[Show Intro] Jala Hey, thanks for coming! I'm glad you're here. Come on in! Everyone's out on the patio right now. Looks like a couple of people are in the garden. I can't wait to introduce you! Can I get you anything? [turned away] Hey folks, our new guest is here! [Intro music] 00:00:01.30 Jala Hello world and welcome to Jala-chan's place. I'm your host Jala Prendes (she/her) and today I'm joined by Will (he/him) and Moxie (any/all) woo! And we are here today to talk about Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo, which is that movie we talked about like, I don't know, a year ago, right? 00:00:19.89 Will (FNGC) About a year ago, yep. 00:00:20.09 Jala Or more? 00:00:20.81 Will (FNGC) It was May. 00:00:21.23 Jala Yeah. 00:00:21.33 Will (FNGC) I looked back. 00:00:21.79 Jala Yeah, I was gonna say, it's been about a year. So a year ago we talked about doing this episode. And it's finally happening, guys. I got it on the schedule. 00:00:32.06 Jala I have to stop saying we need to do an episode on because I say that. And then like there's there's a few of them that, like I said, the first year of recording that I haven't done yet. And we're going on year three. 00:00:41.33 Will (FNGC) Oh, no. 00:00:41.49 Moxie We still haven't done Mark Twain. 00:00:41.83 Will (FNGC) It's lingering. 00:00:42.24 Jala I'm like, I know we have to do. I was looking at that the other day and I was like, you know, we were going to do the Mark Twain episode on the Twain's Feast stuff or whatever we were doing on that. 00:00:53.27 Jala That hasn't happened yet. Partially because you kind of have had a lot of stuff going on, Moxie, to kind of segue into how you're doing. 00:00:58.49 Moxie Oh, yeah. I'm doing pretty well. 00:01:01.39 Moxie I just moved to the DC to take a new job. So yes, yes, I am. 00:01:06.58 Will (FNGC) All right, all right. 00:01:06.61 Jala The presidency. 00:01:07.83 Will (FNGC) There it is. 00:01:07.90 Jala No, I wish. I wish. 00:01:09.69 Moxie I'm the new president. 00:01:11.05 Moxie I'm going to save us all. 00:01:11.37 Jala Yeah. 00:01:14.35 Will (FNGC) You moved to the belly of the beast, so it's quite impressive. 00:01:16.97 Jala Right, right. 00:01:17.07 Moxie Oh yeah. Yeah. No, things are definitely crazy here. I was joking with a friend. I'm looking at maybe living in Arlington area. 00:01:27.45 Jala Mm-hmm. 00:01:27.62 Moxie And it's funny because I feel like, you know, in like Warhammer 40K, they have like the tomb worlds or whatever, like the relic worlds. 00:01:27.61 Jala Mm-hmm. 00:01:39.22 Moxie I feel like that's where I live because like I'll just be driving and like all of a sudden like beside me will be like this vast cemetery or, you know, things like that. 00:01:51.20 Moxie So it feels, don't know. That is my take on Washington, D.C. so far. It feels like something from Warhammer 40K. 00:02:01.14 Jala I think that's pretty apt right now. 00:02:02.58 Will (FNGC) That sounds pretty legitimate. 00:02:02.86 Jala So, right. Right. So Will, how are you doing today? 00:02:07.61 Will (FNGC) I'm doing well, doing well. I can't complain. Look, in North Carolina, the weather is getting hotter, which as I was talking to your husband there for a bit, I was like, that means I can only pray for y'all over there in Texas because it's going to get horrible. 00:02:17.78 Jala Right. 00:02:18.09 Moxie Mm-hmm. 00:02:19.24 Will (FNGC) Just like last year, right? 00:02:19.47 Jala Yeah 00:02:20.20 Will (FNGC) I expect the summertime to be just as miserable, if not more. So I'm going to appreciate this spring while I can, even though the pollen is violently assaulting me as we speak. 00:02:27.76 Jala Right! Oh, man. 00:02:31.22 Will (FNGC) Yeah, went to go clean my car, it was horrible. 00:02:34.66 Jala Absolutely. It's been so bad lately that like I walk out. So I have a pollen allergies and stuff. 00:02:40.65 Will (FNGC) Ooh. 00:02:40.89 Jala I'm basically allergic to everything in Texas. Everything in Texas is trying to kill me. So I walk outside and we just walk the dog. I come back in, I have a skin rash on my arm and I'm like, the hell happened. 00:02:50.43 Will (FNGC) Ooooooh! 00:02:53.74 Jala And so like the next day I walk the dog like in the morning, but like in the afternoon, you know, my husband took care it, whatever. And then no allergy issue, no breakout, no nothing. 00:03:05.52 Jala It's literally just contact with the air. 00:03:08.01 Will (FNGC) Oh, so you have to get out before the air wakes up. 00:03:08.91 Jala It's causing rashes. 00:03:11.05 Will (FNGC) You have to get out early. 00:03:11.30 Jala Right, right. And so like that passed, like that phase of it passed. And the news said that the allergies here have been worse than they've been since like 2006 or something like that. 00:03:23.06 Jala But then now it's different. It's evolved and now it's ear pains. And so now I'm starting to get like a bit of blood in my ears from like swelling and all kinds of stuff happening inside my ears. 00:03:34.14 Will (FNGC) Oh. 00:03:34.36 Jala So. 00:03:35.39 Moxie Yeah, that's not ideal. I'm told that ears should not have blood. 00:03:37.44 Jala No. You shouldn't have blood coming out of them with any kind of regularity. 00:03:45.54 Will (FNGC) One of those biology classes talked about that, I think. 00:03:48.49 Jala So that's kind of where that's been. But other than that, I don't know, I'm doing okay. I got piercings a week ago and you know, like they're healing up and everything. 00:03:59.21 Jala So now I have more metal installed in my head. 00:03:59.59 Will (FNGC) Nice, nice. 00:04:01.69 Jala It's great. 00:04:01.89 Will (FNGC) There you go. Watch out, TSA. 00:04:03.80 Jala Yeah. Yeah. Dave and I have set it up to where we're going to a bunch of live shows for the next, like, you know, like once a month or whatever for the next several months, just to give us something to look forward to throughout all of everything. 00:04:14.27 Will (FNGC) Okay. 00:04:18.53 Jala You have to give yourself something, right? So we're going to be going to see Spiritbox live next weekend. So that's a metal band. And then we're going to be going to see Central Cee, which is UK hip hop. 00:04:30.94 Will (FNGC) Oh. 00:04:31.05 Jala The month after that, if you haven't heard Central Cee, I will have to send you a link, Will, so you can hear. 00:04:35.56 Will (FNGC) Yep, yep, yep. 00:04:35.64 Jala And then after that, it's like Ice Nine Kills, which is more metal. And then the Nate Jackson comedy show. 00:04:45.74 Jala So if you don't know Nate Jackson, you should you should check out Nate Jackson. 00:04:46.49 Will (FNGC) No relation to Dave. 00:04:49.04 Jala No, no, absolutely not. 00:04:51.04 Will (FNGC) Okay. 00:04:52.87 Jala This is a Black man. 00:04:54.04 Will (FNGC) Okay. 00:04:55.02 Jala If they were, it's a brother from another mother. 00:04:56.55 Will (FNGC) It's like adopted? 00:05:01.86 Moxie Yeah, I need to, now that I'm someplace that actually gets concerts, I need to, how do you even find where concerts be? 00:05:11.26 Jala I've been on LiveNation. 00:05:13.20 Will (FNGC) Yeah. Obviously, LiveNation is probably the good one. 00:05:14.24 Jala LiveNation is the easiest one to get through get to. And like you can see... 00:05:17.65 Will (FNGC) want to spend too much of your money, Ticketmaster. 00:05:19.82 Jala Right. 00:05:19.88 Will (FNGC) But yeah, LiveNation is the best way to do it. 00:05:23.18 Moxie Huntsville does not get a whole lot. 00:05:28.73 Jala Right, right. So anyway, that's neither here nor there. That's a side thing. But ah we're I'm entering my metal era by installing metal into my head. 00:05:38.32 Will (FNGC) There you go. 00:05:38.77 Jala Yes. So... 00:05:40.17 Moxie Man, as and soon as it sounds like I'm squared away here, that is actually something I'm likely going to do is get my ears pierced for the first time. So I'm kind of excited for that. 00:05:50.41 Will (FNGC) Okay. 00:05:50.68 Jala They have pillows. I was going to tell you, since you mentioned being like a side sleeper, they have pillows apparently that have a hole just for your ear. So you can, with piercings, lay on your side without all the piercings being a problem. 00:05:58.11 Moxie Oh. 00:06:02.39 Jala So like since Dave wants additional metal in his ears, because he just got his ears pierced again, we're probably going to end up getting some of those. So yeah. Anyway, so there are options. 00:06:12.98 Moxie Cool. 00:06:13.33 Will (FNGC) Getting chromed up. 00:06:14.38 Jala Yeah, there are options. And yes, it's going to be all metal all the time. So anyway, so moving right along, let's talk about other things that are metal, such as swords. Let's talk about this movie. 00:06:26.81 Jala So, oh, oh, oh, I can't even do that. Oh, my God. How can I do that without introducing where you guys are from? Jeez. Okay. So, Moxie, you are on The Level, which is a video game roundtable show. 00:06:37.41 Jala I'm also on it sometimes. I pop in sometimes. Do you have anything else to say about The Level? DuckfeedTV, thelevelpodcast.com. 00:06:46.29 Moxie Yeah, check ah check us out on DuckFeed. 00:06:47.23 Jala Mm-hmm. 00:06:48.68 Moxie We're monthly or--Wow, weekly. 00:06:52.55 Jala Monthly. Weekly. I'm monthly. You guys are weekly. 00:06:54.79 Will (FNGC) Thank you. 00:06:55.79 Jala I show up every once in a while. 00:06:55.95 Moxie Exactly. Exactly. 00:06:57.94 Jala Right. 00:06:58.21 Moxie ah And yeah, yeah. Come listen to us. Okay. 00:07:02.86 Jala Yeah. Yeah. Well, the thing that I like about being on the show with you guys is that everybody's got like their types of games that they like. And like, it's wildly different in most cases. Like you and Dennis have a lot of games that you like that are similar. 00:07:18.10 Jala Kole and I have games that we like that are similar. Ben's over there. 00:07:23.08 Will (FNGC) Vroom. 00:07:25.32 Jala So, yeah with any mix of people on the show, there's usually like a variety of, of things being talked about with a little bit of overlap, but mostly there's variety. 00:07:35.26 Moxie Yeah. So it's fine because, Kole and I, have known each other the longest. 00:07:42.00 Jala Mm hmm. 00:07:42.16 Moxie by far. But it used to be we had almost no overlap in our likes for, you know, like movies, video games, stuff like that. 00:07:54.74 Moxie And it's actually only pretty recently that there's been more overlap, which is funny. 