ZATOICHI AND THE CHEST OF GOLD (1964)

  

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *good*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

Given my complaints about the fourth Zatoichi film, I'm more than merely pleased to see that the fifth is the best one since the original. GOLD is, in addition to being the first Zatoichi filmed in color, the first of three installments directed by Kazuo Ikehiro, who gives Film Five a more fluid visual style than any previous entry.

This time the script pays little attention to romance, and concentrates on societal conflict. The blind masseuse-swordsman wanders into a conflict between simple villagers and one of the local overlords, to whom they must pay annual taxes. Given that Zatoichi himself is low-born despite his samurai-level sword-skills, this puts him in good standing as a liminal figure, able to comprehend the viewpoints of both classes.

The villagers have assembled a chest of golden coins in order to pay their taxes to taxman Gundayu, but when they try to take the chest to the taxman's locale, bandits raid them, led by the formidable, whip-wielding Jushiro (Tomisaburo Wakayama, famed as the star of the later LONE WOLF AND CUB films). Zatoichi kills some of the bandits but one of them manages to abscond with the gold. The villagers are distraught, asking the taxman for more time to pay, but Gundayu threatens them with the power of the law. Zatoichi must play detective to find out who has the gold.

While the fruits of the swordsman's labor reveal rottenness in the upper class, it's noteworthy that the low-class villagers don't come off that well either, since in their desperation some of them accuse Zatoichi of the theft. Some of the mystery-plot is draggy, but the hero performs four separate sword-fights, and at one point he proves his superlative skills by using his sword to split a coin thrown into the air. Jushiro, with whom Zatoichi duels at the climax, isn't just a standard tough opponent. He's an even more negative incarnation of the upper class, telling Zatoichi that the masseuse is a worm he'd love to cut to pieces. The climax, in which Jushiro fights with both whip and sword, is a welcome change from the usual chambara conclusion. As noted, there are some minor romantic elements but the strong plot could have worked without them.