 Zatoichi ro-yaburi (Daiei, 1967) is variously known as Zatoichi, the Outlaw, The Blind Swordman's Rescue or Zatoichi Breaks Jail.
Along the road, Ichi our wandering blind zato or low-ranking masseur wants to buy a slightly fancy patterned towel to bring with him as a gift to someone he'll be visiting. When the old woman at the roadside station takes money for the nicer towelette but tries to fob off a plain towel, Ichi gives his purchase a sniff & knows at once he's been cheated.
 That of course is the least of this blind masseur's amazing abilities. While at a dicing game, his canesword flashes forth so swiftly that at first no one knows he has just cut a pair of cheating dice in halves. Ichi simply cannot abide cheating, & in a sour mood confesses, "I can't stand those things that do make the world a better place" as he flicks a toothpick through a moth.
Startled yakuza know he means them, for Ichi's iai rapid draw cuts down men as easily as his toothpick pinned that flopping, fading moth.
But Ichi also has his poetic side, & during this episode we'll see him playing shamisen beautifully.
 After fifteen episodes it would be understandable of these films were running out of steam. But Zatoichi, the Outlaw, the sixteenth episode, is a strong entry.
Though much of it is by now ritualistic in its familiarity, there are good twists to the formula, & as always great acting, gorgeous choreography, brutal violence, & heartbreakingly beautiful cinematography. And of course the stunningly charismatic presence of Shintaro Katsu as Ichi-san. This episode is also a tiny bit gorier than most of the earlier one, though nowhere near as gory as many another series, such as the crimson-spewing Lone Wolf with Child films.
Zatoichi comes to a village troubled, like most of the villages he visits, by a decidedly unvirtuous yakuza gang headed by boss Tomizo, supported by corrupt officials. The peasants also have an advocate, a swordless samurai, Ohara Shusui, whom the peasants address as Ohara-sensei, their teacher.
 He instructs them in abstinance from drinking & gambling. He also teaches improved & practical farming techniques which we're left to guess he learned from contact with western agriculturalists, as otherwise it's rather odd a samurai knows more about good farming techniques than do the farmers.
Ohara is of course a thorn in the side of the yakuza gang who gain power over the locals by seducing them into gambling debts. There's a smaller yakuza group run by a boss named Asagoro (Rentaro Mikuni), whom Zatoichi admires, who is trying not to have a war with the larger gang, who has paid some of the farmers' debts to the more unruly gang. Plus he never permits poor farmers to lose too much when they are in his gambling den.
[SPOILERS ALERT!] Ichi naturally feels that if boss Asagoro were in control of the gambling territory, life would go better for the peasants who could have a little fun now & then without finding themselves ruined by gangsters. So when the encounter between the rival gangs becomes inevitable, Ichi voluntarily intercedes, & ends up singlehandedly wiping out the evil gang with his rapid-reverse-draw blind man's sword style.
He then has to head off on the road as an outlaw, but is confident life will be better for the peasants who won't be dominated by the cruel gang any more. What he never realized is that Asagoro is two-faced or chameleonic. After he becomes powerful in the territory, he completely sells out to corrupt officials & does more harm to the common people than they had experienced before!
 In all Zatoichi features, the assumption is that violence done well can put wrongs to right. But now & then the stories also confess there are repurcussions. Not only were the repurcussions of his upraising Asagoro rather severe, but Ichi's actions also gained him a tragic enemy of Oshino (Yuko Hamada). She is a woman reduced to prostitution after Ichi cut off her boyfriend's arm & killed her only brother.
Nisaburo (Toshiyuki Hosokawa), the one-armed survivor of Ichi's sword, encounters him at random & tries to kill him. When Ichi realizes who the young one-armed man must be, he avoids killing him, & finds out about Asagoro. Ichi has learned about Oshino's situation & would like to help Nisa redeem her, but as these lives go from sad to sadder, Oshino commits suicide.
Ichi is easily guilt-tripped but never really changes his ways. Since it was his violence that caused all this tragedy, he has no choice but to return to that village & do more violence to set things right.
When he meets Asagoro again, he discovers the once-promising gang boss is truly two-faced, making every conceivable excuse for himself while trying to escape from Ichi. But Asagoro has bronchitis or perhaps tuberculosis & Ichi pursues his cough while Asagoro's minions try to protect him & kill Ichi. Eventually Asagoro's head will roll.
 Elsewhere in the village corrupt officials who want to be rid of the swordless samurai have had him arrested.
The peasants find badly injured Ichi, place him on a broken door, & carry him to the road & dump him in front of the group of samurai who are transporting Ohara to Edo tied up in a basket.
Being personally wounded is not nearly enough to stem Zatoichi's fury, & he carves down samurai as easily as he carved down the yakuza. He cuts open the basket so that Ohara can step out. This basket, by the way, is the "jail" Ichi breaks someone out of in the inferior alternate title Zatoichi Breaks Jail.
Whether any of this really puts things to right in the long run is left uncertain. Ohara is certainly dissatisfied, & sadly tells Ichi, "We couldn't prevent the good earth from devouring blood."
With this mild chastisement in mind, Ichi walks off down the road, "the sun at his back" as the folksong had said. [END SPOILER ALERT]
copyright © by Paghat the Ratgirl
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