I just finished watching this film and am surprised that it has received such a good rating on IMDb. The first problem I had was with the Zatoichi character. Zatoichi played originally by Shintaro Katsu, was humble, had a subtle humour, the seemingly bungling master swordsman. This to me is what made him a memorable character. This new Zatoichi is simply ruthless with little of the honour he should have, seems to look for a fight, doesn't speak much, has no humanity and therefore is hard to warm up to.
The plot was my second problem. Those who enjoy the original films or TV series know that one of the best things about them is how the plots are well crafted... Zatoichi 2003 was not even close in this respect.
Third was the shoddy secondary character development. For instance we were introduced to the "bodyguard" and his ailing wife and we want to sympathize with them, but then the film went nowhere with their development to make us feel anything for them. The big internal conflict in the viewer when Zatoichi meets the bodyguard in combat should be: how will I feel if this guy, who is just trying to make money to heal his sick wife, is cut down? Going into this fight, the answer is... well, not much.
Fourth was the absolutely ridiculous modern tap hip-hop dance sequence at the end - what was that about?!? Embarrassing and completely out of step with the rest of the film.
Also of note, I was under the impression this was set in the 16th century, but a revolver was pulled in one scene. A small thing but it bothered me.
One the whole very disappointing, as a film in general and especially when compared to the originals.
The plot was my second problem. Those who enjoy the original films or TV series know that one of the best things about them is how the plots are well crafted... Zatoichi 2003 was not even close in this respect.
Third was the shoddy secondary character development. For instance we were introduced to the "bodyguard" and his ailing wife and we want to sympathize with them, but then the film went nowhere with their development to make us feel anything for them. The big internal conflict in the viewer when Zatoichi meets the bodyguard in combat should be: how will I feel if this guy, who is just trying to make money to heal his sick wife, is cut down? Going into this fight, the answer is... well, not much.
Fourth was the absolutely ridiculous modern tap hip-hop dance sequence at the end - what was that about?!? Embarrassing and completely out of step with the rest of the film.
Also of note, I was under the impression this was set in the 16th century, but a revolver was pulled in one scene. A small thing but it bothered me.
One the whole very disappointing, as a film in general and especially when compared to the originals.