Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival is the twenty-first entry in the Japanese franchise about the blind masseur, skilled swordsman and lowly yakuza. This is also by far the most experimental movie in the series so far and comes as an unexpected positive surprise. The vivid story line features several subplots. Let's just focus on the most essential elements. Zatoichi assists a mistress auction where he gives massages to bosses who want to sell or purchase women. Zatoichi seems to be overwhelmed by emotions when the most beautiful woman is sold for a hefty fee and decides to rescue her. However, the woman doesn't react to Zatoichi's gentle behavior and the disappointed swordsman lets her go when he realizes she wants to rob him out and run away. Things turn sour when the woman's husband suspects his wife to have slept with Zatoichi and decides to slay her and follow and ultimately confront her savior throughout the movie. Zatoichi however attends the reunion of some of the bosses who were present at the auction and decides to provoke the arrogant criminals as he despises their self-important swagger. However, he comes across a quite unusual boss named Yamikubo who is blind like Zatoichi but respected by his underlings. The two blind men challenge each other philosophically, intellectually and finally physically. In order to get rid of the troublesome Zatoichi, Yamikubo assigns his assigned successor's daughter to kill the emotional swordsman. In addition to this, an androgynous pimp also wants to kill Zatoichi to become a yakuza. Zatoichi needs to deal with a clever boss, an ambitious drag queen, a seductive protegee and a clever boss in this dynamic film.Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival is my favorite film in the franchise so far for a multitude of reasons. First of all, the story is more adventurous than usual as it deals with unusual topics such as homosexuality and human trafficking. Secondly, the story is quite vivid and comes around with numerous memorable scenes. The bloody fight in the bath might be the most memorable fight scene in any film of the franchise and the final duel sees Zatoichi isolated on an artificial island surrounded by a ring of fire. Thirdly, the film takes some inspiration from Western cinema. The clever boss who challenges a dynamic Zatoichi reminds of Blofeld challenging James Bond in many aspects. The movie includes much more nudity than usually, including many naked yakuza as well as women whose phsyical features are presented in detail at an auction. Even the soundtrack has a vibe inspired by jazz and rock music at certain points but also still features Japanese folkloristic music. Fourthly, the characters in this film are all intriguing. This starts with unimportant side characters such as the bickering and slightly perverted couple who owns a teahouse. It goes on with supporting characters like the silent lady who is saved by Zatoichi or the homosexual pimp who wants to be seen as a real man. It culminates with two very interesting antagonists, the first being the jealous and nihilistic widow and the other one being the clever blind yakuza boss who is as cold as ice. Fifthly, the movie finds a perfectly balanced mixture between comic relief, tense fight sequences, a solid dose of suspense, a shot of tragic romance and some cultural elements thrown in to spice things up.Obviously, this film is over the top which impresses me but which might irritate those who prefer more traditional chambara films. Homosexuality and nudity are everything but typical components for this type of movie. Some psychedelic flashbacks and experimental cuts also show that this movie was shot in the wild seventies and not in the more traditional sixties. Depending on your taste, this film could be the best but also the worst of the series.To keep it short, watch this movie if you are craving for a more experimental take on traditional chambara movies after twenty rather streamlined entries in the franchise. Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival definitely stands out and is my favorite movie in the franchise up to that point. It deserves more acclaim and attention than it gets and could easily please to a wide audience. It's not the best film to start discovering the franchise because it's so experimental but it's a dynamic fun ride from start to finish you won't forget anytime soon.

