Zatoichi And The Chest Of Gold

The opening credits sequence of Kazuo Ikehiro's Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold (1964), sixth in the sereis, seems to owe something to the James Bond franchise in its execution. This sequence features Zatoichi (Shintaro Katsu) playing a flute and dispatching bad guys with a black backdrop-the film hasn't even started and Zatoichi is racking up a body count. I hadn't heard of Ikehiro (who seems to be best known for samurai films in the 60s), but I noticed the excellent cinematography in this edition: especially scenes in the forest-particularly the one at night where men are running in the dark with lanterns chasing down a small band of yakuza wearing white straw hats-it is one of the more memorable visual sequences from the film. There is another striking scene a slow motion battle scene flashback seems to be Kurosawa influenced. Thus, it should have come to no surprise that he man behind the camera was the legendary Kazuo Miyagawa (Rashomon). After arriving in a small village, Zatoichi is accused of stealing the citizens’ tax payments-1,000 ryo. To clear his name, he goes against a corrupt official, countless hired blades, and a bullwhip-wielding scowling villain, played by Katsu’s brother Tomisaburo Wakayama. It seems the body count increases in each film and this one is starting to incorporate gore with bloody wounds in fights.