Zatoichi
Zatoichi (座頭市, Zatōichi) is a fictional character featured in one of Japan's longest running series of films and a television series that are both set during the late Edo period (1830s and 1840s). The character, a blind masseur and blademaster, was created by novelist Kan Shimozawa.
This originally minor character was developed for the screen by Daiei Studios (now Kadokawa Pictures) and actor Shintaro Katsu, who created the screen version. A total of 26 films were made from 1962 to 1989. From 1974 to 1979, the television series Zatoichi was produced, starring Katsu and some of the same stars that appeared in the films. These were produced by Katsu Productions. One hundred episodes, with episodes 99 and 100 being a two-part story finale, were aired before the Zatoichi television series was cancelled.
Film number 17 of the original series was remade in America in 1990 (by TriStar Pictures) as Blind Fury, an action movie starring Rutger Hauer.
A 2003 film, Zatōichi, was directed by Takeshi Kitano who also starred as Zatōichi in the film. The film was awarded the Venice Film Festival's Silver Lion for Best Direction in 2003.
Zatōichi (2003 film)
Zatoichi (座頭市, Zatōichi) (released in the US as The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi) is a 2003 Japanese samurai drama and action film, directed, written, co-edited, and starring Takeshi Kitano ("Beat" Takeshi) in the eleventh film he has directed. Kitano plays the role of the blind swordsman.
The film is a revival of the classic Zatoichi series of samurai film and television dramas. It premiered on September 3, 2003 at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the prestigious Silver Lion for Best Director award, and went on to numerous other awards both at home and abroad. It also stars Tadanobu Asano, Michiyo Okusu, Yui Natsukawa, Guadalcanal Taka, Daigoro Tachibana, Yuko Daike, Ittoku Kishibe, Saburo Ishikura, and Akira Emoto.
Plot
The film's plot follows a traditional theme, with Zatoichi (a blind swordsman) coming to the defense of townspeople caught up in a local yakuza gang war and being forced to pay excessive amounts of protection money. Meanwhile, Zatoichi befriends a local farmer and her gambler nephew and eventually offers his assistance to two geisha siblings (one of whom is actually a man) who are seeking revenge for the murder of their parents. The siblings are the only survivors of a robbery and massacre that was carried out on their family estate ten years ago. They soon discover the people responsible for the murders are the same yakuza wreaking havoc on the small town.
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by Twin Perils
Zatoichi
by: Twin Perils[Lone Ninja:]
I tighten the darts more and more, I strike in the dark corridors
The fighting will start rip titans apart war is war
Slash and sever the long axe is menacing
It's wrath and terror we combat veterans
Ya'll back pedaling, we forward march
Harm and crack skeletons, you're in water with sharks
Mourn as we spell your doom we wasn't born
With a silver spoon you do us wrong and we'll seal
Your tomb, feel the gloom as you wander the maze
Demolish and slay tommorrow isn't promised today
Give honor and praise, I'm blindfold with katana blade
Die slow, with eyes closed I will clobber prey
Rob your grave, maraud and plunder
Conquer and raid, cuase shock and awe and wonder
We're roaring thunder, who applaud our elders
Head towards the bunkers or the fallout shelters
Plot and get blown to smithereens, we chopping we chopping your dome
With guillotine spill the beans, June Marx and Lone's the illest team
Fullfilling dreams or your squad is dying
Sparks is flying, the chilling screams are horrifying
Got the heart of a lion and the eye of an eagle
I'm the largest of giants I'll get violent and evil
You silent and peaceful, don't wage in battle
I'm brolic and lethal, go pray in the chapel
[June marx:]
Make plans I radiate scans throw on your raybans
Mind steady learning emerging straight out the wasteland
Shake hands on paid deficits slay effortless
Hunger made us constantly suffer became predators
Weaponless war terrorist raw battlin monstrous
Smuggle ammo within the shadow of the colossus
Cosmic waves buried deep in the caves, a lethal rage
Breathe deep release secrets with age indecent blades
Darts flying spark iron we clash the dark alliance
Spar tyrants raw words surpassing art and science
Horrifyin sound weapons blowing flesh opens
In a direction flowing like victims is breaststroking
Neck broken thrown in various ways deep in the summit
Seas of bodily fluids spray leaking from stomach
Preachers summon spells ward off hordes of demonic forces
Twin perils desecrating multi symbolic crosses
Losses taken june orchestrate doom with facial wounds
Catch me in the break room burning haze exhaling fumes
Mixtape biohazardous waste the rhyme unravel
Monumental statue I stab you with flying shrapnel
Pteoradactyl wingspan bring man to bended knee
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Zatoichi-Shintaro Katsu Documentary by John Nathan (1978)
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