Mekura no Oichi monogatari: Makka na nagaradori

First, I should admit that I haven't seen many movies in this genre. And I understand that the most famous series focusing on Japanese sword fighters is the Zatoichi series. I certainly haven't seen that one but hope to. In the meantime I just saw the first entry in the Crimson Bat series, called "Mekura no oichi monogatari: Makkana nagaradori" ("Crimson Bat: The Blind Swordsman" in English). It's definitely the sort of movie that would've inspired Quentin Tarantino, as the blind, abandoned character Oichi (Yoko Matsuyama) goes around dispensing justice. As it was, the copy that I saw was spoken in Japanese, dubbed in English, subtitled in Dutch! It's not the best movie but pretty fun, and that's what counts with these movies.

Okay, it you compete with the well-paced and well-directed Zatoichi movies, you will be compared to them. Crimson Bat doesn't hold a candle to Zatoichi; however, the movie that I just saw (the first of the Crimson Bat series) was not bad. Yoko Matsuyama's character is mostly set on revenge and that puts it into the class of mundane samurai movies. Zatoichi had a zen pace to it...a series of things that happened.

Oichi, the blind swordswoman, has a face as expressionless as a china doll. One could do a lot with such a face, as in Kurasawa's Throne of Blood. Sadly, it ended up as an average sword-fighting movie, well worth watching, but not really worth a repeat viewing...

The other critics are off base comparing Crimson Bat to Zatoichi. They are different films with different tones, delivering different messages. Zatoichi is highly dramatic and incorporates zen Bushido. Judged on it's own merits, Crimson Bat is a less preachy action flick with a female lead who kicks butt. It has a seventies feel due to its music, sound effects, and color schemes. I enjoy the use of dramatic lighting of black and white noir film applied to color. You get a sword fight in every town and on every road as Oichi rights injustice and avoids bounty hunters. More akin to television westerns, it has better production value than Bruce Lee films and is simply entertaining.

The "Crimson Bat" series was Shochiku's attempt to compete with Daie's popular "Zatoichi" film's. Zatoichi, the blind swordsman is even directly parodied in this entry, (a blind massuer stumbles down the street and the bad guys kick him in the butt). Oichi is also blind but her motivation revolves a bit more around revenge. The production values and that fact that the version I saw was dubbed gave this film a real "Shaw Brothers" feel. It was kind of like watching a japanese "Dirty Ho" or "Five Venoms". Not fabulous, but entertaining.

The first of the Crimson Bat films was an okay time waster but nothing overly memorable either. As a little girl, Oichi was abandoned by her mother (ran off with a lover) and then blinded in a lightning strike. She was taken in by an old man who one day was murdered by a gang of criminals because he could identify their leader. Oichi was saved by a swordsman who taught her the weapon. Within what appears to be all of six months, Oichi became a master of the sword and was on her own.

In this first adventure, Oichi was trying to protect an old man with a price on her head who wanted to see the daughter he gave up years ago. Said daughter's adopted family are poor farmers who have no choice but to sell the girl to a local brothel ran by a hard-as-nails madam.

Much of this first Crimson Bat film felt familiar. There were few surprises in the plot. The action was just okay and not very plentiful. The best thing about the film was the character of Obun, a female croupier that Oichi upsets, but that plot point remained underused.