Zatoichi

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating * * * *)

When the term "Samurai" in films has come to mean Uma carving her way out of a caravan or Tom saving the land of the rising sun from its imperial self, it comes as something of a relief to see a Japanese sword flick that's just so ... well, Japanese.

It has as its director-star Takeshi - aka "Beat" Takeshi - Kitano, a multimedia figure whose status at home has few equivalents in the West.

He plays Zatoichi, a blind swordfighter who has already figured as the hero in more than 20 Japanese films made from the 60s to 1989.

Seeing Kitano's highly entertaining take - part East-goes-Western, part slapstick comedy - is enough to make you want to seek out Zatoichi's former incarnations. Though it's hard to imagine anything could top Kitano, who plays him as a tough-but-sensitive, sight-impaired-but-lethal, blond, bandy-legged defender of the little guy.

And for fans of Kitano's more recent works, it's heartening to see him delivering something in which he's not playing yet another inscrutable yakuza killer in yet another frosty art crimeflick.

As director, Kitano adds many askew touches to his tale - the 19th century peasants in the fields are always seen working to the rhythm of the soundtrack. And if that risks the entire movie bursting into a musical, you just wait - the finale is the funniest ending to any movie in a long time.

He also does some curious things to the slice'n'dice pieces with the blood spurts depicted as cartoon flashes of colour which helps bring a comic-book tone to the film.

The story is pure Western. Having dispensed with some attackers in a fit of blink-and-you'll-miss-it swordplay in the opening scene, Zatoichi arrives as a stranger in town beset with warring gangs where a masterless and disgraced samurai called Hattori will be inevitably one of the final combatants come high noon.

The story also involves a friendly peasant woman with whom Zatoichi takes lodgings, a sidekick with a gambling problem, two geishas whose tragic family history has set them on a mission of revenge, and a village idiot who charges around the place as if he were a samurai while looking more qualified to be a sumo.

Its storylines don't exactly build up much collective momentum, with some meandering in and out of focus at odd times, and some of its sentimentality can catch in the western throat, especially against the mayhem with all the silverware.

But, even with his eyes closed, Kitano's wry presence has more than enough enigma to propel Zatoichi through its twists and turns. If you're wanting to see a fine swordfighting comedy, it's definitely worth a stab in the dark.

CAST: Takeshi Kitano, Tadanobu Asano, Michiyo Ookusu, Gadarukanaru Taka, Daigoro Tachibana, Yuuko Daike

DIRECTOR: Takeshi Kitano

RUNNING TIME: 115 mins

RATING: R16 (violence)

SCREENING: Rialto from Thursday