Zatoichi takes it on himself to investigate what is going on in the city and to find out who is behind the extortion. He goes to the local tavern to drink some sake and learn what he can. While there, he finds that there is another samurai, Hattori Genosuke (Tadanobu Asano), in town, who is employed by the crime lord as a body guard. Sadly, he is only taking such a job to support his ailing wife, but this changes nothing.
Later, Zatoichi's investigations take him to the local gambling house, where he discovers Oume's nephew gambling... poorly. Zatoichi sits for a while, merely listening to the dice being rolled, then, after being threatened to gamble or leave, he begins betting on the dice throws... without error. It seems that being robbed of sight has caused his sense of hearing to become acute enough for him to hear the result of a dice throw, even when hidden beneath a cup. Oume's nephew becomes quite intrigued with this skill, and bets with him and seeks to learn this trick. When the dealer switches dice to break Zatoichi's streak and he catches them by the sound of the dice, they try to throw him out. In the resulting fight, the criminals running the gambling house are all slain, while the gamblers end up shell-shocked from witnessing the display. By the time that Hattori Genosuke arrives, Zatoichi or "the masseur," as they call him, is already gone.
The fight scenes in Zatoichi are well choreographed, but the computer imagery used when weapons are supposed to be sticking out of people, for example, isn't quite top notch. This may be a result of the transfer to Blu-ray. The film's image quality is excellent, but possibly due to this clarity, it is easy to discern that the CG elements, such as weapons in people or some injuries, have been added in via post-processing. Zatoichi on Blu-ray is in 1080p with 5.1 surround sound, but I don't recall any specific times where the sound fooled me. Still, there were no issues with the sound, and the musical scenes seemed to have some degree of spatial separation.
The CG may not be such an issue, however, as Zatoichi is not a movie that takes itself too overly seriously. There are some comical pratfalls and reactions during the fight scene and there is even a dancing number at the end, which felt much like a Bollywood number, whereby all of the characters (including those who had died during the course of the movie) showed up and participated. This felt very much like a group bow, taken at the end of the show.
The dancing number at the end was not the only place where rhythm took center stage, however. There are a few scenes where rhythm is highly accentuated, to allow the audience to perceive a glimpse of what Zatoichi, himself, "sees." There is one fight scene that takes place in the rain and reminded me of fights I had read in DareDevil comic books, where DareDevil "sees" the enemies based on the sounds of the raindrops resonating off of their bodies. There was no CG to accentuate such an effect in this fight scene, but it seemed to be inferred by the cinematography. Additionally, in some transition scenes, when Zatoichi is traveling to or from town, there would occasionally be scenes where a troupe of four workers were working in a rice field or building a house and their motions were creating a rhythmic music, in a similar fashion as the production, Stomp!. We are led to accept this as the way that Zatoichi perceives the world around him.
Zatoichi is a strange mix of action, drama and comedy. Some of the drama that affects some of the characters is truly heartbreaking. The fights are nicely done, and the humor is there in several levels. Then, there's the musical elements. They belong, if only due to Zatoichi's heightened hearing. Zatoichi is an nice version of a "wandering hero" story, especially with the "blind swordsman" twist. If this sounds like something you'd be interested in, go for it. If you're hesitant, however, it might make a better rental.
