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.
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]
^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". ISBN0-8352-2790-1.
