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Zatoichi the Outlaw
Zatoichi the Outlaw
Japanese name
Kanji	座頭市牢破り
Revised Hepburn
Transcriptions
Revised Hepburn	Zatōichi rōyaburi
Directed by	Satsuo Yamamoto
Written by	Koji Matsumoto; Takehiro Nakajima; Kiyokata Saruwaka
Based on	Zatoichi; by Kan Shimozawa
Produced by	Masaichi Nagata
Starring	Shintaro Katsu; Rentarō Mikuni; Kō Nishimura; Toshiyuki Hosokawa
Cinematography	Kazuo Miyagawa
Edited by	Kanji Suganuma
Music by	Sei Ikeno
Production; companies	Daiei Studios; Katsu Productions
Release date	12 August 1967 (Japan);
Running time	96 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Zatoichi the Outlaw (座頭市牢破り, Zatōichi rōyaburi) is a 1967 Japanese chambara film directed by Satsuo Yamamoto and starring Shintaro Katsu as the blind masseur Zatoichi. It was originally released by the Daiei Motion Picture Company (later acquired by Kadokawa Pictures), and is the first film produced by Katsu Productions (Katsu's own company).

Zatoichi the Outlaw is the sixteenth episode in the 26-part film series devoted to the character of Zatoichi.

Plot

In a rural village, Zatoichi (Katsu) encounters Shushi Ohara (Suzuki; modeled after 18th-century agriculturalist Yagaku Ohara) a sword-less rōnin who defends himself against multiple attackers without killing them. Ohara leads a peasant movement advocating the abstention from gambling, drinking, and whoring.

Cast

Shintaro Katsu as Zatoichi
Rentarō Mikuni as Boss Asagoro
Kō Nishimura as Suga
Yuko Hamada as Oshino
Toshiyuki Hosokawa as Nisaburo
Takuya Fujioka as Zatosanji
Kenjiro Ishiyama as Tatsugoro
Tatsuo Endo as Boss Tomizo
Kayo Mikimoto as Oyuki
Tatsuo Matsushita as Yamagen
Mizuho Suzuki as Shushi Ohara^[1]

Reception

In a contemporary review, "Chie." of Variety noted that this Zatoichi film was given a big name director Satsuo Yamamoto and a well known actor Rentarō Mikuni which made the film "inflated [...] which, by comparison with the others, not very entertaining."^[2]

J. Doyle Wallis, in a review for DVD Talk, wrote that "[t]his film has one of the better plots in the series, the almost hippie ex-samurai's teaching posing as a threat to the gangsters who prefer the villagers to lead debauched lives. Unfortunately some of the storytelling is sloppy, particularly the side-plot characters who Ichi becomes involved with. Their introductions and back story were told so quickly and incidentally, that when their stories began to get a third act wrap up, I had trouble recalling who they were in the first place."^[3]

References

^ "Zatoichi the Outlaw". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
^ Variety's Film Reviews 1964-1967. Vol. 11. R. R. Bowker. 1983. There are no page numbers in this book. This entry is found under the header "September 6, 1967". ISBN 0-8352-2790-1.
^ Wallis, J. Doyle (18 March 2004). "Zatoichi, the Outlaw". DVD Talk. Retrieved 3 May 2014.