Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman
Dir: Kimiyoshi Yasuda
1971
****
Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman, the 22nd Zatoichi film of the series, is a crossover film that sees Zatoichi fight the One-Armed Swordsman (who also had a popular series at the time) and also mixes the martial arts genres of Chambara and Wuxia. Jimmy Wang Yu is cool as the One-Armed Swordsman. Truth be known, he should have defeated Zatoichi with one hand behind his back and indeed two versions of the ending were made, one with Zatoichi winning and one with the One-Armed Swordsman winning. This felt almost like a Babykart vs. Babykart film, with the two men trying to protect the boy, alas as they say in the final scene, 'We could have been friends, but we spoke a different language". Someone has got to be top dog and we all love a 'versus' film, personally my loyalties are with Zatoichi.