00:07:55.03 Jala Mm-hmm. 00:08:00.90 Jala Yeah. Yeah. I was just telling some folks the other day um when we were trying to figure out like a co-op game to play and then they were giving some suggestions and then every suggestion that they made, I'm like, Dennis and Moxie really liked that. 00:08:13.34 Jala I wasn't a fan. And then I was like, you know, it's to the point now where I feel like if both of you like the game, I'm probably not going to like the game. 00:08:19.99 Will (FNGC) It's just the bar. 00:08:21.48 Jala I mean, it'll be a good game. Don't get me wrong. Just not my game. I'm not a particular fan of it. 00:08:32.12 Moxie Yeah, sorry. We're getting off topic. 00:08:34.83 Jala That's how The Level do. 00:08:34.89 Moxie Yeah, yeah. 00:08:37.37 Jala I mean, 20 minutes minimum of banter before we get to the episode. 00:08:38.24 Moxie Mm-hmm. 00:08:40.83 Jala So, Will, let's see if we can get under 10 minutes. Okay, so, Will, you're on Friday Night Gamecast. 00:08:45.92 Will (FNGC) I'm telling you, it's not going to happen. Look, that's part of the course for Friday Night Gamecast. We are some yappers. 00:08:49.75 Jala Right. 00:08:50.74 Will (FNGC) We are the Friday Night Yapcast. 00:08:51.34 Jala Right. 00:08:52.86 Will (FNGC) So yeah, myself and Nicholas, so we helm Friday Night Gamecast. We've been doing that for a couple of years now. It's been fantastic. Currently on a hiatus, but we have plenty of great stuff in the backlog to listen to. 00:09:01.94 Jala Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 00:09:04.10 Will (FNGC) We normally do a little bit of everything as far as kind of talking about different like video game lists, talking about our childhood, stuff. We bring in lots of really fun guests. We've talked about like Dave Jackson, Jolly, you've been on before. 00:09:14.94 Will (FNGC) um And then more recently, we've been doing a lot of good reviews. So we have some really solid reviews from 2024 as well. um And then rounding out that, of course, was our 2024 Game of the Year episode, which is, of course, out. 00:09:26.58 Will (FNGC) And it's fun because you get to hear Nick and I choke, cough, laugh, and scream while we do a ah Hot Ones Hot Sauce Challenge while talking about some of the greatest games of 2024. 00:09:34.29 Moxie Oh! 00:09:36.37 Will (FNGC) So if you want to hear us die um and be physically ill, then I highly recommend you go check that episode out. but 00:09:42.36 Moxie Man, I need to do the Hot Ones thing. 00:09:42.46 Jala That's awesome. 00:09:45.66 Moxie like I wonder if I can convince CKole to do that for DuckStream next year. 00:09:46.26 Will (FNGC) It is very fun. 00:09:53.48 Jala That would be pretty funny. That would be pretty funny. So, but yeah, my introduction to Friday Night Gamecast was when I had just started talking to Nick and then the person that was supposed to be on the Fire Emblem IP episode with me just was like having a sudden personal emergency that they needed to take care of. 00:10:13.35 Jala And so I was like, you just started talking to me today, but you want to come on and talk about Fire Emblem as an IP? I have a lot of notes. 00:10:19.95 Will (FNGC) And you picked the right person because he is a Fire Emblem nut. 00:10:20.31 Jala Yeah. 00:10:22.55 Will (FNGC) So yeah, that was serendipitous. 00:10:23.12 Jala Yeah. 00:10:24.27 Will (FNGC) Very nice. 00:10:24.76 Jala Right, right. So anyhow, so that's all of that. I wonder why there's not a Zatoichi game. 00:10:34.29 Will (FNGC) Hey. 00:10:34.31 Jala There's callbacks to Zatoichi, but there's not a game. 00:10:36.32 Moxie Yeah, was going to say this Warframe. 00:10:40.91 Jala There you go. There you go. So there's also Zato One from Guilty Gear. 00:10:46.61 Will (FNGC) Guilty Gear. 00:10:47.04 Jala And that's, Zato One, Zato Ichi. 00:10:47.21 Will (FNGC) Yep. 00:10:50.39 Moxie Yeah, it does bother me like every time I hear it. 00:10:54.03 Moxie It's like, why not Zato-ni? 00:10:59.60 Will (FNGC) Ha 00:11:00.59 Jala Zato-ni would be the older brother of Zato-ichi. So anyway, Nii-san. 00:11:03.78 Moxie Okay, that's 00:11:04.44 Will (FNGC) ha ha. 00:11:05.85 Moxie The parents weren't very creative in their naming. 00:11:08.99 Jala Right, right. Anyway, moving right along. So Zatoichi, what is Zatoichi? Why are we here talking about this today? So Zatoichi as a series of films, it's actually like something like that. There's there's like almost 30 movies and over 100 episodes of TV from Japan dedicated to Zatoichi the blind swordsman so we'll get more into like what is Zatoichi as a whole and what is Yojimbo as a whole because they're both their own like big things um but this particular movie brings the two of those things together so this is a 1970 Chanbara film so Chanbara literally means sword fighting and these are the Japanese equivalent to like 00:11:41.24 Will (FNGC) Okay. 00:11:55.54 Jala your swashbuckler film in the West. So it's Samurai and Ronin and in this, that, and the other So they are usually set pre-Meiji era, so in the late Edo period most of the time. 00:12:12.16 Jala So right before the like industrialization and revolution, the opening up of Japan. So ah these movies, the Chanbara movies, are a subset of jidaigeki or period drama films. 00:12:27.18 Jala So there's lots and lots of jidaigeki, but this is amongst the jidaigeki. The sword fighting ones are one of them. and There's also a lot of different types of dramas and things like that as well. 00:12:38.71 Jala And I would argue like Zatoichi films, even though they do feature the sword play, there is a lot of period drama, like drama, drama happening in these, all of these movies as well. 00:12:46.13 Will (FNGC) doesn't add a lot of that for sure 00:12:48.93 Moxie Yeah, I mean, this one in particular actually doesn't have that much sword fighting. 00:12:54.16 Jala Yeah, it doesn't. 00:12:54.76 Will (FNGC) yep that's true 00:12:55.00 Jala And that's what's kind of interesting. Usually Zatoichi has more sword fighting than this, but it's like in spurts, there's like... three minutes of battle scene and then just like 15, 20 minutes without anything going on like that. It's all just talking and stuff happening. 00:13:10.50 Jala So this one is paced more on the slow side. We can say from the beginning, it's not like a breakneck kind of adventure story. 00:13:16.47 Will (FNGC) Okay. 00:13:20.27 Jala This is the 20th feature film in the Zatoichi series, but the thing about them is that you don't have to watch them in order. 00:13:20.55 Moxie Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 00:13:26.37 Jala You can watch whatever one and pick up the storyline real easy and go. so It is 115 minutes long, so about two hours. And, um, the production and starring role both belong to, Shintaro Katsu, who is the guy who played Zatoichi up until the mid eighties when he finally passed away. 00:13:50.17 Jala And there have been a couple of people try to redo Zatoichi after that, like newer films with Zatoichi, but they're not the same. It's not the same kind of vibe is, is what Shintaro Katsu brought. 00:14:02.52 Will (FNGC) Gotcha. 00:14:04.42 Moxie Yeah, the one the one I know of that like came out relatively recently when I was in college like was super violent and gory, which is really weird to me. 00:14:17.08 Jala Right, right. Because like, that's that like, yes, violence happens. Yes. Gore is in there, but like, that's not the emphasis of these films. The emphasis is on the characters and the setting in like the politics of what's going on and basically every single episode. 00:14:33.00 Jala And it doesn't even matter if there's ah political figures in the thing. That's always the, the interpersonal dramas that are emphasized a lot because this is really like a period drama piece. 00:14:43.83 Moxie right 00:14:44.30 Will (FNGC) Yeah, that very much sounds like the more modern day, you know, oh, it's like the 2000s, let's take something kind of old and then just make it, you know, violent or gory or action-packed for the sake of, I'm like, you're completely missing the plot. 00:14:53.02 Moxie right exactly like I could see if you did like if you wanted to make a movie that was Zatoichi back when we stole a yakuza 00:14:57.22 Jala Right. Well, I mean, yeah. 00:15:07.28 Jala Right, right. 00:15:07.77 Will (FNGC) Yeah, like a prequel. 00:15:08.36 Jala That would make sense. 00:15:08.64 Will (FNGC) Yeah. 00:15:09.56 Jala but the thing is, is that like during the, that particular era that you mentioned, it's like how many things they were trying to like up the ante to try to shock you in a new way all the time. 00:15:19.15 Moxie Thank you. 00:15:21.26 Jala And that's what the whole emphasis was on is that we have to make it bigger. And, you know, there has to be more 00:15:25.57 Will (FNGC) Bigger, badder, more uncut. 00:15:27.27 Jala Right, right. So we have two big stars in this movie. So there's Shintaro Katsu, but there's also Toshiro Mifune, who is the guy who plays Yojimbo. 00:15:38.01 Jala And he played the very first iteration of Yojimbo in terms of film from Akira Kurosawa, as well as various other Yojimbo characters who are either that same guy or an iteration of. 00:15:52.55 Jala So um in this film, he's legally distinct Yojimbo. 00:15:55.76 Will (FNGC) I love that. I love that in the notes. Legally distinct Yojimbo. 00:15:59.25 Jala He's like, so like for American audiences, you know how in Red Sonja you have Arnold Schwarzenegger playing basically Conan with some clothes on and his name is Prince Kalidor. 00:16:08.43 Will (FNGC) Mm-hmm. 00:16:10.40 Jala That's because they couldn't get the rights to put Conan, but they got the same guy to come and play the character and just called him something different, but it's supposed to be Conan. 00:16:16.58 Will (FNGC) Mm-hmm. 00:16:19.14 Jala And that's how it was intended to be. 00:16:22.11 Moxie It was really weird. They only had budget for either Conan or for Conan's clothes. And since this time they went with the clothes, they couldn't have Conan. 00:16:31.56 Jala Right, right. So let's talk a little bit about, like, who is Zatoichi as a character. First, do either of you want to read some of the notes, or do you want me to keep on going on and you guys interject? 00:16:45.40 Will (FNGC) mean, I'm fine with you being the master of ceremonies and I'll interject. 00:16:48.48 Will (FNGC) and If you ever feel tired, let me know, point to me in the camera. 00:16:49.03 Jala You're like, okay, when but I'm very tired, I'll be like, whoa, whoa. 00:16:53.31 Will (FNGC) There you go. You, it's your turn. 00:19:57.63 Jala Okay. So who is Zatoichi? Zatoichi is a blind swordsman and masseur from the late Edo period, just before the Meiji era. 00:20:10.85 Jala So the character's name is actually Ichi. Zato is a title, the lowest of the four social ranks within the Todoza, the historical guild for blind men. Thus, Zato also designates a blind person in Japanese slang. So, you know, um that's a word for somebody who's blind. So calling him Zatoichi, technically you're supposed to say Zato no Ichi, but they shorten it to Zatoichi. 