Shin Zatôichi monogatari: Kasama no chimatsuri (1973)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Kimiyoshi Yasuda

Writers:

Yoshi Hattori (screenplay)
Kan Shimosawa (story)

Release Date:

15 April 1974 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama

Plot Keywords:

Martial Arts | Zatoichi | Character Name In Title

Cast

Shintarô Katsu	...	Zatôichi / Blind Man Ichi
Yukiyo Toake	...	Miyo
Eiji Okada	...	Shinbei of Hitachiya
Kei Sato	...	Magistrate
Yoshio Tsuchiya	...	Superintendant Shobei
Shirô Kishibe	...	Ruffian
Rie Yokoyama	...	Yuri / Lily
Tatsuo Endo	...	Boss Iwagoro (as Tatsuo Endô)
Takashi Shimura	...	Sakubei
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Naoyuki Asahina
Tamoisu Fujiharu
Ryuuji Fukui
Takamori Gen
Yuuji Hamada
Kuniko Ishii	...	Virgin farmgirl
Hiroshi Kanda
Masayoshi Kikuno
Goro Kumon
Nobue Matsuoka
Yuzo Miyashita
Tokio Oki
Yuko Ota
Osamu Sakai	...	Gen
Shoroku Shimada
Teiko Takeda
Yûsaku Terajima	...	Yahei
Saburo Ukida
Mitsuo Watanabe
Takeshi Yabuchi
Satoko Yamamura

Also Known As:

A New Tale of Zatoichi: Blood Festival of Kasama (informal English title)
The Blind Swordsman's Conspiracy
Zatôichi 25 (Japan) (informal title)
Zatoichi at the Blood Fest (UK) (video title)
Zatoichi's Conspiracy

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:MA

Company:

Katsu Production Co. Ltd.

Trivia:

Not only the last Zatôichi film produced by Toho Company Ltd., but also the last of the "old school" Zatôichi films.

Movie Connections:

Follows Zatoichi no uta ga kikoeru (1966)

Another solid entry in the series

Zatoichi's Conspiracy has our hero returning to his hometown and making the acquaintance of his "sister", a young orphan raised by the same old woman who raised Zatoichi. The bad guy is an official who also grew up in the same village and was a childhood friend of Zatoichi. He appears to be befriending the village by paying off their tax debt, but lays claim to the village quarry, which serves as the only source of income besides farming. A high point of this film is the appearance of Takashi Shimura, the hero of many Kurosawa films including Seven Samurai, as the guardian of Zatoichi's new-found sister. The ending is a little bit of a copout as Zatoichi struggles to decide whether he can bring himself to kill his old friend. A solid entertaining entry to the series.