Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman Collection

TOTAL BINGE TIME: 38h 34m

The Definitive Watch Order & Chronological Timeline

The Tale of Zatoichi

Released: 1962 // Runtime: 96m // Rating: 7.3

The adventures of a blind, gambling masseur and master swordsman. Zatoichi targets a yakuza-controlled village, because war with a neighbouring town's smaller gang is brewing.

1962

The Tale of Zatoichi Continues

Released: 1962 // Runtime: 72m // Rating: 7.0

Returning to the village where a year before he had killed Hirate, a much-admired opponent, Zatoichi encounters another swordsman and former rival in love.

1962

New Tale of Zatoichi

Released: 1963 // Runtime: 91m // Rating: 6.9

Wishing to find peace, Zatoichi travels to his old village but only finds trouble when he ends up in a love triangle and finds old scores have followed him home.

1963

Zatoichi the Fugitive

Released: 1963 // Runtime: 86m // Rating: 6.9

After arriving in the town of Shimonita, Ichi finds that a price has been put on his head by a local yakuza boss. He's drawn into a trap, but after hearing of the slaying of a former love, Ichi furiously fights his way through the entire clan to face the killer, a hired ronin.

1963

Zatoichi on the Road

Released: 1963 // Runtime: 87m // Rating: 6.9

Zatoichi is sworn to protect the life of a young girl and without any real allies finds himself in the middle of a bloody turf war.

1963

Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold

Released: 1964 // Runtime: 83m // Rating: 6.9

Ichi travels to the village of Itakura to pay his respects at the grave of Kichizo, a man he killed two years ago. When some tax money is stolen while in transit to the governor he is accused and sets out to find the money and clear his name.

1964

Zatoichi's Flashing Sword

Released: 1964 // Runtime: 82m // Rating: 6.8

Blind masseur Zatoichi is nursed back to health by a young woman after he is shot by a gang member. Zatoichi, who had come to the village to repay a debt, now feels further indebted. He commits himself to use his amazing sword skills to help the young woman's father, whose river-crossing service is under attack by the same gang responsible for Zatoichi's wounds.

1964

Fight, Zatoichi, Fight

Released: 1964 // Runtime: 87m // Rating: 6.8

Blind swordsman/masseuse Zatoichi befriends a young woman returning home with her baby. When gangsters mistake her for Zatoichi and kill her, Zatoichi determines to escort the baby to its father. He gains the reluctant help of a young pick pocket and together they travel to find the baby's father. But they do not reckon on the father's reaction to their arrival, nor on their own growing feelings for the child.

1964

Adventures of Zatoichi

Released: 1964 // Runtime: 86m // Rating: 6.7

Blind swordsman/masseuse Zatoichi befriends a young woman looking for her father, a village leader who has disappeared. As he helps her investigate the disappearance, Zatoichi also becomes involved with another young woman who is trying to help her brother, who has murdered someone at about the same time and place as the missing man was last seen.

1964

#10

Zatoichi's Revenge

Released: 1965 // Runtime: 84m // Rating: 6.6

Itinerant masseur and master swordsman, the blind Zatoichi, is near the village of his teacher, Hikonoichi, so he decides to visit. He learns of Hikonoichi's recent robbery and murder and the imprisonment of his virginal daughter, Osayo, in a brothel. Through friendship with Denroku, a local dice thrower and devoted father, Ichi uncovers an unholy alliance between the governor and the area strongman: among their scams is falsifying tax records to put farmers in debt, then forcing their daughters into prostitution at the boss's brothel. With help from Denroku's daughter, Otsuru, Ichi comforts Osayo until he can provoke showdowns with the villains and their henchmen.

1965

#11

Zatoichi and the Doomed Man

Released: 1965 // Runtime: 77m // Rating: 6.8

Blind swordsman Zatoichi, jailed briefly, is implored by another prisoner to aid him in proving his innocence of a crime for which he is sentenced to death. Zatoichi is reluctant to get involved, because he knows how often such involvement has led to trouble in the past. But events conspire to thrust him repeatedly into involvement, and gradually he comes to believe in the man's innocence and determines to free him.

1965

#12

Zatoichi and the Chess Expert

Released: 1965 // Runtime: 87m // Rating: 6.6

Zatoichi makes friends with a dangerous chess player, while fending off angry yakuza and bloodthirsty relatives out for revenge, and trying to save a sick child. Meanwhile, his luck with dice is turning.

1965

#13

Zatoichi's Vengeance

Released: 1966 // Runtime: 83m // Rating: 6.9

Zatoichi comes upon a dying man who asks him to give a bag of money to "Taichi". Zatoichi has no idea who this is but when he comes upon a small town harassed by gangsters, he finds that "Taichi" was the man's young son. Along his travels he also met a blind monk who makes Zatoichi question his murderous lifestyle. In trying to help the town, Zatoichi kills some gangsters and becomes a hero to the boy. He must make a choice of whether to use non-violence and set a good example, or violence and set the boy on the wrong path in life.

