Old timers like me want to revisit old loves and past guilty pleasures. It so happened that during the long lockdown, as I was rummaging through my old DVDs, I was able to dig out my collection of ...

A do-gooder blind masseur with a penchant for gambling and steel blades might appear an unlikely cinematic hero. But after he first appeared in the 1962 Japanese film "Zatoichi Monogatari" ("The Tale ...

This article comes from Den of Geek UK. In the 1978 US documentary The Blind Swordsman, Shintaro Katsu is asked how he’d like to present himself to American viewers. “I have zero interest in promoting ...

One of the most popular heroes in Japanese cinema, Zatoichi the blind swordsman inspired 26 feature films, more than 100 TV episodes, and countless comics and collectibles. But for a matinee idol, he ...

It's always fun to write about ZATOICHI, and the upcoming DVD release of the latest version of the franchise, ICHI, gives me a good excuse. Every country has a favourite rebel hero in pop culture, a ...

But there’s still enough “Beat” in Kitano for him to retain his impish streak. In “The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi,” more so than any other Kitano film save for the little-known “Getting Any?,” a gag is ...

Like their American counterparts, Japanese movie lovers have long embraced recurring characters and storylines. But their film franchises reached a peak in the 1960s and '70s. At that time, series in ...