00:20:37.89 Jala It just means blind Ichi. 00:20:38.12 Moxie So this this movie is funny because like both the main characters have Doctor Who syndrome where like what everyone thinks is their name isn't actually their name. 00:20:53.50 Jala Yeah, yeah. It's something like that, at least for him. 00:20:55.92 Will (FNGC) Yeah. 00:20:56.22 Jala Like, ah his name is actually Ichi. It's in there, but it's also got, like, you know, and something above it. 00:21:00.57 Moxie Yeah. But like Yojimbo's even worse. Like I didn't, until you started using it in the notes, I actually didn't know his name. And I've seen this movie a couple of times. 00:21:11.38 Jala Right, right. So Zato, however, like these notes, this note here on Zatoichi, it's funny, it came from their Wikipedia, the entry for Zatoichi. 00:21:22.06 Jala But what they don't tell you in this this note from, I believe this is Moxie's note, um ah about Zato signifies ah massage person, like a person who gives massage a blind masseur. 00:21:33.95 Will (FNGC) This is. Mm-hmm. 00:21:34.61 Jala Yeah, yeah, yeah. That is correct. Like, uh, Zato for but specifically means somebody who is blind, who gives massages. Like, Anma is the other word that is most often used in this movie. 00:21:47.76 Jala And that's the one that's throughout the rest of my notes. Zato is another word for that. Um, but Zato, I think can also be extrapolated to just mean a blind person more generally. 00:21:57.11 Moxie Yeah, yeah. 00:21:57.25 Jala So yeah. Anyhow, um being a lesser hinnin or non-person, they went there to people of that era. 00:22:05.06 Will (FNGC) Yep. 00:22:09.85 Jala The blind people and masseurs were regarded among the very lowest of the low in social class. So um basically other than outright criminals, they're like the lowest of the low. So that's why Ichi has the ability to do his massage work and then find out different stuff that's going on because all of these Yakuza or whatever, just dismiss him as being nothing and they don't care about talking in front of him. 00:22:31.64 Moxie Mm-hmm. 00:22:35.28 Jala So it's not just the massage trope of, you know, people who do people talk to the most, you know, out of service persons, they talk to their barista, which doesn't happen here because there's no coffee. 00:22:45.75 Will (FNGC) Mm-hmm. 00:22:47.86 Jala Uh, they talk to their bartender and they talk to their massage therapist if they have one. So, you know, they'll, they'll pour out their whole soul to this person. So, uh, that's how Zatoichi gets all of his knowledge in the TV series and things like that is he'll just go, you know, do his job. And that, that gives him the information he needs in order to, um, you know, save the day in most situations. 00:23:15.06 Will (FNGC) It just seems so funny, too, because just looking at, you know, Ichi in general, I'm like, Ichi's not a small man at all. 00:23:20.79 Jala No. 00:23:20.98 Will (FNGC) So I'm like, the fact that like, oh, this guy's the lowest of the low, like no one would even know he's there. 00:23:26.16 Will (FNGC) I'm like, this guy's, I mean, he's not Jack Reacher. 00:23:28.89 Will (FNGC) But like, if you walk into a room, I'd notice. So. 00:23:31.10 Jala Right, right. 00:23:31.30 Moxie Right. Yeah. Yeah. 00:23:32.64 Jala Well, what helps him is that he often has this very humble way of presenting himself constantly. 00:23:38.33 Will (FNGC) It is very true. 00:23:40.05 Jala And part of that is because, so Zatoichi himself was, he started out as the Yakuza, as Moxie mentioned previously. so... so um You know, he started out that way and he eventually decides eventually decides that he's going to go on like a redemption arc, right? 00:23:55.01 Moxie you 00:24:00.76 Jala Like he turns away from that path and is like, I'm going to do good instead and I'm going to make up for the bad things that I've done. But he still has that gangsta in him and he still like goes and wants to... 00:24:12.45 Will (FNGC) Of course, yeah. I'll pull it out when I need to. 00:24:15.81 Jala Right, right. And so like, he still will kill everybody. He still will also go to the gambling house and, you know, cheat the crooks because that's, that's fine. 00:24:23.30 Will (FNGC) Yep. 00:24:24.59 Jala That's justice, right? That's Robin Hood shit, right? 00:24:26.02 Will (FNGC) Of course. Exactly, exactly. 00:24:27.70 Jala So he does that a lot. 00:24:27.98 Moxie Well, it's kind that That is something that I don't know if we want to talk about here or other places, but it is an interesting feature of these movies that... And I don't know if this is like a Zatoichi versus other stories or a Japanese versus Western thing, but like... 00:24:49.44 Moxie you know, when the fights start, like, Ichi just straights up kills people. Like, directly. 00:24:55.54 Will (FNGC) Easily. Mm-hmm. 00:24:58.47 Moxie And, like, it's very much, like, the Western equivalent of this character, like, a Western character that had this personality would either just straight up not kill people or at least would, like, very much, like, try not to kill people. But that is definitely not the way it is here. 00:25:18.28 Moxie And so I'm interested to know if that's his character if that's like a Japanese versus Western like storytelling norms. 00:25:26.41 Jala It could also just be because this is a period drama piece. And so this isn't like current day Japan where he's running around doing stuff. 00:25:29.83 Moxie Mm hmm. 00:25:34.25 Jala This is, you know, like pre-Meiji era Japan where it's period stuff. And so like the kind of way that people are working on this, they're not working on it from this mindset of like, you know, the morals that we have in our current day and age. They're working more with, well back in that time, you could kill a man if, you know, like they didn't have, like they had watchmen, but they didn't have POLICE-police the way that we do now. 00:25:57.21 Will (FNGC) True, true. 00:25:57.25 Moxie Right, right. 00:26:02.92 Moxie I mean, that debatably gets even into this story because like, to a certain degree, this story, a lot of it is like, oh yeah, the police will be here in like a week. 00:26:14.68 Jala Right. Or they're going to be like paid off and corrupt and terrible anyway. 00:26:19.99 Will (FNGC) Yeah, that's true. 00:26:20.98 Moxie Right. 00:26:22.69 Jala Going on about like the blind person theming, though, with this: not only are they considered to be like below people's notice, especially during this particular era of Japanese history, but they were also thought to be cursed. So if you were to kill an anma, and this comes into the narrative, if you were to kill one, then they were going to haunt you. 00:26:44.30 Jala And you were going to have bad luck from killing this anma. And this plays into the story as we go. 00:26:51.57 Will (FNGC) Pretty nice perk. 00:26:52.42 Will (FNGC) Nice perk to have. I'm not going lie. Makes people think twice. 00:26:56.60 Jala So this character was created by a novelist and historical writer named Kan Shimozawa. And this was his most famous character. His most famous work that he did was coming up with this character. 00:27:08.23 Jala So ah he first appeared in a 1948 essay called Zatoichi Monogatari or story, Zatoichi story. um And then he was originally a minor character in there. 00:27:22.32 Jala Zatoichi was then dramatically altered by Daiei Film, which is the company that distributes Zatoichi stuff. And um actor Shintaro Katsu they together collaborated on changing the character, turning him into, like, giving him main character energy, and then sending him out into the world in 1962 for the tale of Zatoichi or Zatoichi Monogatari. 00:27:47.30 Jala So, you know, that's... 00:27:48.22 Will (FNGC) This is the original Boba Fett is what I'm hearing. 00:27:50.67 Jala Yeah, yeah. 00:27:51.84 Will (FNGC) Take a small side character and you're like, you know what? 00:27:53.60 Will (FNGC) Let's just build an entire religion around this character. 00:27:55.94 Jala Mm-hmm. Yes, and that's exactly what happened here. 00:27:57.29 Will (FNGC) Yeah. 00:27:59.29 Jala So there were a total of 25 other sequels. So that's 26 total films and also over 100 episodes of the TV show. As I mentioned, this was one of Japan's longest running film series. 00:28:13.41 Jala So that's why it's a big deal. That's why we're talking about it, because you want to know how I first got into Zatoichi. It's a funny story, actually. My dad at that time was getting into going to the pawn shop and buying DVDs there and he just saw Zatoichi, a DVD of like a few of the episodes of the tv show in there and just brought it home and was like I think you'd like this and I'm like okay let's watch it and then I did. 00:28:42.34 Moxie He was right. 00:28:43.34 Will (FNGC) Correct. Entirely correct. 00:28:46.16 Jala Another thing that he brought home another time was Advent Children. He brought that home for me one time and he was like, I think you'd like this. 00:28:49.99 Will (FNGC) Oh. 00:28:51.88 Jala And I'm like, Final Fantasy 7. Okay. I don't really like Advent Children specifically, but you're on the right track. 00:28:59.10 Jala Pretty good job. mean, for somebody who doesn't pay any attention whatsoever to what I do, he's actually pretty good at figuring it out. 00:29:04.94 Will (FNGC) Oh, no. It's that dead guess. 00:29:07.79 Jala Yeah, yeah, he got some luck there. Anyway, so Zatoichi first comes across as a harmless blind anma, or masseur, and a gambler who wanders, making his living by playing dice and giving massages. 00:29:22.69 Jala You will also learn he does other stuff over the course of these movies. He knows acupuncture, singing, playing music, apparently. I want to see those. I haven't seen them yet. We have the entire Zatoichi collection. There was a Criterion Collection release sometime back. 00:29:34.96 Will (FNGC) It's all 26 movies. 00:29:36.48 Jala Yes. 00:29:37.24 Moxie Yeah, I'm actually looking at that now because I was interested to see if they just included everything, which it looks like they did, or if there were specific ones that they felt were most relevant. 00:29:44.02 Jala They did. No, it's all of it. 00:29:46.98 Will (FNGC) So is it the movies and the show? 00:29:48.34 Jala It's expensive now because it's out of print, but we got it before it was out of print and it was on a good sale. 00:29:52.84 Will (FNGC) Nice. Nice. 00:29:54.51 Moxie I think you can watch them, though, online, but that's neither one or no there. 