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Ichi is the latest feature based on the Zatoichi character in a long running series of features and series. I must admit I have only a passing knowledge of the character type (a blind swordsman – or swordsperson in this case) and haven’t even seen Takashi Miike’s Ichi the Killer, so I went into this movie with few expectations. I have seen enough low budget Japanese films though that I went in expecting a low budget, badly scripted, cheesy acted action/melodrama. Turns out I was quite wrong.

This iteration of Ichi finds our blind swordsperson as a goze, a blind woman who is trained as a musician. She is played effectively by the beautiful Haruke Ayase. In the beginning of the film she runs into Toma Fujihira, an oaf seemingly, who cannot even get his sword out of its sheath to defend himself. At this point I was having flashbacks of Xena paired up with Joxer (for those familiar with the Warrior Princess), but it turns out there are more layers to Toma than we first know and his character develops and grows. We learn that he is indeed a very adept swordsman, but he accidentally blinded his mother and has since been unable to draw his sword. Toma’s character was developed enough that I thought the film did lose some of the women’s empowerment message that it was otherwise developing, but in the end the film covers more than that. It explores themes of revenge, independence, family and companionship. Especially fun to watch are Shido Nakamura as Banki and his right-hand man.

I went in with fairly low expectations, but came out enjoying the film quite a lot. It doesn’t revolutionize the samurai or Zatoichi character type, but it is a very enjoyable revenge flick with some great editing and acting on a conventional, but well written script.

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