Product Description

Studio: Image Entertainment Release Date: 06/12/2007

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16787 in DVD
• Brand: IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT
• Released on: 2007-06-12
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Box set, Black & White, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: Japanese
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 4
• Running time: 345 minutes

Customer Reviews

A handfull of Zatoichi...wonderful!
I have been looking for this set to show up at Amazon. If you don't have the first four Ichi films, buy it. Watch all four in order and you will be in for a real treat. The set of twenty six Zatoichi films and the first six volumes of the TV series are a treasure to be viewed over and over for the rest of your life. Watch them in a quiet setting and breathe the atmosphere of life in feudal Japan. Love, hate, violence, peace, honor, pathos..it's all here..in spades. I have never seen anything like it in film. And so much of it. I have a dozen of the films and the first six volumes of the series and have been enthralled with every one. I'll continue until I have them all. Then I'll start all over from the beginning. If you get hooked, you will too.

A treasury of zen, honor, and samurai
I came to the Zatoichi franchise in college when AMC or TCM had a saturday morning Samurai movie special every week. They pulled heavily from the Zatoichi films and I was instantly sold on their humor, sometimes through wordplay, but alternately in the form of slapstick.

The sword fights also resonated with me as being very different from what I was used to. They were compact and final. Enemies fell after a single blow and a the hero rarely started fights; always attempted to talk his way out of them not from fear, but rather because killing was not something he relished.

This collection is a tremendous value with high quality examples of this storied franchise. The packaging looks great, very colorful with dynamic images on each case. It looks fabulous on a shelf and looks even better on a screen.

There are some things you should know...
First off, when the Japanese make a series of films they don't get cheaper - the films are either given the same budget or MORE! Also, while the crew may change they try to STICK to the facts. Watch all four of the first films in a row and you have a VERY long story, with plots that link together, the same characters played by the same caste, and the feeling that there was money, sweat and love poured into each scene.
The first two films were in Black and White but by the third we get color. Wonderful, beautiful color.
The scenes are realistic, the settings gritty, the characters dirty and the action wild. It was nice to see Tomisaburo Wakayama as the one armed Samurai in the second story. Not only is he acting as Zatoichi's brother - which works really well because he is the real brother of Shintaro Katsu - but it is nice to see him before he became famous for being the Lone Wolf, in Lone Wolf and Club.
By getting them all together I did save money AND was able to watch them over the week, having my own Samurai Movie Convention! Yes, I did eat noodles and rice. Not really for kids - serious themes - but while there are tons of action there is little blood and it is SO cool. So many the kids could peek. Get it used or new.