The plot's a familiar enough reworking of Kurosawa's Yojimbo, as loner Zatoichi (also an expert masseur and gambler) comes to the aid of a village terrorized by two rival gangs. Kitano cast himself as the legendary blind swordsmen in this brilliantly deft collision of samurai nobility, earthy humour and expertly choreographed action. Costa-Gavras portrays a world of awesome cynicism, and yet retains a sense of hope. Set in an unnamed country, it's a thinly veiled attack on Greece under the generals, and echoes a real-life case in which the investigation into an eminent liberal's murder uncovered endemic state corruption. A political thriller that caused a sensation in the heady days of 1968.
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