Zatoichi Challenged (1967) - #679

It was his misfortune to be born with such a gift.

On its surface, Zatoichi Challenged feels like a rehash of basic, generic elements - a commission to deliver a helpless young child to his distant parent, the discovery of oppressed poor people by ruthless yakuza gangs, a quest for justice by a reluctant heroic defender, along with the usual blend of comedy riffs involving gambling, the dispatch of bumbling buffoons who don't realize who they're messing with, and a final dramatic showdown with a big boss at the end. By episode 17 of the franchise, the formula could come across as stale. That might indeed be the case for viewers who take a binge-watching approach to this series, one that I really don't practice myself for any kind of movie (or TV) consumption, and recommend avoiding for this set. Spreading these films out to take one in every few months or so has been a rewarding, pragmatic approach that roughly simulates how they were originally released back in the 1960s, when the Zatoichi phenomenon was at its peak. Every time I've returned to the gorgeous Criterion box set, it's been with a smile on my face as I enjoy the pleasure of catching up with an old friend: a blend of predictable familiarity combined with the anticipation of discovering the latest twist in a long-running saga that will reveal a few new insights into what makes this mysterious wandering swordsman such a compelling personality in the first place.

The unique bits that stand out the most after watching it just now:

• a brief snippet of slightly incongruous J-Pop in an early musical number (one of the young female actors cast in the film, Mie Nakao, had a few radio hits at the time and it looks like she was given a spotlight here); 

• an effectively grating yet charming acting performance from the little brat that Zatoichi picks up one evening at an overcrowded traveler's inn, as he shares a room with the boy's dying mother whose final wish is to have the blind man locate the distant father, lest her son wind up a pitiful orphan; 

• the unusual plot element of an artist enslaved to pay off his gambling debts, whose talents are forcibly directed to the production of highly illegal erotic images that adorn porcelain plates and vases; 

• well-paced character development on the part of Zatoichi's main rival, who's introduced as a friendly and respectable ally and only gradually becomes an adversary, whose motives are understandable, even if relentlessly severe. By the time we get to the final duel, beautifully shot in snowfall at twilight, a serious intensity has developed, accompanied by a dreadful sense of Zatoichi and his friends being in more palpable danger than we're used to feeling. That's a significant achievement, this deep into the series after we've seen so many other climactic battles.

(of course, it looks so much better in glorious high-definition...)

What I especially appreciated about this particular installment is the overall commitment to telling a solid story without resorting to purely gimmicky elements or overtly fabricated set pieces. Director Kenji Misumi was a veteran of the series who had already helmed three earlier episodes, including the very first one (which also impressed me with its solemn minimalism in the classic samurai film tradition), along with Fight, Zatoichi, Fight (another variation on Z as child-transporter, in a more comic vein there as the kid in question is a baby) and Zatoichi and the Chess Expert (more evidence that Misumi's preference was to keep his films more low-key and character driven.) After seeing indications in the preceding film Zatoichi the Outlaw that the series was becoming more explicit in its depiction of bloody violence, I was fully expecting to see more of the same (and I think it will return soon enough.) But it's refreshing to see that the studio continued to give directors a free hand to bring their own shades and styles to these films. Even the sword tricks and gambling stunts felt more grounded in reality and less cartoonish than usual. This is an excellent entry point into the series, or one that for veteran viewers might benefit from closer than usual attention, since it's also one that could easily be overlooked or lumped in as "just another Zatoichi flick."

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