The twelfth and third film of 1965 was Zatoichi And The Chess Expert directed by Kenji Misumi, director of the first installment Tale of Zatoichi. Again there is excellent direction and use of locations, here they spend considerable time on the sea and at Hakone. The opening sequence of taking a fairy seemed historically researched and insightful in how things were done in the past. Zatoichi (Shintaro Katsu) uses his gambling skills to help out a child who was injured in a scuffle that he was in with would-be Assassins. He is shown to be something of a con man with the dice and even loses for once in one scene. The mother is the wife of a yakuza who fell at the hands of Zatoichi. The chess expert (Mikio Narita) is really a Shogi master with whom Zatoichi challenges at the game and eventually a duel. There are some more feats of wonder like Zatoichi catching coins on a stick at a festival to get a stake to buy medicine for the sick girl which he comically scrabbles after in a battle with disgruntled gamblers after he's bought the medicine.
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