ON THE ROAD (1963)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

"In a rut" would have been a better title for the fifth Zatoichi movie.

In keeping with the character's real-world popularity as a movie icon, the blind masseuse has become famed in his medieval time-frame. Many people know of his skills with the sword, even though he seeks only to defend himself. One result, as in ROAD, is that criminal gangs seek to use Zatoichi to their own ends.

This movie's problem, though, is that there are two gangs vying against each other, and it often becomes unclear as to what they're trying to do and how it involves Zatoichi. In the first thirty minutes of the film, the masseuse has two fatal encounters "on the road" where people try to kill him or innocent bystanders. As a consequence of one encounter, Zatoichi becomes the protector of a young woman, Mitsu (Shiho Fujimura). Some of the criminals also seek to use Mitsu against the swordsman, but again, I found the various complications hard to follow. It may be that I just got tired of all the talking-head scenes.

The script downplays the more spectacular swordfights in favor of Zatoichi taking down two or three opponents with one big slash. Like the previous entries in the series, this one stresses that Zatoichi, atypical samurai though he may be, lives by a strict code of chivalry toward women. This helps to sell his pattern of Good Samaritan conduct despite his often rough-hewn life. But by the fifth film in the series, his encounters with the female of the species have become rather monotonous.