Plot: What’s it about?
A local gambling house has just kidnapped a group of peasants, in order to force payment on some unpaid debts. The situation is tense, as lives could be lost and families could be destroyed, all in the name of cold, hard cash. But when a rival gambling house steps in, the situation seems to be resolved, though in an unusual fashion. After all, why would another gambling house pay off those debts and free the peasants? The move could have been to extract even more funds from the locals, but that wasn’t the case. When Zatoichi (Shintaro Katsu) rolls into town, he is asked to assist in dealing with the more brutal of the houses. Of course, he sees the good deeds done and wishes to help the locals, so he does as he is asked. The gambling house that freed the peasants now has no rival and while that sounds good in theory, this allows them to reveal their true intentions. The plan was to look like a good natured house by freeing the peasants, then using Zatoichi to knock out the competition, giving them all the power. The master of the house soon begins to seize power, doing whatever he can to assume control of the area’s peasants. Instead of the kindness the farmers once saw, now they see cruelty and oppression. Will Zatoichi revisit this master’s house to ensure justice is served?
A lot of movies have sequels, numerous movies have multiple sequels, and some films even spawn franchises. In the case of Zatoichi, a franchise would be an understatement, since the original film inspired over twenty sequels and over one hundred television episodes. In other words, this is not just a bunch of movies, Zatoichi is a cultural icon and even decades later, the character remains beloved around the world. Zatoichi the Outlaw (aka Zatoichi Breaks Jail) is the sixteenth film in this historic series, but after fifteen movies, the sword of this blind man remains sharp. This film has a lot of potential and on paper, could have been one of the best of the series, but the elements just don’t fall into the proper order. Shintaro Katsu is on his game, but by this time in the franchise, he has taken on a more simple version of Zatoichi. The subtle cues we saw in earlier volumes aren’t as frequent, which does lessen the experience somewhat. But he played this same role in fifteen prior pictures, so perhaps he fined tuned the role, not toned it down. In any event, this volume would have been better suited to fall earlier in the series, when the character was more complex, but even so, this is a solid installment. AnimEigo’s treatment is light on extras, but looks impressive, so for fans of the series, this one is well recommended.
Video: How does it look?
Zatoichi the Outlaw is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. The image here is quite good, with a clean source print to start us off. A few nicks and some minor grain can be seen, but these defects never amount to much. I’ve seen a couple of other home video releases of this movie and rest assured, this treatment is a vast improvement over previous releases available to fans. The colors have solid brightness, but remain natural in scope, while flesh tones come off as warm and consistent. I found contrast to be good also, thanks to well balanced black levels and accurate detail at all times. This movie has some great visuals, so I am pleased that AnimEigo has issued such a great presentation.
Audio: How does it sound?
The audio here, which preserves the original Japanese language and might not too memorable, is still a solid track. I heard little in terms of distortion, while hiss is absent and that’s great news, without a doubt. The music here is quite good and is well presented, though of course, it isn’t too expansive, thanks to the material’s limitations. The sound effects follow the same order, as they sound good, but also restrained to some extent. But this isn’t exactly new showroom material, so I think we can cut it some slack. The dialogue is sharp and never gets muffled much, so even if you can’t understand what they’re saying, at least it sounds clean. This disc also includes English subtitles, should you need those.
Supplements: What are the extras?
This disc includes some talent files.
