Early ,'Objects In Space'
A place to talk about movies--Old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
So the literal "hidden one" becomes "first strike" when used like that? Is the assumption that the element of surprise from the hidden weapon gives him first hit?
I had always assumed that Zatoichi had a double meaning - his sword is a zatoichi, but also he is a zatoichi because no one views this old blind guy as a threat.
Yojimbo (another famous movie title, and word frequently associated Japanese samurai culture) means "guard" or "guardian," and carriers warrior connotations.
Yojimbo rocks!!!! One of my favorite movies of any kind. Plus, Toshiro Mifune kicking ass.
If you like Yojimbo (or any of the Mifune/Kurosawa samurai westerns) then you should run, not walk to see Zatoichi. It's Takeshi's homage to that style of film.
The Boston Globe has gotten snarky with their own advisories w/r/t movie ratings, or lack there of (for example, they warned that Legally Blond 2 contained language, adult situations and excessive pink).
Their comment on Zatiochi? Sudden, graphic violence and random riverdancing. Hee.
And yes, I plan on seeing this in the theater, ASAP.
Tokugawa was a shogun, right? Which, I vaguely think is something like the iron fist inside the emperor's velvet glove.
I saw the American "version" of a zatoichi movie! I mean, it was silly and starred Rutger Hauer, but that counts, right? I'm beginning to realize that everything Takeshi Kitano does is just a leetle too over the top for me to really love, but he's certainly got his own stamp he puts on things.
(for example, they warned that Legally Blond 2 contained language, adult situations and excessive pink)
It's like a big-screen Smallville !
This sounds absurd - and I kow the press reviews mention it - but could you spoilerfont the dancing ? It's just so much more entertaining when you don't know about it going in.
I just saw this in a review of Without A Paddle, and I was surprised to realise I was surprised:
Dan (Green) is now a doctor with a healthy practice, but he continues to pile on the phobias he's collected since boyhood. Jerry (Lillard), a successful but bored business executive, has a terrific girlfriend who's fed up at his inability to commit. Tom (Shepard) is the black sheep, a grown-up adolescent whose only prospect is his next state-sponsored vacation in the pen.
He's playing a grownup! How cute! Go Seth!
Yes, he was the shogun -- in Japan rather than deposing the emperor they just put him farther and farther away from wielding actual power. So, the shogun actually ruled the country while the emperor lived a pampered existence in Kyoto. Or so I have understood.
That's my understanding too, Sumi. Shogun commanded the armies, did stuff, exercised power, and the emperor became a figurehead with nice clothes. Which really, you need good clothes for.