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Movie Overview
Cast
Beat Takeshi
Tadanobu Asano
Michiyo Ogusu
Director
Takeshi Kitano
MPAA Rating
R - strong stylized bloody violence
The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi/Sonatine (2004)
REVIEWS
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(1 - 32) of 32
OFCS Rating: 83% Fresh
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"A rambunctiously entertaining, eccentric combination of superfast swordplay, knockabout humour and stylish surrealism."
Movie Gazette
Anton Bitel
4/5
"There's something impressive about a film that manages to acknowledge the intrinsic lunacy of its concept without yet depriving the story of any of its power or immediacy."
Film Threat
Chris Barsanti
"Kitano has come up with one of the most flat-out imaginative films to arrive in American theaters this summer."
Philadelphia City Paper
Cynthia Fuchs
2.5/4
"Part Three Stooges, part
'Seven Samurai
,
Zatôichi
is the film Quentin Tarantino tried to realize with the one-two sucker punch of
Kill Bill
."
Movie Boeuf
David N. Butterworth
2/4
"...Kitano concludes the film in such a way that one almost forgets the tedium that came before it (almost, but not quite)."
Reel Film Reviews
David Nusair
B-
"A rich display of fantasy swordsplay at its goriest, slickest and most demanding."
Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Dennis Schwartz
3.5/4
"Kitano contemplates a strange, seductive relationship between the space inside Zatoichi’s head and the sounds of the world outside."
Slant Magazine
Ed Gonzalez
3/5
"Parecería que Kitano se está divirtiendo, más que nada."
Uruguay Total
Enrique Buchichio
B+
"Its style is zesty and surprising, and that more than compensates for any ordinariness in its storyline."
EricDSnider.com
Eric D. Snider
1/4
"Everything a samurai movie shouldn’t be: boring, long, and trying to upstage Michael Flatley"
eFilmCritic.com
Erik Childress
B
"In this case Kitano's characteristically idiosyncratic approach to genre material pays rich dividends."
One Guy's Opinion
Frank Swietek
D+
"
Zatoichi
finds a legacy diminished by his new, updated masters. "
Mixed Reviews
Gabriel Shanks
4/5
"Takeshi Kitano offers his take on a pop-culture standard and demonstrates his immense talent with blood, brains and soul."
Netflix
James Rocchi
4/5
"
Zatoichi
triumphs where few movies dare to tread"
Los Angeles Alternative
Jay Antani
3.5/4
"A delirious pulp musical cum waste-laying siege that knows no parallel."
Palo Alto Weekly
Jeanne Aufmuth
7/10
"I'd call
Zatoichi
stylish to the point of distraction, except I'm not sure what I was being distracted from."
Window to the Movies
Jeffrey Chen
9/10
"Kitano's version is more like a Three Stooges feature, only with cross-dressing and a high blood budget."
Planet Sick-Boy
Jon Popick
3/5
"With sword fights galore and geysers of blood,
Zatoichi
is sake-flavored popcorn."
Film-Forward.com
Kent Turner
B
"Takeshi 'Beat' Kitano has updated the character in a crowd pleasing mishmash of ultra violence, revenge, comedy and "Stomp-like" musical interludes"
Reeling Reviews
Laura Clifford
3/5
"A quirky take on the popular character Zatoichi."
TV Guide's Movie Guide
Maitland McDonagh
2.5/4
"A vaudeville of entertainment, of which revenge and swordsmanship are only two of the acts"
Movie Habit
Marty Mapes
B
"Takeshi Kitano, both as director and actor in the character of Ichi, seems to be blending more modern influences with the older themes."
Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies
Nell Minow
4/5
"Action-adventure, comedy, and musical – any way you slice it, Takeshi Kitano’s
Zatôichi
rocks."
Filmcritic.com
Nick Schager
4/5
"É uma pena que esta tenha sido, provavelmente, a única incursão de Kitano pelo universo de Zatoichi. Seria bom ver o samurai cego mais vezes."
Cinema em Cena
Pablo Villaca
B
"... a colorful if impersonal audience pleaser done up in a showy, fluid style with a tongue-in-cheek flair."
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
3/4
"
Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman
is ultimately so entertaining, with its oddball mixture of tongue-in-cheek humor and exciting fight sequences, that you're more than willing to overlook its flaws."
Reel.com
Timothy Knight
"A little Ozu, a little Kurosawa and a whole lot of rock & roll."
L.A. Weekly
Walter Chaw
2/4
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Big Picture Big Sound
Joe Lozito
3.5/5
Read review
Goatdog's Movies
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
Read review
Shadows on the Wall
Rich Cline
B
Read review
Reeling Reviews
Robin Clifford
Read review
Wolf Entertainment Guide
William Wolf
(1 - 32) of 32
OFCS Rating: 83% Fresh
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