00:29:59.62 Jala I will put a link in the show notes for folks from the Internet Archive. You can watch this movie subtitled online on the Internet Archive. So bless the Internet Archive. 00:30:08.51 Will (FNGC) true 00:30:08.81 Moxie Mm-hmm. 00:30:09.13 Jala Anyway, he comes across like he's just this guy who has a bunch of like a motley assortment of of skills, but he also plays dice. And that's how he makes his living between that and the massage work. 00:30:22.66 Jala But then. You know, he also a highly skilled swordsman. His sword is hidden in his cane. So he's got his blind man's cane, but his sword is hidden in there. And um he knows specifically Muraku-school Kenjutsu and Iaido, along with other general sword skills and sumo wrestling, apparently. 00:30:44.21 Jala I want to see that episode. 00:30:44.87 Will (FNGC) Ooh, would have loved to see that. 00:30:48.27 Moxie So I can actually speak to that some. 00:30:50.70 Moxie So sumo wrestling, there's a big difference between sumo, like the pseudo Shinto, like ritual sport and pseudo the martial arts. 00:30:51.46 Will (FNGC) Ooh. 00:31:02.33 Moxie So like the martial art I practice, we actually incorporate some like sumo drills and techniques and stuff like that. 00:31:10.09 Moxie So like actual historical sumo wrestling was basically like, rough and tumble judo. 00:31:17.64 Jala Hmm. Okay. 00:31:17.90 Moxie So that's, that's where some of that comes from. 00:31:20.17 Jala Cool. That makes sense. That tracks then. And then also Kyujutsu. So he knows Japanese archery. So ah you don't really know. 00:31:27.26 Moxie So I actually have a funny story with that. 00:31:30.55 Jala Okay. 00:31:31.64 Moxie So down in Huntsville, down in Alabama, the Alabama Renaissance Fair one of the local historians builds, like historically accurate medieval crossbows, but obviously not nearly as powerful and, you know has them set up where you could shoot them. 00:31:50.67 Jala right 00:31:53.90 Moxie And so, you know, we're there when one year and I look over and one of my friends is shooting the crossbow. The only problem is she's blind. 00:32:12.69 Moxie So she has the crossbow and then my other friend is like, you know doing like, all right, up a little, all right, to the left, to the right, you know, that that sort of thing. 00:32:19.58 Will (FNGC) Oh no. 00:32:22.44 Moxie And she did hit the target. She did it. 00:32:24.53 Jala Awesome. 00:32:25.69 Moxie So, but yeah, that's just why I think of that. 00:32:28.33 Will (FNGC) So this is realistic, so I hear. 00:32:29.69 Moxie Yep. 00:32:29.97 Jala yeah Awesome. That's very cool. Very cool. So there's not a lot that's said about Zatoichi's past in these movies. He says that he was a Yakuza at some point. 00:32:41.37 Jala But like there are some other tidbits you get throughout the course of all of the oeuvre that we've got to cover. Not today, but in general. So ah he lost his sight as a child through illness. His father disappeared um for unknown reasons when Zatoichi was about five years old. He is described by his swordsmanship instructor as having practiced constantly and with extreme devotion when he was a pupil in order to develop his incredible skills. Zatoichi says that he became a Yakuza during those years ah he spent training, which immediately precede the tale of Zatoichi. 00:33:17.68 Jala So that first movie is right after he's just gotten off of the Yakuza wagon. 00:33:23.09 Jala And he killed many people, which he later came to deeply regret, and then proceeded to kill many more people. 00:33:29.66 Will (FNGC) Many more. 00:33:31.32 Will (FNGC) As it goes, as it goes. 00:33:33.16 Jala Right. Well, mean, like this time he's killing criminals anyway. He's not killing like innocent people, which is presumably what he was doing before. 00:33:38.27 Will (FNGC) true 00:33:40.86 Jala So this is reflected in his willingness to involve himself in the fair the affairs of others, chiefly those suffering from oppression and exploitation or some form of corruption. 00:33:51.37 Jala And despite that moral reassessment in his new perspective and remorse, And most often because of them, he usually has a bounty on his head. So he's always got mercenaries coming after him constantly. 00:34:05.92 Jala But because of his earnestness, wit, and natural sense of empathy, many people who encounter him during his travels grow to respect and even care for him. So from here, we shift into like what he's carrying. I already mentioned he has a cane sword. 00:34:20.90 Jala It's traditional for him to have a katana. So he doesn't have that, though. He has this very specifically well-made shikomizue, which is prepared cane or cane sword, as we will call it. 00:34:34.31 Will (FNGC) Gotcha. 00:34:34.55 Jala That's because the use or possession of true fighting blades was formally outlawed for non-samurai during this Edo period. So he technically, even though he's trained in the art and can use a full katana, he doesn't because of the outlaw outlawed you know named nature of carrying that big weapon around. 00:34:56.45 Moxie I feel like that kind of, to a certain degree, encapsulates the encapsulates the character in that if you look at it, like everyone, like the only, I think the only other character in this movie that's a samurai is Yojimbo. 00:35:12.66 Moxie But everyone except Zatoichi has a sword. And so it's a thing where like, he yes, he's following the law, but it's a law that no one else cares about. 00:35:22.39 Will (FNGC) No one. Yep. 00:35:23.92 Jala Right, right. Well, I mean, like, that's, that's kind of the way that these stories of heroes that are reformed and everything tend to run... Like they're trying to overcorrect, right? Like they're going too much in the opposite direction of where they were before. 00:35:39.83 Will (FNGC) That and I'm sure with him trying to keep a lot of undercover kind of profile looks, you know, it's a lot easier to be like, oh, blind guy with a cane won't look the other way, you know, like a walking stick versus if a blind guy was walking around, especially a blind masseuse is walking around with like a katana on their hip. 00:35:53.84 Will (FNGC) I'd be like, this guy has a story. 00:35:55.60 Jala Right. He needs to be taken in for questioning or we need to stay the hell away from him and nobody trust him. 00:35:58.90 Will (FNGC) yep. Mm-hmm. 00:36:02.25 Jala Right. Right. So I do see some additional notes here. I believe this is Moxie. 00:36:08.02 Moxie Yeah, so one of the interesting things is that these sorts of ah cane swords generally were very low quality. I've seen some, saw at least one place that suggested that they were often not ah not the layered steel that katanas were, they're just straight up like a solid piece of steel. 00:36:29.75 Moxie And that's reflected in throughout the movies. the His sword often breaks, and that actually happens at the beginning this one. 00:36:37.26 Jala Mm-hmm. 00:36:39.51 Moxie And apparently there's actually a little bit of a question here, because in the immediately preceding movie... Like his sword breaks and finally some blacksmith is like, look, you dummy. 00:36:55.23 Moxie I'm going to actually make you a decent one of these staves and you know make someone that's an actual katana blade in a hidden. 00:37:03.28 Jala Right. 00:37:04.59 Moxie But for some reason by the start of this movie, he doesn't have it. 00:37:04.65 Jala Right. 00:37:09.76 Moxie Also, apparently in this movie, you know, his sword cane is actually more of a walking stick. 00:37:17.50 Jala Mm-hmm. 00:37:17.62 Moxie which I've not seen the other movies, but apparently in the other movies, it is much more like a traditional cane. 00:37:25.86 Jala Mm-hmm. 00:37:26.75 Moxie So just interesting. 00:37:26.82 Jala Mm-hmm. I wonder if, yeah, I wonder if some of those changes were because of bringing Yojimbo into it and wanting to make it look like less obvious for Yojimbo that this guy has this sword or whatever. I don't know. 00:37:39.71 Moxie Yeah, there also are some sight gags with that. 00:37:44.42 Moxie So that could also be an element to it. 00:37:47.98 Jala Right, right. So do we have any other comments about Zatoichi as a character before we move on to who is Yojimbo? 00:37:56.56 Will (FNGC) Nope. 00:37:58.21 Jala Cool, cool. So Yojimbo. So originally, the character of Sanjuro, played by Toshiro Mifune, is the wandering ronin character who acts as a Yojimbo or a bodyguard in two of Kurosawa's films, Yojimbo and Sanjuro. 00:38:13.77 Jala In both of those films, Sanjuro, which is a proper name, but also can be interpreted to mean 30 years old. So like he's, he he's, he's got a name, but it also is a thing that just is a descriptor. 00:38:21.90 Moxie Yeah. 00:38:27.37 Jala It's like an adjective. You have it, you know, like an adjective for a name or whatever. 00:38:32.29 Will (FNGC) Was that also that being an old age or is that just a more matter of fact? 00:38:37.38 Will (FNGC) Because I don't want to take personal offense. 00:38:40.39 Jala Well, here, the thing is, is that Sanjuro makes up a different surname. So in the different movies. So this leads some to label him as the Ronin with no name, which is where the man with no name was cribbing off of was this. 00:38:55.92 Will (FNGC) Nice, nice. 00:38:56.80 Jala So that's the origin of The Man With No Name from the Western films was the "Ronin with no name" because Sanjuro is a play off of, you don't know if that's really his name or if it's just a description. 00:39:09.64 Jala He's like a 30 year old guy running around with his sword. 00:39:13.35 Moxie Also, at least according to Google, life expectancy during the Edo period was about 45 years. 00:39:20.27 Moxie So 30 would probably be fairly old. 00:39:20.52 Jala Right. So he's probably pushing it. 00:39:23.47 Jala He's probably pushing it. and So ah we've already mentioned that he's legally distinct Yojimbo here. His name is not Sanjuro in here. His name is Sasa in here instead of Sanjuro. 00:39:33.64 Will (FNGC) Sasa. 00:39:36.04 Jala Starts with the same thing, but it's actually a name and it's a different name. So ah also his personality and his background are a little bit different from Sanjuro. Again, probably to avoid copyright infringement issues. 00:39:47.66 Jala So he would also, the same actor, Toshiro Mifune, would go on to play legally distinct Yojimbo in other films after this Zatoichi installment. So ah this film's version of Yojimbo is a ronin who doubles as a spy, drinks a lot, and is interested in Umeno-san, which is a geisha that works in the local establishment world. 