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Yasuzo Masumura amazes us with yet another sensual stunner. This period way-of-all-flesh tale is almost a horror film, but the supernatural shivers are far outpaced by the daily Evil that Men Do. Japanese superstar Ayako Wakao blazes across the screen as a self-decreed avenger of the female sex, who allows men to destroy themselves and uses them to destroy each other. The bloody killings orbit around the desire to possess the irresistible Spider Woman, an in an ‘annihilating noir.’ The screenplay is by the equally famous Kaneto Shindo, from a Japanese ‘amor fou’ novel by Junichiro Tanizaki.

Irezumi

Blu-ray

Arrow Video

1966 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 86 min. / Street Date June 22, 2021 / Spider Tattoo / Available from Amazon / 39.95

Starring: Ayako Wakao, Akio Hasegawa, Gaku Yamamoto, Kei Sato, Fujio Suga, Reiko Fujiwara, Asao Uchida, Kikue Mori.

Cinematography: Kazuo Miyagawa

Production Designers: Hiroaki Fujii, Shiro Kaga

Art Director: Yoshinobu Nishioka

Film Editor: Kanji Suganuma

Original Music: Hikaru...

After the success of the first two installments of what would soon become one of the longest running franchises in Japanese film, the third movie directed by Tokuzo Tanaka finally demonstrated the belief of the producers in the potential of this character and the stories which could be told with Zatoichi in the epicenter. The fact that “New Tale of Zatoichi” is shot in color was one of the many indicators, as author Scott Morse points out in his commentary for the release of the films by Criterion, that Daei had big plans for the character and realized what kind of stories could be told with the blind masseur who had become so popular in so little time, to some extent thanks to the performance by actor Shintaro Katsu.

At the beginning of the film, we find Zatoichi (Shintaro Katsu) on the road again. After the killing...