Zatoichi's Pilgrimage (1966) User Reviews

A twist for Zatoichi fans

[poikkeus · 8/10 · 22 January 2010]

The general standard for Zatoichi films is fairly high - though you can expect the same motifs and themes from one movie to the next. Zatoichi's Pilgrimage brings the series to a new level. Our blind swordsman (Kintaro Katsu) is troubled by his violent past, and vows to visit a circuit of shrines until the gods give him an answer to his spiritual quest. This quest brings him into contact with a group of brigands who all but rule the area, and he's left with little choice but to reassess his spiritual quest.

The screenplay is especially intriguing. Zatoichi's pilgrimage begins as a sea voyage, and the water theme repeatedly makes its way into the plot. In the hope of realizing his quest, a rider- less horse follows the blind swordsman to where he's most needed - suggesting that Zatoichi may have already found his destiny. An assured storytelling makes this one of the more satisfying of the long series.

Hard to find title turns out to be one of the best in the Zatoichi series

[jasonbourneagain · 8/10 · 22 October 2015]

This film is #14 of the Zatoichi series and distinguished itself from the other Zatoichi movies in that it had a lively and interesting storyline and some lessons behind it. This film also has a history of being hard to find in that it was not originally released for the English market in the United States until Criterion provided the complete collection. The screenplay is by Kaneto Shindo who is a well-respected filmmaker in his own right and did Onibaba. The eye-pleasing cinematography continues with a wider scope and panorama that was in #12 of the series Zatoichi and the Chess Expert. There are some beautiful natural scenes shot for the larger movie screen. The color is vibrant and attractive. It is directed by Kazuo Ikehiro who did two other Zatoichi movies and he didn't disappoint with this one as the story breezes along.

The opening action sequence takes place on a boat where Zatoichi deals with a brazen pickpocket who challenges and beats the victim and those who witnessed it after being exposed for his crime. He was about to get away with until Zatoichi brought his own brand of justice. Next, we see Zatoichi climb many steps in order to get to a Shinto temple. There he prays to the Shinto spirits to atone for all the people he killed. He says when he set out he did not mean to kill anyone and to make amends he vows to make a pilgrimage to all 88 Shinto shrines. Zatoichi's introspection follows from the previous two movies and #13 Zatoichi's Vengeance where we see his brand of moral code is revealed.

It's not long before violence meets the peace seeking Zatoichi. Zatoichi even allows himself to be cut by the sister of a man he killed in self-defense. The man Zatoichi killed was trying to kill him for the a bounty placed on his head. The horse the bounty hunter was riding takes him to a village in a curious scene. This is supposed to be the spirits telling him to go there. Zatoichi would have to put his quest for peace and meditation on hold. When one's new friend, Kichi, the sister of the bounty hunter he killed, and the unarmed farmers are being bullied by the bad, then it is time to take military action.

Besides Zatoichi developing his personal code of ethics, he faces a dilemma in taking the side of the farmers in his battle against a powerful country yakuza. If there ever was a vicious tyrant that Zatoichi is to face, Boss Tohachi, played by Isao Yamagata, is the one. Zatoichi wants the farmers to help him fight the well equipped gang, but they decide to hide in their homes and let Zatoichi go at it alone for them. If Zatoichi gets killed, then they figure they can negotiate with Boss Tohachi. Zatoichi faces a moral dilemma between helping his new friend Michiko and helping selfish farmers who won't even stand up and fight to rule their own lands. Kichi, who has fallen in love with Zatoichi, wants him to leave so he won't get hurt or killed. It is one solution to his dilemma if Zatoichi did leave, but he stays to fight by himself. It's part of his code. He stands in the middle of the town road while the country yakuza face him on the opposite side reminiscent of High Noon. The fighting scenes are well choreographed and overall this makes for an interesting addition to the Zatoichi series. The extra money that was put in to hire better writers, directors, and film crew definitely show up in the end product.

I miss Zatôichi playing dice!

[muchmalignedmonster · 7/10 · 10 August 2007]

If not exceptional, a good and sometimes strange entry in the Zatôichi series.

After two successive unusual and in part unrelated beginnings, we enter truly familiar territories. The planned and promising pilgrimage to 88 shrines to find somehow the "meaning of death", suddenly stops at 18:10 when Ichi, following a horse, approaches a town of abused villagers.

Of course, Zatôichi is ready (ready?) to protect them, perhaps with a little less enthusiasm than in other occasions. There's tiredness in Zatoichi's aim, a sensation that pervades the complete film until the final long and very good fight.

No humor, not a scene of dice playing in this one! Not even the pilgrimage of the title! But we learn that the good man can swim with extraordinary lack of style or grace...