00:40:08.50 Jala ah He is amused by Zatoichi and he ends up frenemies with him. And their chemistry and antagonism is really the highlight of the film. The reason I like this movie isn't all of the period drama or the swordplay. 00:40:16.90 Will (FNGC) Correct. 00:40:21.52 Jala It's just these two guys. 00:40:23.81 Will (FNGC) Their interactions really spell the whole movie for sure. 00:40:24.40 Jala That's why I like this film. Right. 00:40:29.91 Moxie Also do yourself a favor and look up a photo of Toshiro Mifune online because it's funny. He looks completely different when he's not playing like grungy samurai dude. Like, 00:40:49.70 Moxie His preferred hairstyle is slicked back and stuff like that. 00:40:57.72 Jala That's great. 00:40:59.05 Moxie So, question. In this one, not that matters, but just curious, is he technically a Ronin? Because like isn't that kind of the twist that he's maybe not technically a Ronin? 00:41:11.31 Jala Well, he mentions that he was samurai who had retainers and things, but he couldn't afford anything. He couldn't afford tea even at the local house. 00:41:18.38 Moxie Right. 00:41:21.80 Jala So like he ended up leaving being a samurai with a Lord. In order to do other jobs. And so he here he's working as. Yojimbo. But that's a cover for him being a spy. But he's still a swordsman. Who isn't under. like ah An established you know hierarchy. 00:41:41.69 Jala Of swords people. 00:41:43.88 Moxie Okay, okay. 00:41:44.63 Jala So he's still a Ronin here. So. 00:41:47.59 Moxie That makes sense. 00:41:49.17 Jala And his tagline in this movie. When his services are requested is, "((large sum)). If paid now, ((little sum))." 00:41:58.76 Will (FNGC) Every time, hits every single time. 00:42:00.96 Jala It's funny every time. It's the delivery he gives. 00:42:03.66 Will (FNGC) Yep. 00:42:03.68 Jala It's so serious and so matter of fact. And like he says it in this super serious. It's like, yeah, we'll get into the prices and stuff just a little bit too. But suffice to say, it's like $1,000 now or if you pay right now, $10, something like that. 00:42:23.30 Jala You know, it's ridiculous. 00:42:23.53 Will (FNGC) Yep. 00:42:25.12 Jala So ah There's also another note here, Moxie. 00:42:35.75 Moxie Oh yeah. So, um, so what, when the interesting things is like one of his signature kind of body language things is he walks around with his arms crossed on the inside of his kimono. 00:42:49.58 Moxie So he's like taking his arms out of the sleeves and has them crossed inside the kimono. And this, despite looking really badass, would make it super hard to draw a sword. 00:43:02.64 Jala Mm-hmm. 00:43:03.21 Moxie And so I've heard some suggestion that this could be intended to kind of indicate that, you know, as soon as you see this character, you know this is not the, you know, ultra-professional, like, super-serious samurai guy. Like, this has got someone who might be dangerous, but he's also a bit of a slob. 00:43:25.90 Jala Yeah. And that that tracks for his presentation in this movie, for sure. And then the kind of disposition he's giving off. 00:43:31.91 Moxie right 00:43:33.41 Jala So, so yeah. 43 to get the plot! Yeah. 45 minutes in, we get to the plot. 00:43:40.08 Moxie Yes. 00:43:41.70 Jala I should have put this earlier. Sorry. I wanted to explain who these characters were before we we got to the whole main thing. So um what is the plot of this movie? With a price on his head, Ichi seeks tranquility in a favorite village. 00:43:55.37 Jala Since his last visit, it has fallen prey to Boss Masagoro, the son of a merchant rumored to have stolen gold from the shogunate. The boss has hired Yojimbo as his hard-drinking enforcer, but Yojimbo is both a spy for the shogunate, trying to find the gold, and in love with the merchant's unwilling mistress, Umeno. 00:44:15.09 Jala Ichi hires on as the merchant's masseur and buys Umeno's freedom with his employer's own money. the This embarrasses Yojimbo, who withdraws from a pact with Ichi to stir up trouble between father and son and their gangs. 00:44:28.19 Jala As the two sides fight, Ichi finds the gold and sets up a final set of confrontations. So ah that is the overall story. As you can tell, there's a lot of interplay between these characters going on. There's a lot of characters involved. 00:44:42.71 Will (FNGC) Thank you. 00:44:44.42 Jala There's a lot of ah moving parts to get the story going where it's going. So again, this is more of a slower pace, but overall, um again, the biggest draw, at least for me, is just the two main characters and how they interact with one another. 00:45:00.37 Jala Not just because of their personal dispositions, but also the way that the two actors chemistry is on screen. So um that's the, all of the pre spoiler wall stuff, unless you guys have something else you want to say. 00:45:14.60 Moxie Nope. That's what I got. 00:45:15.03 Will (FNGC) Yeah, no, I think all the really fun stuff is unfortunately behind the spoiler wall, so yeah. 00:45:18.30 Jala Right, right. Well, we'll go ahead and save like who would you recommend it for until afterwards because we'll relive all the highlights first and then we'll talk about that at the end. 00:45:19.24 Moxie Yep. 00:45:27.09 Will (FNGC) For sure. 00:45:28.86 Jala So if this is your first time listening to Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo, you've never seen this movie before. The link is in the show notes for you to go watch it on Internet Archive. Go do yourself a favor and watch it. 00:45:39.62 Jala It is fun and funny. 00:45:40.74 Will (FNGC) It's really good. 00:45:42.12 Jala And then come back and listen to us talk about it from here. 00:45:45.64 Jala The spoiler wall is erect. It is erect. Yes. Okay. 00:45:49.67 Moxie Ha ha ha. 00:45:51.90 Jala Okay. Here we go. So the film opens up with Zatoichi, the blind swordsman, constantly being attacked by mercenaries as he travels, as he is a wanted man. 00:46:02.68 Jala During the many fights, his cane sword breaks. In the middle of a rainstorm, he has taken a brief moment of shelter and decides he needs a break and wants to return to a town he once lived in. 00:46:13.36 Jala He is poetic about the way he can sense he is there. "I remember the spring breeze, the sound of the stream, and the sweet scent of plum blossoms." And the credits roll as he makes his way there. 00:46:26.59 Jala He passes a massive group of Jizo statues on his way in, which is a first sign of trouble because those are totems to protect the souls of children's travelers and more importantly are often also found in graveyards. Those are markers of the deceased. 00:46:41.69 Jala So it's more or less you are walking into a graveyard. 00:46:45.85 Will (FNGC) Yep, not a good omen. 00:46:47.15 Moxie So important to realize when you, uh, fill up your Animal Crossing house with Jizo or whatever, you are now super haunted. 00:46:47.14 Jala Yeah. 00:46:54.00 Will (FNGC) Jizo statues. 00:46:55.27 Jala Right. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So he talks to Tome, the blacksmith, finding that he's crafting a sword rather than a farming tool. 00:47:06.44 Jala He asks Tome to make a blade for him as his broke. So going back to the earlier note about the cane swords not being well made, this is ah like a farming town village guy blacksmith who he's like, make me a blade. 00:47:21.01 Will (FNGC) Give me a sword. 00:47:21.22 Jala Because, yeah, it's not a master swordsmith, make me a sword. It's, hey, the guy that makes the hoe. 00:47:28.03 Will (FNGC) Yep. The rakes. 00:47:29.96 Jala Yeah, the rakes and the hoes. 00:47:31.68 Jala I need you to make me this. You know, instead of a horihori, make me my cane sword. So anyway. 00:47:37.54 Moxie Also at this point, he's like, Zatoichi is apparently completely broke. 00:47:42.88 Jala Yeah, yeah. 00:47:43.63 Jala He has no money either. So Tome is asking Zatoichi why he's back and is told that Zatoichi wants to relax and visit an open air hot spring to "enjoy the spring breeze, the sound of the stream, the scent of the plum blossoms and the song of the nightingale." 00:47:57.83 Will (FNGC) Yep. 00:47:59.69 Jala So he is really waxing poetic. He's setting you up right and you've already come to a place that he thinks of so nostalgically and seen that it's graveyard. And then we cut to the hot springs indoors. 00:48:12.81 Jala Will talk about this, will you? 00:48:14.80 Will (FNGC) So with the hot spring surrounded by lots of loud crowds of people running around and splashing. The place is full of Yakuza, three of whom jump into the spring and splashes Zatoichi. 00:48:26.18 Will (FNGC) He gets to a massage, or rather he goes to get a massage, but the Anma working on him, another poor masseur, does such a poor job that he decides to show him how to properly do it. 00:48:36.75 Will (FNGC) So he's like... doing a poor job because he's also trying to frisk him and like fleece him down to get some things out, which you find out shortly. um But I just loved that flip over and he say, oh, let me show you how to do it And he's just like breaking his spine, like digging his elbows into this guy's back, which, you know, he was trying to rob him. 00:48:52.70 Will (FNGC) So it's not like you feel bad, but you kind of feel bad. Yeah. 00:48:55.16 Jala Right, right. 00:48:56.86 Will (FNGC) So as they talk, we learn that the shitty Anma is really there to steal from the patrons clothes while giving a massage. So yeah, he was like doing a very bad job while trying to feel out his pockets for anything, which we just heard. 00:49:06.39 Jala Mm-hmm. 00:49:08.28 Will (FNGC) Ichi does come into the town completely penniless. So not so not so much of a mark there. 00:49:14.78 Jala No, no. 00:49:15.67 Will (FNGC) So they're interrupted by the three Yakuza who earlier jumped into the spring, all of whom demand the services of both Anmas. So while massaging one of them, Zatoichi feels the raised skin on the man's tattoos and realizes they're criminals, and he dislocates their arms. 00:49:30.18 Will (FNGC) Now, I would ask both of you to try to refresh me a little bit more. 00:49:34.46 Will (FNGC) As far as with that, i was trying to remember because I was like reading back through these. um And so I know it like he feels the tattoos and he feels the bumps. But is he doing the same move? I'm trying to remember what he did with old armor where he's just like digging in, like ends up dislocating. 00:49:45.45 Jala No, no, no. 00:49:46.29 Will (FNGC) Or does he just straight twist them? 00:49:46.33 Jala He grabs the wrist and just twists each one of them. 00:49:50.33 Moxie Yeah, yeah, straight up dislocated. 