Zatoichi

This is a japanese movie which is produced by as well as stars Kitano Takeshi. Beat Takeshi is a travelling masseuse who manages to help out others in trouble from different circumstances. The movie is quite violent with blood spurting during the showdowns. It doesn't quite contain as much action as I had hoped for though but it does have enough action scenes interspersed between quiet moments throughout the movie. Kitano Takeshi based this movie from the older japanese movies but puts his own signature into the character as well as the movie. Not only is there plenty of violence, there are moments where there are quirkiness that sort of seems out of place in this movie. An example is the village idiot who runs around town with a spear screaming at the top of his lungs and pretends to be a samurai. I was expecting a lot from this movie since it won some awards but I guess I expected too much and so I was let down. It's still a good movie, nonetheless. 7/10.