Singing Samurai



Caught Kitano's version of Zatoichi this week. An updated take on an old series of B-movies form Japan, it was an utterly excellent couple of hours. Funny but serious in places, the tale of the bleach-blonde blind masseur wandering from town to town who is actually a deadly Samurai (his sword is in his cane) is essentially the Japanese answer to 60s/70s Spaghetti Westerns.



Sure the CGI for the fountains of blood may be a bit ropey, but the whole thing was so much fun (and no wire-Fu work either, thank you). And then there's the song and dance routine... Singing and dancing villagers, evil henchmen ruining the innocent village, a wandering Ronin, a blind man who is an unstoppable killing machine and killer Gieshas - I ask you, what more can you ask for in a movie????



Although from a distance the hair does make him look a little like Eminem.