00:49:50.42 Will (FNGC) Yep, yep, yep. 00:49:53.48 Will (FNGC) So he's out there breaking arms, tearing out tendons. 00:49:54.04 Jala Yep. Yep. 00:49:56.63 Will (FNGC) The three Yakuza men, they go to boss Masagoro and tell him about the incident. Upon hearing Zatoichi's name, Masagoro goes to his Yojimbo, Sasa, and tells him that a dangerous man with a hundred Ryo bounty on his head has come to town. 00:50:11.34 Will (FNGC) Sasa says that he will take care of the problem, but when he hears that it's an Anma, he refuses, saying he does not want to be haunted, as we previously stated. 00:50:18.73 Jala Mm-hmm. 00:50:18.96 Will (FNGC) Kill an Anma, haunted for life. Most people would like to avoid that. 00:50:21.04 Jala Yep. Right. 00:50:23.47 Will (FNGC) The three men insist, and Sasa says he'll do it for one ryo apiece, but if they don't have that, he will take one bun now. And is it bun? 00:50:30.70 Jala "Boon. Boon." ((pronunciation assistance)) 00:50:31.53 Will (FNGC) Bun. He will take one bun now. 00:50:32.49 Jala Yep. 00:50:32.65 Will (FNGC) So playing into that whole big now, or rather big later or little now, which is a lovely, lovely little repetition that he has going on. 00:50:41.30 Jala Right. So the ongoing joke about Masagoro is that he always calls Sasa sensei, but because he is part of the nobility, he's like the higher, snootier class. 00:50:53.80 Jala He's got a lisp, which is the indication that he's high and mighty is he's got this list. So he goes..."SHEN-shay" 00:50:59.50 Jala And then that's the thing that Sasa is constantly doing to him. He goes, "SHEN-shay" and he's just making fun of him the entire time. Every time he comes over and says it he just sneers and says it back in this hilarious way. Like every time it's funny It doesn't even matter Every time he does it, it's funny. 00:51:16.97 Will (FNGC) Which, dear listeners, my two compatriots here, oh, sorry to cut you off there, Moxie, but just in this same vein, my two compatriots here who had I believe both had seen the movie before, were like, oh, yeah, we should do a drinking game every time he says sensei, which I would have been plastered within like 30 minutes. 00:51:32.06 Moxie That's why I was about to say, yeah, that that is like the drinking game that might not actually be a good idea. 00:51:38.71 Jala Right, right. So money, I do have a note here about the money a little bit more. ah So trying to pin down exactly how much this was worth during the Edo period in the specific nondescript era that this was happening, it depends on the region and the exact month even that the thing was happening because there were so many fluctuations in the money and so many problems happening. 00:51:53.96 Will (FNGC) Oof. 00:52:02.61 Jala with a mint at this time in Japan. So ah the best estimates I could find, though, for how this money works back then, one ryo was equivalent to one koku of rice, which is enough to feed one person for a full year. 00:52:16.43 Jala So one ryo could feed a person for a full year. In the late Edo period, it was 18 grams of gold. Four bun, aka four mon of the bu denomination, because there's different denominations of the mon. 00:52:31.13 Jala The mon are like the round coins with the little square hole in the middle of them. 00:52:35.31 Will (FNGC) Okay, pretty classic yet. 00:52:35.47 Moxie Mm-hmm. 00:52:35.96 Jala So ah there's different denominations depending upon the metal that it's made out of. And so bun, four bun is mon that are of a specific denomination. 00:52:46.70 Jala So 4 bun equals 1 ryo. So when Sasa's saying 1 Ryo, but if paid now 1 bun, he's saying a hundred dollars or if paid now 25 bucks. 00:52:59.38 Will (FNGC) It's a deal, if I do say so myself. Yep, yep. 00:53:01.73 Jala There's other times where he has a much bigger number and then a very, very small number later. But this one is like the first one to kind of get you started in that vein. 00:53:12.04 Moxie So the thing I want to know from all this is how much does sake cost? Because like, he's got to be blowing all his money on something because he several times in this, um, in this, uh, movie gets like a couple years salary. 00:53:17.83 Jala Right. 00:53:31.54 Jala Yeah. Yeah. Well, it depends on how much you're drinking and how much of a tab he already has that he hasn't paid that he needs to pay, like back pay that he has to do. 00:53:40.59 Moxie That is true. 00:53:41.51 Jala So, I mean, you know, it could be anything really. So, um, we returned to see Zatoichi being led by the fake Anma through the town and they are attacked by Masagoro's men, But Zatoichi fends them off. 00:53:54.23 Jala And the fake Anma dies, however, ah because they don't know which one of these Anma is the one that is worth the money. 00:53:59.96 Will (FNGC) That's true. 00:54:00.61 Jala So they just kill, they try to kill both of them. They only successfully killed the fake Anma. And this fake Anma, as he's dying, you know, reaches out for Zatoichi's hand and spells into his hand, "Yojim--", and then dies. 00:54:14.65 Jala And then right after this, like, this isn't like huh, wonder what he was trying to say to me. Immediately Sasa shows up right there. 00:54:21.23 Will (FNGC) Just pops right into frame. 00:54:23.51 Jala So, he starts yelling for Zatoichi and, he sloshed and he's stumbling around. He's like, blah, blah, blah. And b he's stumbling as he's walking and everything. 00:54:35.70 Jala And, uh, He ends up attacking. He runs at Zatoichi, or he comes up first and he taunts Zatoichi, and then he pulls out his sword and then stabs at him. 00:54:46.14 Jala But then Zatoichi's like, ah! And then, you know, he steps back after he pretends that he's been killed. And then you see that he's just sheathed Sasa's sword. 00:54:56.77 Jala And so he's, ah! And then the sword, you know, the sheath is completely on the sword. And Sasa looks at it and looks at him and he's like, You know, you are a monster or a bakemono. 00:55:07.63 Moxie Yeah, they aren't paying me enough for this. 00:55:11.14 Jala Yeah. Yeah. Because Zatoichi is absolutely fine. He just, you know, did a fancy quick move and, you know, completely avoided being hurt. So Sasa again calls him Bakemono or monster. 00:55:22.54 Jala And then in retort, Zatoichi says, you're a Kedamono, a beast. So this is a kind of running thing that they do back and forth the entire movie. 00:55:32.76 Jala They're like monster, beast, monster, beast. And they're making fun of each other the whole time. 00:55:37.43 Will (FNGC) That's when they became best friends. 00:55:38.84 Jala Yep. 00:55:39.66 Moxie Yep, frenemies. 00:55:39.71 Will (FNGC) That's just how two guys become friends. 00:55:40.35 Jala That's their nicknames. That's their nicknames. That's it. You know, they got to have a fight and they got to have a nickname. 00:55:45.77 Will (FNGC) Yep. 00:55:46.74 Jala And then now that they got those down, they're besties. 00:55:49.54 Will (FNGC) They're locked in. 00:55:50.79 Moxie Now, correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm not sure about this, but, you know, kind of the vibe I got from this is that Sasa calling him a monster actually has a bit of an edge to it, because in this time period, being blind would have been considered like effectively, like a serious deformity. And so like him calling him a monster almost is like a slur. Yeah. 00:56:21.31 Jala Right. It's kind of like, you know, same kind of era, different place in the world-- Hunchback of Notre Dame, calling him a hunchback. 00:56:29.80 Will (FNGC) true That's true. 00:56:30.48 Jala I mean, calling him any kind of name like that already, that's already bad. 00:56:34.47 Jala You know, I also have scoliosis. If you call me a hunchback, I will murder you. So, you know, yeah. 00:56:39.40 Will (FNGC) true. There you go. 00:56:41.00 Jala Yeah. So, so going right along with this film, though, Sasa proclaims that he likes Zatoichi and he's definitely worth the 100 ryo bounty. He then says that they're going to go drinking because he's already had too much to drink. So why not drink more? 00:56:57.27 Jala And he doesn't want to kill Zatoichi right now. He doesn't feel like it. 00:57:01.21 Jala He's had too much to drink. Let's just go have some more, you know? ah So when Zatoichi protests, Sasa assumes it's because he's blind and needs to be led. So he has Zatoichi hold the end of the dead Anma's walking stick while he holds the other end so he can lead him, which is this stupid and cute moment. 00:57:20.01 Will (FNGC) was about to say, it's such a cute shot. when He's just like, this is my new best friend. 00:57:21.54 Jala It's so fucking cute and stupid.Right, right. And I did want to mention too that right before the on the fake Anma got killed, Zatoichi is being led through the town by that Anma. 00:57:34.67 Jala And he bends down on the ground and he's like, are you really blind? And the guy's like, no, that part's true. I really am blind. He's like... Oh, good. And he picks up a coin because he found a mon on the ground. 00:57:47.85 Jala And so he sticks it in his ear to just keep it, I guess. 00:57:51.11 Jala I don't know why he stuck it in his ear, but he did. And that's where it's at. This comes up. 00:57:54.66 Moxie Yeah, so that was something I actually wondered if there was some sort of, you know, I don't know, language joke or something, because, like, it very explicitly shows him getting the coin, storing it his ear, having it later and using it to buy the drinks. 00:57:55.26 Jala That's why I mentioned it. Mm-hmm. 00:58:13.18 Moxie And, like, at least as far as I can tell, like, it's very obvious that the director or whoever, decided to show this but doesn't seem to actually add to the story. 00:58:26.52 Moxie So I don't know if there's some deeper anything to it or what. 00:58:30.83 Jala I don't know. I don't have any particular knowledge that would allow me to answer that question. 00:58:36.20 Will (FNGC) Yeah, me neither. 00:58:37.18 Moxie So one thing I love here is there's a bit of a gag um where when Yojimbo is leading him by his staff, 00:58:49.90 Moxie You know this is, ah you know, Yojimbo is basically intended to just kind of drag him along, that sort of thing. The problem is this being a sword cane, like if he pulls on it, it'll unsheathe the sword and it'll be obvious what's going on. 00:59:05.40 Moxie And so like there's a scene where it like starts to come unsheathe and then like Zatoichi has to like kind hustle and op open and like keep up with him to keep from being revealed, which is really cute. 00:59:15.40 Jala Yeah, so it's not the fake Anma sword. It's actually Zatoichi's cane sword that we've got here. 00:59:22.28 Moxie That's right. 