Tokuzo Tanaka's third installment of the Zatoichi series, New Tale Of Zatoichi (1963), is the first to be filmed in color. This film is also one of the most devoted to Zatoichi''s (Shintaro Katsu) back story. Zatoichi runs into his sword teacher, Banno (Seizaburo Kawazu) at a hot springs resort where a band led by the brother of Boss Kanebe, who Zatoichi killed in the previous film, tries to exact revenge. Banno intervenes and postpones the vendetta and brings Zatoichi back to his home where he reconnects with Banno's younger sister Yayoi (Mikio Tsubouchi) and is convinced to give up his wandering and marry. However Banno, refuses Yayoi's request due to Zatoichi's low standing as a masseuse. Banno is also involved in a kidnapping scheme with a segment of the Mito Tengu (a group of radical anti-shogunate samurai) who are terrorizing the countryside by robbing honest citizens. According to the film notes, this establishes the time period as sometime in the 1830s-40s before the shogunate fell. I found the utter avariciousness and lack of feeling toward Zatoichi by Banno somewhat unlikely and poor writing--it seems unlikely that a master swordsman teacher like Banno would be so worldly and lacking in spirituality. After his death, Zatoichi seems resigned to his fate as a wandering masseuse even though he is free to marry Yayoi now, which also seems somewhat unlikely if he was truly willing to settle as it was established earlier in the film.That being said Tanaka continues to frame his shots impressively and use interesting camera movements throughout the film.
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