I’ve been a fan of Takeshi’s movies for a long time. His early directing efforts were truly visionary.
Terajima always delivers the best staredown.
That said, Takeshis’ 2005 was disappointing and just too damn long. There is a difference between looking at yourself in a mirror, and watching yourself look at yourself look in the mirror. This movie was filmed with the latter in mind instead of the former, and I’m pretty sure that’s why it sucked.
Takeshi’s on a bit of a sucky streak at the moment – that fucking godforsaken remake of Zatoichi and the movie with the title that basically precludes having to call it wack, Dolls, from a few years back kinda makes this three strikes… I still have faith in Takeshi though. After all, so did Kurosawa when he passed the torch to him.
I wasn’t impressed with Brothers, either.
That’s because you didn’t watch Juice 500 times growing up! Come on, you gotta give props for the jingi-istic subtheme aimed at a western audience in that film. Plus, Takeshi stabs someone in the eye with a broken bottle!
I just watched this last night and didn’t think it was too bad. Granted, the only other Zatoichi film I’ve seen is the ~1989 version (watched it last week, because Netflix sent that one instead of the Takeshi version).
The photography and editing is more contemporary in Takeshi’s version, and since several years have past since the other versions, maybe he was hoping to introduce the character to modern viewers. Maybe he was trying to get some of the “Kill Bill” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” fans. Aesthetically, it’s closer to “Kill Bill” than to the Zatoichi film I saw last week.