to create a suite for iron against wood. And the final curtain call, worthy of "42nd Street," begins with a boldly choreographed stomp dance -- and then all of the actors come on from the wings and join in the dance, including actors who played some of the characters at younger ages.

This element of the film is almost unreasonably delightful, because completely irrelevant and uncalled-for; Kitano allows fanciful playfulness into what might have been a formula action picture. Remarkably, some of the people I saw the movie with (at two different viewings) came out complaining, as if there were a rigid template for action movies and Kitano had broken the rules. I was surprised and grateful.

Takeshi Kitano, born 1947, has directed 11 films, written 13, and acted in 32 (there are some overlaps). An expert entry in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia says he has also published more than 50 books of poetry, film criticism and fiction, and is also a game show host (one of his shows, retitled "MXC," plays on Spike TV). He also hosts a weekly talk show of non-Japanese speakers of Japanese, who comment on Japan from their foreign perspectives.

Like many artists of long experience and consistent success, he gives himself permission to work outside the box. "Zatoichi" is not a continuation of the original series (itself available on DVD), but a transformation. It's the kind of film I more and more find myself seeking out, a film that seems alive in the sense that it appears to have free will; if, in the middle of a revenge tragedy, it feels like adding a suite for hoes and percussion, it does. Kitano is deadpan most of the time on the screen, but I have a feeling he smiles a lot in the editing room.