Past Film/Video | Classics

Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo

(Zatōichi to yōjinbō, Kihachi Okamoto, 1970)
 

35MM Print

Still of a person with dark hair, pink lipstick, and a blue-lined kimono looking concernedly at a person with a shaved head and mustache whose head is pointed down and eyes are closed.

Two of Japanese cinema’s iconic swordsmen—Shintaro Katsu’s blind warrior Zatoichi and Toshirō Mifune’s Yojimbo—square off in this stylish and satirical tale.

Set in a small village under the thumb of the local yakuza gang, the film’s final battle (spoiler alert) ends in a draw, the result of actors Katsu and Mifune both applying pressure on director Okamoto to be the one to win the duel. According to Mifune, the fight was not between the fictional Zatoichi and Yojimbo but between the real-life presidents of each actor’s respective production company! (116 mins., 35mm)

See the complete Mifune + Okamoto lineup.

Still of a person with dark hair, pink lipstick, and a blue-lined kimono looking concernedly at a person with a shaved head and mustache whose head is pointed down and eyes are closed.

Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo © 1970 Toho Co., Ltd.

Still of a person wearing a kimono and squinting in the sun; there are bodies on the ground behind them.

Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo © 1970 Toho Co., Ltd.

Prints courtesy of The Japan Foundation.

FILM/VIDEO PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
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ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Rohauer Collection Foundation

WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
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The Columbus Foundation
Ohio Arts Council
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ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
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Past Film/Video

Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo