Paperjam

Zatoichi on DVD

Film // Jim // 6th August 2004

A lot of films that you may decide to see at the cinema or rent out on DVD will fit into a very specific category, maybe “Cop Revenge Drama” or “High School Romantic Comedy” or perhaps even “Carefree Bachelor(s) Finds Redemption Through Looking After Young Child”.

The reason for this gradual homogenisation into easily identified categories is fairly straightforward, making films costs a tremendous amount of money and no investor would willingly plough money on such a venture unless there was at least some chance of seeing their money and some profit at the other end.

Make a similar movie (or even better a sequel) to one that is already popular and you have a better chance of making money than you would have if you backed some original, unusual piece of work. At least that is what conventional wisdom and the Holy laws of marketing will tell you. Of course as screenwriter William Goldman stated “Nobody knows anything” when it comes to predicting whether films will be successful or not.

However, we the viewing public, make it easier on them by following the conservative line of sticking to what we know. Walk round Blockbuster (Grrrrrrrrrr) on a saturday evening, if you can bear it, and listen to the reasons that people come out with for selecting their entertainment for the night:

“I’m not getting that, I’ve never heard of it”
“There's no-one famous in this”
“Look, Gladiator Eroticus IX, well the other ones were OK, lets get this one too”
“They've only got two copies of that one so it won't be any good”

Look at film posters and DVD boxes they all have “From the maker of....” or “The best legal drama since.....” written on them. Does this mean that we are complicit in propelling ourselves into a future of even more formulaic, processed, fast-food entertainment?

Quite probably, I'm afraid.

The occasional film appears that breaks from convention, the growing popularity of the documentary is an interesting development and another is the practice of taking two or more conventional genres and fusing them together to make something a bit different.

For example, last week I went to watch a two and a half hour long chick flick about a girl who had to choose between her dashing heroic fiance and the geeky childhood friend who she really loved. Why did I go to watch this sob-fest you ask? I went because it was called Spiderman 2 and also contained lots of action scenes involving people falling off buildings and a man who was possessed by a set of lethal metal arms.

Unsurprisingly, film production outside of the US/UK market, where costs are lower and audience tastes a little more adventurous and sophisticated, often produces the most original and genre mashing material.

Which brings us (at long last) to Zatoichi, written, directed, edited and starring a bizarrely bleached-blonde Takeshi Kitano.
If the genre bending in Spiderman 2 can be likened to a spot of cross-breeding, then Zatoichi is like some kind of mad scientist gene-splicing experiment to cross an elephant with a food blender.

Zatoichi: Genre Busting, Strange Bleaching

Based on the well-known Japanese legend of the blind masseur and gambler who just happens to be a master swordsman (see also Rutger Hauer in Blind Fury), Takeshi has created a thoughtful but extremely entertaining film which draws on so many other genres that to simply classify it as a samurai flick would be doing it a disservice. After a single viewing I reckon this film has elements of the following:

Spaghetti Western
Period Drama
Revenge Tragedy
Family/Domestic Drama
Existential Thriller
Martial Arts Action
Gangster Movie
Anime
Comedy

And that is before you consider the elements dealing with gambling, child prostitution and (yes I’m really not making this up) big tap-dancing numbers.

It isn’t just the genres that are all over the place, the structure and pacing of the film is cleverly put together using slow paced elements to counter the sudden bursts of spectacular violence and mysterious flashbacks to supplement the main plot involving a town under the grip of competing criminal gangs.

The sword fights are especially well done with lashings of CGI blood spurting from henchmen left, right and centre adding a comic book feel to proceedings. This is all very different from the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon school of martial arts, Zatoichi is deadly and efficient rather than flying all over the place, fighting him seems akin to taking a piss on an electric fan heater - a quick slash and you’re dead.

I recommend you rent this film out as soon as possible, you will certainly have never seen anything like it and are becoming more unlikely to all the time.

I’m really not joking about the tap-dancing either.

Some Zatoichi Links

Zatoichi uk site

Stylish site with some good information, plus you can watch the trailer

Midnight Eye

Excellent site for info and reviews on Japanese films

Takeshi Kitano's official site

Do you know any Japanese?