14the entry in the long-running Japanese film series

[AlsExGal · 7/10 · 28 January 2023]

Master Ichi (Shintaro Katsu), the blind masseur, expert gambler, and master swordsman, goes on a pilgrimage to visit 88 shrines to atone for all the people that he's killed in the previous 13 movies. But wouldn't you know it, not long after visiting the first temple he gets caught up in a small village's drama, as they are being menaced by gangster and horse trader Tohachi (Isao Yamagata) and his cronies.

Ichi also begins a chaste romance with local girl Kichi (Michiyo Yasuda). Also featuring Masao Mishima, and Hisashi Igawa.

I liked that the script (co-written by Kaneto Shindo & Kan Shimozawa) addresses the mental toll that Ichi's character deals with as a good guy driven to violent resolutions. I was impressed with Yasuda as the plucky Kichi, who refuses to back down from the villains. I've read that she was a big star in Japan in the latter half of the decade, so I'd be interested in tracking down more of her work. This film's finale is also noteworthy, as it shows Ichi struggling a bit, which is quite a contrast to some of the earlier films that show him as an unstoppable force of nature.

Pretty good--and some interesting moral lessons for Ichi

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 3 June 2009]

This film starts off in a boat. The passengers are all listening to a man telling a story as Zatoichi sits there eating. Suddenly, the boat lurches and in the confusion a man has his wallet stolen. Oddly, instead of being contrite, when the thief is caught, he's brazen and abusive--leading Zatoichi to handle it himself and in a most memorable fashion.

Ichi then makes a pilgrimage to the temple in order to try to get the gods' assistance. He's tired of all the killing (a familiar theme in these films) and wants their help in taking away the necessity to kill. Naturally, however, within a very short time, a guy naturally approaches him and tries to kill him. And, natu It's as if the gods are sending him a message that he is an instrument of death and cannot avoid this fate. rally the man is soon dead. As often happens when Zatoichi kills these lone attackers in other films, he makes it a point to tell the family of the dead man that he was dead. However, in this case, the sister of the dead man stabs Ichi for his trouble! And, in keeping with his prayer to the gods, Ichi just stands there and takes it. His stoicism shocks her and she immediately begs for forgiveness for her actions. In fact, throughout the rest of the film, she is his #1 fan.

You find out that her brother attacked Zatoichi because the local boss ordered him to do this. The boss, it turns out, really didn't hate Ichi but wanted the brother killed--so he sent him on an impossible task to get rid of him (nice guy). It's obvious at this point that eventually the boss and Zatoichi will have a showdown by the end of the film.

What happens in the interim is interesting. The farmers who are being threatened by the evil boss take a rather pragmatic but evil attitude. According to the ever-smiling Gonbei, let Ichi and the boss fight it out--if the boss dies, wonderful; if Ichi dies, then they aren't out anything! So, by the end when the boss and dozens of his retainers attack, the locals just sit back and watch--which says a lot about human nature. It also challenges Zatoichi--letting him know that perhaps a good man being forced to kill IS morally superior to supposedly good men who sit back and do nothing.

While this is a very familiar type of film (such as the lady falling in love with him, the evil local boss, etc.), it's done very well and the moral questions make it stand out from the usual film in this series.

Zatoichi's Pilgrimage (1966)

[mevmijaumau · 12 August 2015]

Zatoichi's Pilgrimage... Not quite sure what to say about the actual content of this one, but there's a lot to mention regarding its production. Director Kazuo Ikehiro (this is his final Zatoichi film, BTW), star Shintaro Katsu and one-time screenwriter Kaneto Shindo (known for films like Onibaba and Kuroneko) intended for this film to be the final Zatoichi adventure, where Zatoichi visits 88 Shinto temples to atone for his killings, continuing the moral dilemmas hinted by the previous film. The Daiei studio heads said "f*ck that" and what we instead got was another small-scale Zatoichi film that glances over the temple idea in its first 10 minutes and then returns to the familiar formula. And by the way, Miramax once purchased the rights to the movie because Quentin Tarantino showed interest in remaking it, but Kitano beat him to the punch by making a brand-new Zatoichi reboot.

Also known as Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman's Pilgrimage (not to be confused with the 1971 pinku film Pilgrimage to Japanese Baths), #14 was the rarest Zatoichi film for some time, at least before the Criterion release. So it's the odd one of the bunch for many off-screen reasons, but the movie itself isn't really anything to write home about. The setting is changed to a middle-of-nowhere village during a sweltering summer, and the first 10 minutes are something different all right, but the gist of it is the same. Zatoichi encounters a village ruled by yakuza bastards, shows off his skills (he splits a flying arrow in two!), and then kills them. There's also a love interest involved, and I've got to say that the character Okichi (played by the beautiful Michiyo Ohkusu who also appeared in Kitano's reboot) has more depth to her than other leading ladies of the franchise.