00:59:24.09 Jala So, right after these two chuckleheads leave, the police chief shows up and his men find the body and then they scream, hey, did anybody notice anything happening? 00:59:34.79 Will (FNGC) Yeah. 00:59:35.59 Jala That's the best way to do detective work, I find. 00:59:37.56 Will (FNGC) High quality police work. I love it. 00:59:39.24 Jala Quality. Quality. So, Moxie, you had some more notes on that? 00:59:43.22 Moxie Yep. Well, I was just wondering what your read was on the police chief character, because he's definitely a comic relief character, but it's done in a way that makes me feel like there's maybe some sort of trope I'm missing or something like that. Because, i know, just like his overall vibe is a little off. Is that just me, or did you feel the same way? 01:00:08.49 Will (FNGC) This is Tomo we're talking about, right? 01:00:10.40 Moxie Is it Tomo, the police chief? 01:00:13.42 Will (FNGC) Is it Tomo? 01:00:14.29 Jala I think so. 01:00:14.62 Will (FNGC) Or is it? Okay. I can't remember if was him or if was his different officer. 01:00:15.86 Jala I believe his name is Tomo. 01:00:15.91 Moxie Okay. 01:00:18.00 Will (FNGC) But yeah, I don't know if that ah that kind of bumbling police officer trope translates across the sea. I don't know if that's like a more universal thing or not. I kind of imagined it was. So I just kind of leaned into that being like, oh, police being incompetent, that's like everywhere. 01:00:29.11 Moxie That could be, yeah that very well could be. 01:00:31.15 Jala So... 01:00:32.64 Will (FNGC) Yeah. 01:00:33.25 Jala So the thing that I noticed about it is that in this scene here, he's putting forth this really aggressive, hey, blah blah, blah, blah, you know, kind of yelling out into the void or whatever when he doesn't have someone in front of him. 01:00:33.50 Moxie Yeah. 01:00:46.17 Jala But the moment that he's got Zatoichi in front of him, he is suited completely cowed. And in front of the higher up that comes to town and everything, he is completely cowed. 01:00:50.43 Will (FNGC) There you go. 01:00:57.30 Jala But if it's anybody lower, you know, lower on the totem pole in his estimation, then he's fine being aggressive and being a bully, you know. So, right, exactly. 01:01:06.85 Moxie Some things never change. 01:01:09.92 Jala So from here, you want to continue, Will? 01:01:13.96 Will (FNGC) So cutting back to Sasa and Zatoichi, who have arrived at the place Sasa wants to drink. He asks if Zatoichi has any money with him. Once he confirms Zatoichi can foot the bill, he barges in and says, just bring a barrel of sake. So I'm trying to remember here, too, did, I guess, between coming into town, dealing with the fake anma and the other people, did Zatoichi, oh, no, no, we just talked about the coin. 01:01:34.83 Jala Yeah, he found the one coin in the ground. 01:01:34.90 Will (FNGC) Okay, okay. Yeah, must say, yeah, the one coin. So I guess that's going to be enough for a barrel full of sake, right? 01:01:42.13 Moxie which is like 13 to like, you know, 15, 17% alcohol content. 01:01:48.24 Moxie so like, that's a lot of booze. 01:01:49.06 Will (FNGC) Wild. 01:01:50.36 Jala Well, he's already sloshed, so how much can he drink before he passes out is the question. 01:01:55.60 Will (FNGC) This is true. 01:01:56.34 Jala Because he passes out a lot too in this movie. 01:01:58.50 Will (FNGC) You give him a little bit of water and he's like, delicious. You're like, yeah, I bet it is. 01:02:01.80 Jala Yeah. Yeah. 01:02:10.75 Will (FNGC) All right. So, here we meet Umeno-san, a geisha who Zatoichi remembers fondly and seems to have been in love with. She pretends she does not remember him and brushes him off. 01:02:19.92 Jala She is so cold about it too. 01:02:21.66 Will (FNGC) Just a little... 01:02:21.84 Jala He's like, Oh, your hand is so soft. And she's like, I don't know what you're talking about. Don't you remember me? I was here three years ago. Oh, I've, I've seen a lot of men like just really like her tone and everything. 01:02:33.83 Jala She's just like, you know, 01:02:35.66 Moxie She is, by this point, she has seen some shit. 01:02:38.88 Jala She has seen a lot of shit. And like the whole reason why she is a geisha, which we will learn about as the movie progresses, makes her a harder person. 01:02:46.55 Jala So like when he last saw her, she wasn't a geisha and her parents were still alive. He asks about them and then she's like, no, they died. 01:02:57.37 Jala All of the good ones die. So, well, I think I put that later in the notes when that comes up. But anyway, ah continuing on though. 01:03:03.74 Will (FNGC) Yeah, that's the one there. 01:03:05.87 Will (FNGC) He remembers from the last time they were back three years ago, but they died, so parents are both gone. 01:03:11.22 Will (FNGC) Umeno refers to herself as a crook, as does Sasa. Zatoichi insists he is also a crook, which I mean we kind of know, but I don't know if they are really you know dealing with them. And then Sasa rags on him, if you're a crook, act like one. 01:03:22.97 Will (FNGC) So he moodily grabs the bottle of sake and chugs it down from the bottle, which is all a little sad looking. 01:03:26.66 Jala I know it was such a funny scene. Cause he was like this little toddler, like, 01:03:32.38 Moxie Yeah, it's funny, like both of these characters, Sasa and Zatoichi are kind of different types of children. 01:03:43.88 Jala Yes, 100%. 01:03:44.96 Moxie Zatoichi is just adorable. Sasai is just kind of belligerent, but yeah. 01:03:52.39 Jala He's a punk. 01:03:53.77 Will (FNGC) Very much so. 01:03:53.84 Jala Sasa's a punk. So, right. 01:03:56.93 Will (FNGC) He's that kid running around the schoolyard kicking dirt on people. 01:03:57.06 Jala Right. 01:04:00.56 Will (FNGC) And I was like, oh, God, who's this child? 01:04:02.55 Will (FNGC) Someone come get this kid. 01:04:04.14 Jala Right. 01:04:04.65 Moxie Yep. 01:04:04.75 Jala So somebody comes in to Umeno and tells her that Eboshiya is visiting. Eboshiya is a wealthy silk merchant who runs half of the town, the other half being run by his wayward son Masagoro. So this is Masagoro, Boss Masagoro, who has the Yojimbo. 01:04:22.43 Jala His father is a wealthy merchant. That's why he has his lisp and that's why he's nobility or whatever. And also Eboshiya is a very central character to this entire thing. 01:04:34.96 Jala So Umeno goes to greet him and meanwhile Tozo, the police chief, and his men come for Zatoichi saying that he's suspected of killing the fake Anma. So Sasa stands up to Tozo telling him that they can't take Zatoichi because he's Sasa's 100 Ryo. 01:04:51.07 Will (FNGC) Can't take my money. 01:04:51.17 Jala You can't take my bounty. This is my bounty, you know. He's sitting right there. 01:04:57.13 Jala That's mine. Yeah. So Zatoichi insists that Sasa not make a ruckus in Umeno-san's place and thanks Sasa for the drink. And when Ichi's money is requested, he flips the coin to Sasa and it lands perfectly on the top of the sake bottle. 01:05:10.96 Jala And then Ichi leaves with the cops after that. 01:05:13.68 Will (FNGC) Quite a flex. Definitely a nice flex. 01:05:15.05 Moxie Mm-hmm. 01:05:15.87 Will (FNGC) And also Tozo, not Tomo. 01:05:15.96 Jala Yep. 01:05:17.38 Will (FNGC) So that was me. 01:05:17.46 Jala Tozo. You were close. 01:05:18.85 Will (FNGC) I was almost there. 01:05:19.64 Jala I was like, it sounds right. 01:05:21.14 Jala It's like, you only hear his name like twice in the whole movie. 01:05:24.13 Will (FNGC) Yeah, not very often. 01:05:26.75 Jala So, Umeno-san comes rushing back saying that Eboshiya desires Ichi's services as an anma, but finds out that he's gone. Sasa looks at the coin Ichi flipped him and says again, he doesn't want Ichi to hunt him as he's like laying back down to go pass out on the ground. 01:05:42.25 Jala So, so yeah, we'll toss off to you. 01:05:46.08 Will (FNGC) Yep. So while Ichi's walking with the police, he learns that the head inspector is coming in a few days time, because I'm sure that's generally how it happens with these villages. You have your police chief, Tozo, who is a bit of a, like you said, a coward in people's faces. 01:05:58.11 Will (FNGC) And then when you actually need to get something done or get something figured out, you have to send off for somebody to come out for a week. So they have, well, you know, seven to five days before somebody actually can come and do something. 01:06:03.54 Jala Right. Mm-hmm. 01:06:07.43 Jala Right. 01:06:07.58 Will (FNGC) However, the local police intend to hang him before then. He stubs his toe on a rock intentionally bending over as to check his toe, but he really grabs the rock, you know, kind of slides it up into a piece of cloth so they can use that as a weapon later on. 01:06:11.14 Jala Mm-hmm. 01:06:20.83 Will (FNGC) Says he's afraid of heights so he can't be hung at the town gate the way the police intend. Just a lovely little gag there. He's like, sorry guys, you can't hang me up that high. 01:06:28.29 Will (FNGC) You kind of put me somewhere in a little bit lower. He attacks them and manages to knock out a couple, but then accidentally smacks himself in the forehead, and he also drops to the ground unconscious. and So this is the part two where I was like, okay, we're getting very slapstick-y. 01:06:39.14 Jala Right. 01:06:42.46 Will (FNGC) I'm loving the drama and the comedy all kind of mixing together with a little bit of action that we've had on the side already. 01:06:42.49 Jala right 01:06:42.97 Moxie yep 01:06:48.44 Will (FNGC) So ah this is a very fun scene there, just him hitting himself in the face with the rock. 01:06:53.25 Jala Well, he smacks himself in the face with the rock. His head goes back and his eyes cross. And then he just like slumps. And it's like the funny, a funny delivery where he's like, "I am surprised I just did that." But the thing about this too is the cadence with which he delivers this makes you think that the afraid of heights thing is a quip. 01:07:16.15 Jala He's just making a quip. He's just being sassy. Yeah. No, this comes back. 01:07:21.80 Jala It's actually a thing then used for another gag later. 01:07:25.40 Will (FNGC) Do you know if that's a thing throughout the movies themselves? or I know haven't seen it all, don't know if they've heard about it. 01:07:28.96 Jala I've seen a few, I haven't seen all of them, but he's never mentioned it in the other ones. 01:07:34.53 Will (FNGC) Okay. 01:07:34.75 Jala So I don't know if it's just... 01:07:35.37 Will (FNGC) I thought that'd be a really funny like gag running through years is that he's afraid of heights. 