Zatoichi and the One-Armed Swordsman

94 minutesCountriesJapan
Hong KongLanguagesJapanese
Mandarin

Zatoichi and the One-Armed Swordsman (Japanese: 新座頭市・破れ！唐人剣, Hepburn: Shin Zatōichi: Yabure! Tōjin-ken, lit. 'New Zatoichi Break! Chinese Sword') (Chinese: 獨臂刀大戦盲侠; pinyin: Dú bì dāo dàzhàn máng xiá), also known as Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman and The Blind Swordsman Meets His Equal, is a 1971 Japanese-Hong Kong chambara / wuxia crossover by Japanese film director Kimiyoshi Yasuda and Chinese film director Hsu Tseng Hung. The film stars Shintaro Katsu as the blind swordsman Zatoichi and Jimmy Wang Yu as the "One-Armed Swordsman" Wang Kang.^[1] It is a crossover of the long-running Zatoichi series and the One-Armed Swordsman film series.

The Chinese edit of the film reportedly featured a different ending where Wang Kang was victorious in the final duel, rather than Zatoichi.^[2]

Plot

While traveling the Japanese countryside the blind masseur Zatoichi (Shintaro Katsu) comes across the One Armed Swordsman, Wang Kang (Jimmy Wang Yu), who is in hiding and protecting a child from a corrupt Japanese priest and a group of yakuza. Zatoichi and Wang Kang, each from very different worlds yet heroic swordsmen in their own right, at first seem to get along but a language barrier and a series of misunderstanding leads Kang to distrust Ichi. Soon the two heroes are at each other throats while each attempts to stop the true villains from taking the child.

Cast

• Shintaro Katsu as Zatoichi
• Jimmy Wang Yu as Wang Kang
• Yūko Hama as Osen
• Michie Terada as Oyone
• Kōji Nanbara as Kakuzen
• Tokue Hanasawa as Yosaku
• Shinsuke Minami as Henoichi
• Shirō Itō as Shinshichi
• Toru Abe as Boss Tōbei
• Wang Ling as Li Yumei
• Cheung Yik as Li Xiangrong

Production

• Yoshinobu Nishioka - Art director

References

External links

• Zatoichi and the One-Armed Swordsman at IMDb
• Zatoichi and the One-Armed Swordsman at the Hong Kong Movie DataBase