I’ve only seen one movie from the original Zatoichi series , and I’ve only seen one other “Beat” Takeshi Kitano movie, but I still thought I knew what I was getting into with this movie. And I was half-right. The story involves Zatoichi, the blind masseur, stumbling across some downtrodden people that need his help: he enters a town that is being destroyed by out-of-control gangsters. A typical Zatoichi story, from what I’ve gathered. But Kitano does some very interesting things with it. First of all, although the title character is the main focus, he spends a lot of time developing the other characters in thoughtful vignettes, which is rare for an action movie. Secondly, the violence is turned up way more than I was expecting, and although the CG is a little jarring at times, the fight scenes are exhilirating. And thirdly, the use of music is really inspired. At the end of it all, the music is the thing that really sticks out in my memory. So this incarnation of Zatoichi is worth watching, but expect something a little different from the traditional samurai movie.