Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo


Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo is a 1970 Japanese drama film directed by Kihachi Okamoto.
It is the 20th of a series of films featuring the blind swordsman Zatoichi. The main character is based on a fictional character, a blind masseur and swordmaster. He was created by novelist Kan Shimozawa and set during the late Edo period.
In this film, actor Toshiro Mifune plays a similar character to Sanjuro, the rōnin in Akira Kurosawa's famous film Yojimbo. Although Mifune is clearly not playing the same man, the film's title and some of its content connect him to the character, the Ronin with No Name, and the idea of the two iconic jidaigeki characters confronting each other.

Plot

In the middle of a rainstorm, Ichi overhears a man being killed by a group and then dragged off into the brush. Tired of wandering, he decides to visit his hometown not noticing until later that the townspeople are living in fear of a local yakuza gang. At a teahouse, he meets Umeno, a former love interest. In the meantime, the boss's eldest son returns from university expecting a large sum of money to be paid to him, but the boss refuses. The youngest son, who also wants the money, hires Yojimbo to assassinate him, as he is the boss's top enforcer. Yojimbo, however, is more than happy to bide his time drinking and making him wait.
Eventually, another rōnin armed with a double-barreled pistol wanders into town, wanting the bounty on Zatoichi's head. While Yojimbo makes short work of him, eventually the boy grows tired of his father's apparent unwillingness to hand over the gold and begins to build an army to combat him. Caught up in the middle of the conflict, Zatoichi battles both sides until everyone falls dead. Taking his opportunity, Yojimbo catches the weary Zatoichi and fights a quick duel, which ends in a draw when he slices him across the back and Zatoichi in return stabs him in the thigh.

Cast

Production