One thing about the film that's sort of reminding of High Noon is that cowardly villagers refuse to cooperate, but one of them still finds the courage to help Zatoichi out during the final fight, only to get an arrow in the heart, like, immediately. I just have to point this scene out because, while it's intended to be 100% serious, it just ends up being unintentionally humorous. All this build-up and the dude kicks the bucket the exact same second he appears besides Ichi, who then contemplates the dude's sacrifice for half a minute, giving the villains more than enough time to shoot an arrow at him, but they don't. That scene is really cheesy.

Highlight of the film: the wonderfully shot scene where Zatoichi and Okichi share a conversation in her house, while the candle is slowly going out and the room gets darker and darker. Beautiful shot.

Bloody pilgrimage with western stylistics

[kluseba · 7/10 · 11 March 2018]

Zatoichi's Pilgrimage is the fourteenth episode in the franchise about the skilled gambler, blind masseur and fast swordsman. It's a good average episode with some positive and a few negative points. In the beginning of the film, Zatoichi is on a pilgrimage to visit the eighty-eight shrines on Shikoku. He is on a spiritual journey because he has grown tired of killing people. He makes a prayer to not need to use his sword on his pilgrimage but it seems the deities aren't on his side. Very early on his pilgrimage he gets attacked by an unknown assailant traveling with a horse and Zatoichi is forced to kill him in self-defense. He follows the horse to the home of his attacker and meets his sister. She initially hurts Zatoichi after she realizes what had happened but then tells him that her brother was sent by a local boss who exploits the modest farmers of the village. Zatoichi soon realizes that the cruel boss saw an opponent in the assailant and sent him to attack Zatoichi to get him killed on purpose. As Zatoichi and the dead man's sister grow very fond of each other, they decide to trick the ruthless boss and avenge the assailant's unnecessary death.

There are several positive elements about this film. The landscapes, the score and the fact that many men are riding horses in this film almost make this movie look like a classic western. Instead of guns, there are obviously intense sword fights but the evil boss also uses bow and arrow to kill Zatoichi which is very interesting. Another positive element is the relationship between the assailant's sister and the blind samurai. In the beginning, she hates him and is scared of him but she soon starts respecting his motives and grows so fond of him that a friendship and even a fragile romance blooms between them. Another thing to point out is the selfish behavior of the farmers in the village. They decide to let Zatoichi fight for their cause but won't support him openly. They think if Zatoichi won they could live better lives and if he lost they wouldn't get associated with him and punished for their support. Their cowardice leads to a tragic death and services as a moral lesson in this movie.

Aside all these positive elements, the movie suffers from overlong dialogues which is quite unusual for this franchise since Zatoichi is usually a modest man who hasn't much to say. I think this movie has too many conversations and not enough fighting scenes even though the final fifteen minutes are truly rewarding in that regard. Another problem is the fact that the movie is basically only carried by Zatoichi and the dead assailant's sister. The side characters are quite pale and can't impress. The story is chambara by the numbers and quite similar to other films in the franchise.

In the end, Zatoichi's Pilgrimage is a good average entry in the franchise about the blind yakuza. Collectors and fans of the franchise will appreciate the film even though it fails to stand out. Those who aren't familiar with the franchise could like this film because it's closer to Western cinema and recalls more western elements than most movies in the franchise.

Zatoichi Yojimbo

[ricardojorgeramalho · 7/10 · 13 May 2024]

There is an indelible connection between this saga of the samurai masseur Zatoichi, blind but invincible and avenger of injustice, and spaghetti westerns, at their best, such as the work of Sergio Leone.

Kurosawa set the tone, with masterpieces such as Seven Samurai (1954) or Yojimbo (1961), both adapted into westerns, the second by Leone in A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and the first by John Sturges in The Magnificent Seven (1960), this one with several sequels.

Also Zatoichi, debuted in cinema in 1962, based on a literary character created by novelist Kan Shimozawa in 1928, is a direct heir of Yojimbo, Kambei Shimada and his North American disciples, played by Yul Brynner and Clint Eastwood, among others. And it originated 26 films and a 100-episode television series, with a North American remake of the seventeenth film in the series, Zatoichi Challenged, under the name Blind Fury (1989), directed by Philip Noyce.

We are thus faced with an institution of Japanese cinema and television, which I cannot help but see as an extension of these classics, of Kurosawa and Sergio Leone's solitary hero-villains.

This episode, Zatoichi's Pilgrimage, the thirteenth in the series, is particularly evocative of Yojimbo and, therefore, of Toshiro Mifune and Clint Eastwood, at their best. And Shintarô Katsu, the man who embodied Zatoichi, during 26 films and 100 television episodes, between 1962 and 1979 (with a final film in 1989 which he also directed), is certainly not behind them, in terms of the charisma and talent with which he enriches the character.

Out of curiosity, it appears that Miramax purchased the rights to this film, allegedly to make a remake, directed by Quentin Tarantino.