  Two of Japan's legendary actors star in this classic tale of greed and misfortune. Zatoichi the Blind Masseur ( urlLink Shintaro Katsu ) revisits a village he has fond memories of, only to find that much has changed. Drought and famine have caused the village to fall into the hands of the evil Kobotoke Clan, run by Eboshiya Yasuke's eldest son Masagoro. Eboshiya's other son has married into the respectable family that runs the Shogunate Mint. The respectable son is debasing the coinage, the father is hiding the loot, and the eldest son is trying to steal it from both of them with the help of a wandering Yojimbo (bodyguard) named Sasa Daisaku ( urlLink Toshiro Mifune ). Zatoichi's keen intuition leads him to the center of the conspiracy and ignites the family feud.
Swords will slash, battles with rage, and blood will flow when Zatoichi meets Yojimbo! First, I guess I should say a few words about Zatoichi. He is a blind swordsman, and masseur. And a bit of a gambler. A scam artist really. A yakuza.
But, he has a code, and is not keen on innocents being harmed. The Zatoichi movies fall squarely into the yakuza geki category, with quite a bit of swordplay thrown in, with Ichi as the classic anti-hero. This is the 20th Zatoichi movie, and is commonly know as urlLink Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo . Yes, the famous Toshiro Mifune is in this, playing a yojimbo (bodyguard), but it is not supposed to be the same character from Sanjuro or Yojimbo . It starts with Zatoichi going to a village he'd visited a few years earlier. It was a peaceful place, a place where Ichi believes he can go and get some rest, get away from all the bloodshed and violence that seems to follow him everywhere.
Well, it would be a pretty sucky Zatoichi movie if he found such a place, eh? Of course, the village is overrun by gangsters, gamblers and thugs. There is a lot going on in the plot and it took me a bit to wrap my head around it. The yojimbo is a bit of a drunkard, who has a thing for the female lead, who is a prostitute. He plans on getting enough money so she can buy out her contract and become free, free to leave with him. There is an old man, and friend of Ichi, who used to be the mayor of the town, but now makes jozo statues to set the souls of the villagers, who died in a famine, to rest.
Several other interesting, morally deficient characters round out the cast. There is something to do with the official mint, and gold being siphoned away from it. Oh, and a cool samurai character who is equally deadly with a katana as he is with a pistol. And why does he seem to know the yojimbo? Truthfully, Mifune steals the show. He has such a presence and swagger when he is on screen, and his scenes with Katsu's Ichi are wonderful.
In one very memorable scene, the yojimbo plays a bit of a prank on the blind man, who we discover has a fear of heights after he has to visit a client on the forth floor of a house. It was a cruel prank, but it had me laughing the whole time. Also the way the yojimbo mockingly says "sensei" back to his toadying employer, Masagoro, is priceless. Even though this movie is late in the series, it would be a good introduction to the Zatoichi movies. It incorporates many of the elements of previous Ichi movies, but that is a good thing. And having Mifune is just an added bonus. 