This instalment in the Zatoichi franchise opens by telling us that it is set during a period where Yakuza crime bosses extracted protection money from the peasantry and in turn paid money to Yamikubo the 'Boss of Bosses', AKA the Prince of Darkness. Before we meet him we see Zatoichi giving a massage to a man who buys a woman at an auction, she was reportedly the wife of a samurai. Later he rescues her but that night she sneaks off and is killed by her husband; he assumes Zatoichi has slept with her so swears to kill him. As the various bosses meet to pay tribute to Yamikubo, Zatoichi attends and offers one ryo, a deliberate insult. Yamikubo's people vote that he must be killed. His henchmen's first attempt fails so he tries something new; a instructs the beautiful Okiyo to get close to him and take his sword… but she ends up falling in love with him. She warns him not to accept Yamikubo's invitation to a festival but he attends anyway and almost meets a fiery end.This is a solid addition to the Zatoichi franchise; Yamikubo is a suitably evil main villain and the samurai bent on revenge is a good secondary antagonist. There are some great set pieces, most notably where Zatoichi fights a group of henchmen in a bath house where everybody is naked! The scene at the end where Yamikubo tries to have Zatoichi burnt alive is also pretty memorable. As well as plenty of decent action there are quite a few more comic scenes. Shintaro Katsu does a fine job in the title role one could easily believe that he really is blind. The rest of the cast are pretty good too. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of the series; if you haven't seen other instalments I think this could still be enjoyed.

Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival (he doesn't actually, there's some poetic freedom in that title) is the 21st film in the series, and by this point, things have gotten beyond stale. This is actually one of the least formulaic entries in the series (it's co-written by the star Shintaro Katsu), but by now, I just don't really care that much for the stories here. It all seems like something we've already seen before.The cast in ZGttFF is comprised of several well-known faces. The mystery ronin here is played by the brooding Tatsuya Nakadai, who, as expected, gives the best performance. Peter (the transvestite from Ran and Funeral Parade of Roses) appears as a flamboyant wannabe yakuza thug. Masayuki Mori plays the diabolical blind yakuza lord who may be the most wicked villain so far, with Ko Nishimura (once more) as his henchman.But really, this entry completely failed to draw me in, and I fear that the remaining few films won't have much new to offer either. The film suffers from severe tonal dis-balance, due to which it never really finds a solid footing. There are so many sub-plots here that the main string is hard to find. Nakadai's plot is the most interesting in its depiction of a troubled, violent ronin eaten by jealousy, and there are nifty surreal flashbacks to his past. Mori's sub-plot is kind of similar in tone, but is too talky and filled with too much dead air at times, which ruins the action flick pace a bit. Then, the film takes a pseudo-romantic turn, with a young woman (who's actually a spy for the blind lord) going for Zatoichi, which I didn't care for in the least. Then there's the needless sub-plot with Peter, filled with homoerotic undertones. Then the odd touches of comedy, particularly a baffling bath-house swords-fighting scene where Zatoichi slaughters a bunch of thugs to Oriental surf music and comically struggles to cover up his junk in the process.There are quite a few good individual scenes in the movie (and I'm glad Zatoichi has hair again because the bald look really doesn't fit him), particularly the amusing fight between a bickering village couple randomly thrown into the film, but all in all this just didn't do anything for me. Not as generic as some of the other ones, but didn't feel like anything new either. As a useless side-note, this may or may not (I don't exactly remember) be the first Zatoichi film where (female, duh) boobs are shown.Highlight of the film: the bickering married couple in the village, of course.

This entry in the Zatoichi series is firmly planted in the 1970s and at times has an almost James Bondesque feel to it. This is especially true in the bath house scene where Zatoichi goes to enjoy a calming bath and ends up attached by scores of tattooed, naked yakuza. The music is great and the scene is frenetic and fun at the same time. Wooden buckets are used strategically and in a funny way. For veteran Zatoichi fans, notice how Zatoichi's style differs when he uses someone else's sword.Tatsuya Nakadai does take part in Festival of Fire. He is a truly deranged and dangerous ronin. Of course it's Zatoichi's fate to meet him in the final scene.The colors are brilliant, there's a good musical score and it's a fine blend of humor, drama, and action. This is an entry with wide appeal for chambara fans. It's campy at times, so those who love the early Zatoichi films most might feel that this film is a bit frivolous, but for the casual viewer there is much to enjoy.