Yi qi bo yi qi

It starts with a man on horseback rides into town with a woman who dies on arrival. Next there is an abrupt cut to three men riding horses are attacked by Zatoichi, the blind swordsman from Japan. Cut back to our guy in town is fought when he tries to leave. Zatoichi then drops out of the sky to continue the sword fight.

My copy is a computer file that plays on a HDTV as a square video with embedded Chinese subtitles typical of an old VHS tape. The dialog is also Chinese and I do not speak Chinese. The appearance of Zatoichi is so absurd I suspect this movie is some kind of comedy. It's a sad state when a viewer can't be sure if a movie is a comedy. I take partial blame because of the language barrier.

The man playing Zatoichi is Sing Lung. I have read but cannot confirm that he was a bartender who won a Zatoichi look-alike contest and this movie appearance was the prize. This supports my point that anyone can be an actor. I count six movies he appeared in with four as the blind swordsman. Credit is due as he looks like him and nails the sword moves.

I feel I can't do a proper review on this movie because of the mentioned issues. If I ever come across an English version I will watch it and return here but my search shows there never was an English version.