1966

#14

Zatoichi's Pilgrimage

Released: 1966 // Runtime: 82m // Rating: 7.0

Zatoichi's trek through 88 temples to atone for his violent past is interrupted as he stumbles into a village terrorized by a violent yakuza boss.

1966

#15

Zatoichi's Cane Sword

Released: 1967 // Runtime: 93m // Rating: 7.3

Zatoichi comes upon the town of Tonda, overrun by gangsters. Using one of his favorite techniques, Zatoichi proceeds to win 8 ryo in a rigged gambling game. Of course, the local gangsters attempt to kill him, and the adventure begins. It turns out a blacksmith named Senzo examines Zatoichi's cane sword, and discovers it to be forged by his old mentor. Senzo discovers the sword is at the end of its usefulness and will break when it is used next.

1967

#16

Zatoichi the Outlaw

Released: 1967 // Runtime: 96m // Rating: 6.6

When a local gambling house kidnaps some peasants because they failed to pay their debts, a rival gambling house pays their debts and sets them free.

1967

#17

Zatoichi Challenged

Released: 1967 // Runtime: 87m // Rating: 6.8

Ichi is staying at an inn when a woman dies. Her dying wish is that Ichi take her son to his father, an artist living in a nearby town. After arriving in the town, Ichi finds out that the father has been forced by a local boss to create illegal pornography to pay off his gambling debts. Ichi makes it his mission to save the man and reunite the family, even though it brings him into conflict with a samurai he sort of befriended on his way to the town.

1967

#18

Zatoichi and the Fugitives

Released: 1968 // Runtime: 82m // Rating: 7.0

Zatoichi runs afoul of some evil fugitives, working for a corrupt law official.

1968

#19

Samaritan Zatoichi

Released: 1968 // Runtime: 84m // Rating: 6.7

Zatoichi is forced to kill a young man who owes a debt to a yakuza boss. Moments later, his sister Osode arrives with the money she earned (prostituting herself) to pay his debts. The bosses true motives are revealed and he attempts to steal Osode even though the debt is paid. Zatoichi realizes his grievous error and protects the girl from the gang. Osode and Zatoichi are caught in a dilemma as she must rely on her brother's killer for protection and Zatoichi wrestles with the injustice he has caused.

1968

#20

Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo

Released: 1970 // Runtime: 115m // Rating: 6.7

Zatoichi treks to a village that has always been a favorite spot of his, only to discover that it’s become a living hell, plagued by feuding father and son yakuza as well as the younger crime boss’s bodyguard, scruffy, smart-mouthed, cash-hungry Yojimbo of legend.

1970

#21

Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival

Released: 1970 // Runtime: 96m // Rating: 6.7

The blind masseuse is targeted by the leader of a powerful yakuza group while also fending off a jealous husband bent on revenge. Zatoichi tours Edo's underground via a rousing onsen fight scene, gambling houses and the gender-bending character of Umeji, before a final, flame-filled conflagration.

1970

#22

Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman

Released: 1971 // Runtime: 94m // Rating: 6.8

Zatoichi is a blind massage therapist and swordsman who finds out that something troubling is taking place on the outskirts of town. After discovering who the guilty parties are -- an accomplished Chinese martial artist named Wang Kang and his youthful attendant -- Zatoichi finds them and discovers that the pair's mixed up with a dangerous bunch of terrorist samurai who murdered the boy's parents. Now, Zatoichi must step in to save the day.

1971

#23

Zatoichi at Large

Released: 1972 // Runtime: 88m // Rating: 6.5

Blind masseur and master swordsman Zatoichi finds a robbed and fatally wounded pregnant woman, whose baby he delivers before she dies. He takes the baby in search of its father and finds the child's aunt, who is about to be forced into prostitution for want of a payment the dead mother was bringing. Zatoichi determines to save the woman from her cruel fate.

1972

#24

Zatoichi in Desperation

Released: 1972 // Runtime: 92m // Rating: 6.6

After accidentally causing the death of an old lady, Zatoichi tries to do right by buying the lady’s daughter’s freedom from a brothel - but this causes more problems than solves them.

1972

#25

Zatoichi's Conspiracy

Released: 1973 // Runtime: 88m // Rating: 6.9

Zatoichi, the famed blind swordsman, returns to his home village for the first time in many years. He is befriended by Omiyo, who had the same wet-nurse as Zatoichi. He also encounters a boyhood friend, Shinbei, who is now wealthy and appears not to remember Zatoichi. Shinbei seems to be interested in repaying the villagers' debts, but is, in reality, manipulating the ownership of a now valuable rock quarry. Zatoichi learns of the subterfuge and confronts his old friend, who has a score of yakuza swordsmen backing his play.

1973

#26

Zatoichi: Darkness Is His Ally

Released: 1989 // Runtime: 116m // Rating: 6.3

Older, wiser but still a wandering loner, the blind, peace-loving masseur Ichi seeks a peaceful life in a rural village. When he's caught in the middle of a power struggle between two rival Yakuza clans, his reputation as a deadly defender of the innocent is put to the ultimate test in a series of sword-slashing showdowns.

1989