"Director: Satsuo Yamamoto"

• Zatoichi The Outlaw | DVD | (21/05/2001) from £10.98   |  Saving you £12.00 (150.19%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Arriving in the village of Kiyotaki Zatoichi the blind swordsman finds himself embroiled in a struggle between two Oyabun or gangland bosses. While the peasants starve one of the Oyabun Tamizo forces them to continue to gamble their way into destitution. His opponent Asagoro assumes the position of champion of the peasants and takes it upon himself to pay off their debts. Filled with admiration for Asagoro and compassion for the impoverished farmers Zatoichi lends his skills

• Zatoichi Box Set | DVD | (31/05/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Takeshi "Beat" Kitano, the Japanese actor-director best known in the US for his quirky, ulraviolent gangster movies (Fireworks, Brother, Sonatine) and in the UK (among satellite and cable viewers, at least) for the bizarre It's a Knockout-meets-Endurance gameshow Takeshi's Castle, applies his off-kilter sensibility to the samurai genre in The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi. A blind masseur (Kitano with his hair dyed white) wanders into a small town divided up by rival gangs. Though hunched and shuffling, Zatoichi soon reveals his deadly skills as a swordsman. He befriends a pair of geisha girls with secrets of their own and helps them hunt down the bandits who killed their parents. But one of the gangs has just hired a ronin, a masterless samurai, whose fighting skill may equal the blind swordsman's. Zatoichi mixes a melodramatic storyline, deadpan comedy, and dazzling, CGI-enhanced swordfights into a supremely entertaining package. In Japan, Zatoichi is a recurring character in popular action movies, but Kitano places his own unique stamp on the series. --Bret Fetzer