Awesome fight scenes

[Griff]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

But, but, but, his blade wasn't touching anything most of the time, he'd have to have some radar/sonar going on there. It requires a lot of dismissing of science and logic. Akazuka just came to the realization he was being bitchy because he was getting his period, shown by a trail in the snow.

LOL.
When fencing blind fencers fence from engagement. So yeah some magic here.

[Griff]

For funny, I love a good Jackie Chan drunken boxer routine.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

But, but, but, his blade wasn't touching anything most of the time, he'd have to have some radar/sonar going on there. It requires a lot of dismissing of science and logic. Akazuka just came to the realization he was being bitchy because he was getting his period, shown by a trail in the snow.

Aside, I'd read that Hollywood and the fiction creators have convinced everyone that ninja's wear black and move like shadows in the night. Complete bullshit, in a culture where status was most important, and everyone above the bottom rung wore clothing/uniforms that reflected that. Ninjas were successful because they dressed as common peasants, which allowed them to get close without suspicion, strike, and fade immediately into the rabble.

OK, you're reading too much into it. The Zatoichi character is pure satire of the Chanbara genre of films.


When you watch it with Japanese people they are howling with laughter. (At least my friend was and she was old and Japanese so she had wisdom-just like it says on the label)

Think spiderman. There is one funny scene where Zatoichi is in some whatever-they-called-a-bar in 14th century Japan and he is annoyed by the sound of a moth flickering around a nearby lamp, he also wants to show some buffoon that although he is blind, he's not fucking around. He takes the toothpick from his mouth and flicks it across the room and it spears the moth in mid-flight pinning it to a wooden post.

It's over the top parody that even pokes fun at itself. Another scene he is trying to show off how badass he is and he throws a persimmon in the air and does this crazy slashing pirouette spastic flailing move as the persimmon falls past him, untouched. Zatoichi completes his display with a kneeling re-sheathing of his sword cane. As he hears the persimmon hit the ground he frowns because it was in one piece, when the sword hilt hits the scabbard it bumps it just enough so that the end of it taps the persimmon which then splits open in 8 perfect sections like an orange.

I watched a lot of Japanese films with my late Japanese friend and she let me in on a lot of cultural references that I'd otherwise have missed.

A classic one is when the guy throws away his scabbard before it fight it means that he doesn't intend to be around when the fight is over to re-sheath the sword.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Thanks for the insight. I've seen bits and pieces of a bunch of Oriental films over there years. Couldn't sit through a whole one because they strike me as high camp melodramas. I figured the Kung Pow series was just an animated version of the same thing. But didn't know if Asians thought these were serious drama or not.

[footfootfoot]

There is another Zatoichi film, Zatoichi meets Yojimbo (from the earlier versions with Shintaro Katsu -the more recent series directed by Beat Takeshi are not as good; he's like a Japanese Sam Pekinpah) That has some very funny and good fight scenes.