01:07:39.59 Jala Yeah, yeah. In the other ones that I've seen, he didn't have it that come up at all. So Eboshiya is met by Masagoro. We find out that Masagoro arranged the killing of the man Umeno loved. 01:07:51.38 Jala So Eboshiya wants Masagoro to sort a plan for what to do when the people tell the head inspector about the killing. He's like, hey, you killed this guy three years ago. 01:08:01.97 Jala When this guy comes to town, He's going to be asking questions and people are going to tell him. And then you're going to be hanged or something's going to happen to you. And not only is that bad for you and I, even though I disowned you, I still kind of like you because you're my son. 01:08:18.17 Jala But also that brings shit into my door and I don't want that at my house, you know? So, uh-huh. 01:08:23.97 Moxie So going back to the whole like discussion, the state of the police, like this means the last time the police were there was like three years ago. 01:08:32.60 Jala Years ago. Yes. 01:08:34.57 Moxie but 01:08:36.47 Will (FNGC) Sounds about right. 01:08:36.54 Jala Sounds about right. 01:08:39.37 Jala Masagoro switches the subject and asks his father where the gold is hidden. This is the first we hear of this. 01:08:45.18 Will (FNGC) Yeah, it was about to say. It was very like, hmm. Like a little sudden turn there. 01:08:47.69 Jala The gold. Where's me gold? I recently did an episode for Nostalgium Arcanum with Doug Lief. Shout out to him about Leprechaun in the Hood. 01:08:59.98 Will (FNGC) Oh, man. 01:09:00.20 Jala And so where's me gold? Like that's what I'm hearing when they're starting to talk about gold. And I'm like, wouldn't that be a crossover? okay 01:09:08.53 Will (FNGC) That's when she meets Leprechaun in the hood. 01:09:09.54 Moxie I mean, I feel like we need to talk about at some point, the greatest crossover ever, you know, Zatoichi versus the Predator. 01:09:20.84 Jala We'll get to that at the end. Let's get to the real movie first. 01:09:23.84 Jala Eboshiya insists that he doesn't have any hidden gold. What are you talking about, Masagoro? Masagoro, however, we learned that he is the younger brother, that there's two kids in the Eboshiya family. 01:09:37.39 Jala He HAS a younger brother, sorry. Masagoro is the older son. And the younger brother is the apple of his father's eye. And he's the one who does everything right. And, you know, Masagoro is the screw up older son that got disowned. 01:09:51.67 Jala And so he's jealous and he's like, oh, you're just trying to keep it for my brother. That's what you want to do, huh? And all of that. And so that's like the whole conversation that we get there. And that's about it. 01:10:05.69 Will (FNGC) Yep. So from there, we cut back to Zatoichi, who is then tossed into a prison cell with a young man who swears his buddies are going to spring him from jail, which is a great scene coming up, by the way. 01:10:15.58 Will (FNGC) So a guy comes over, delivers some rice balls, saying that they can't get him out tonight, but they're going to come tomorrow. And the young man, of course, is like, oh, I'm so excited. Yeah, I'm going to get out of here. you know you're going to be here, but it's like, whatever. 01:10:24.35 Jala See, they brought us rice balls. 01:10:25.57 Will (FNGC) Yeah, look, they got some food. 01:10:26.96 Will (FNGC) It's going to be great. Here, go ahead and try some. Zatoichi reaches for a rice ball, which falls to the ground. A rat goes over, takes a couple of bites, convulses, almost instantly falls dead. So it's just like the situation, they look down, look at each other, and then the thus spooked, the young man, pisses himself and asks Ichi to help him. 01:10:46.05 Jala Yeah and meanwhile Zatoichi even says, "young master did you spill something?" like you didn't have to underline it Zatoichi 01:10:55.05 Will (FNGC) We know you know. 01:10:59.25 Will (FNGC) From there, they cut over to Sasa, who is done lying where he passed out earlier in Umeno-san's place, but is now covered with a blanket that she put on him. Such a sweet lady. 01:11:08.38 Jala mm-hmm 01:11:08.41 Will (FNGC) He is yelling about the Anma, so Umeno comes over to check on him. He asks to stay the night, and she tells him he already did, and it's nearly dawn. He asks to lay with her, who and she agrees, provided he kills Masagoro for her. 01:11:17.43 Jala Mm-hmm. 01:11:20.36 Will (FNGC) He refuses and leaves. So we're really starting to get that whole, you know, Zatoichi had a relationship with her to some degree, to some level, or least he hoped he did. And then now Sasa trying to get to that same kind of level with her. So getting a nice little love triangle going on here. 01:11:34.99 Jala Right. Well, not only that, but then there's also the complicated web of Umeno-san is indebted to Eboshiya for some money that he gave her some number of years ago. 01:11:45.07 Jala And we'll get to it later. But this money that was given to her was because the father was trying to make amends for what Masagoro, his son, did in killing off this love that she had. 01:11:59.14 Will (FNGC) Yep. 01:11:59.28 Jala And so she didn't want to keep that money beholden to this crook of a guy because you know that means if you owe him something that you have to provide something to him so she has to go and be geisha for him so then she ends up trying to amass as much money as she can at her own establishment as a geisha there in order to make enough money to hopefully pay him back and become freed from his servitude so um moxie you had a note here too 01:12:28.33 Moxie Yeah, so I feel like this gets into one of the things I find most interesting about Yojimbo in this movie, because it feels like there's kind of the intention that he be read as having kind of this tragic romantic streak where, you know, he really yeah loves Umeno, 01:12:53.97 Moxie But, you know, as someone who's, you know, spent their entire life just like killing people, and that's all he knows, you know doesn't really know how to express it. 01:13:05.91 Moxie So, you know it's kind of implied that a lot of his childlike behavior is really misplaced anger over his inability to protect her honor, and you know, that sort of thing. 01:13:20.00 Jala right 01:13:20.15 Moxie And It's interesting because though definitely by today's standards, he kind of comes across as an entitled man child. 01:13:33.06 Jala Yeah, he does. 01:13:35.40 Jala He does. But yes, like in the period that this was happening, it would have been more of a tragic story. And like later on in the movie, when he's talking to Umeno again about trying to run away together or something, he's like, I can't do that because with my history and everything, there's always going to be people after me. I can't have a happy ending because of who I am, you know? 01:13:56.88 Moxie right, and even in this thing, though, I actually kind of like the way it's written, though. 01:14:09.65 Moxie Because, you know, at least to me, it's clear he is trying to be romantic and, you know, cares about her. And with the blanket, it appears she cares about him, that sort of thing. 01:14:24.11 Jala Mm-hmm. 01:14:24.80 Moxie But then, like, the way he approaches it is straight up treating her like a prostitute. 01:14:30.73 Jala Mm-hmm. 01:14:31.97 Moxie And so, like, I actually, I feel like that's a really good example kind of the was the talk about the show Don't Tell, where it's like, he's trying to do the right thing, but my man, like, that is not how you do that. 01:14:46.24 Jala Yeah. 01:14:47.62 Will (FNGC) All the worst ways. 01:14:48.10 Jala Right, right, right. It's like, because he doesn't know how to go about doing such a thing, he just doesn't know how to go about doing such a thing. And he's going to bungle it up in the worst possible ways. 01:14:57.78 Will (FNGC) Mm-hmm. 01:15:00.78 Jala So, right, that that's definitely a thing. 01:15:04.61 Will (FNGC) So back at the prison, Yogo, who is the young man that's imprisoned with Zatoichi, is about to hang himself, but is spooked out of it at the last minute by Ichi, who has a plan. 01:15:14.67 Will (FNGC) So the two of them pretend that they ate the rice balls. So those poisonous rice balls we mentioned before, or only poison, I mean, that was a very fast acting poison. I don't know if it was just like street arsenic or what? 01:15:25.80 Will (FNGC) Regardless, when they do, the police open up the cell in a hurry to check on Ichi because he was going to be released. Immediately, he stops pretending to die and says, oh, why didn't you say so? He's informed to be released so long as he leaves the village. 01:15:36.20 Jala Mm-hmm. 01:15:38.65 Will (FNGC) Yogo, meanwhile, manages to squeeze through a hole in the wall and escape. So it's just lovely. You set up this plan. All right, we're going sit here. We're going to pretend to be dead. They're to open up the door. We're know break out of here. oh man, it's a shame this guy's dead. We're going to let him out of here soon. Just pops up. Oh, you should have said that. 01:15:52.48 Will (FNGC) Why would you have wasted all my time? 01:15:54.71 Jala oh Right, right. Absolutely. And so um to specify that wall is right outside the prison cell. So it's like, it's there isn't like a giant hole in the prison cell itself. It's right outside of that. And he just darts through. And then the other police people run after him. But spoiler, they don't catch him. 01:16:13.58 Will (FNGC) yeah Do not get a hold of him. 01:16:14.88 Jala So, right. 01:16:15.85 Will (FNGC) So, dumped out at the end of the village, Ichi meets the former mayor of the town. You can help me out with this one. 01:16:20.26 Jala Hyoroku. Hyoroku. ((pronunciation help)) 01:16:21.32 Will (FNGC) Hyoroku. 01:16:25.66 Will (FNGC) Who now spends all of his time carving the Jizo statues that populate the entrance. He is praying as he installs the newest statue. 01:16:32.42 Jala Yeah, yeah, Ichi is intent on leaving and forgetting the place. 01:16:36.97 Jala Hyoroku asks Ichi to stay, explaining that the village is how it is now because of a horrible drought a couple of years ago that starved the people. Their town had reserves, but local villages found out and attacked them. 01:16:50.57 Jala Hyoroku had no choice but to hire a yakuza to defend the town. So 130 people were slaughtered, and it's in their memory that he has been carving Jizo statues ever since. 01:17:01.06 Jala Of course, once there, the Yakuza did not leave and they have controlled the town ever since. 01:17:07.42 Will (FNGC) and now we see why the town just no longer smells like the plum blossoms and the beautiful streams and yet yeah, it's Yakuza town. 01:17:14.83 Jala Right. Ichi asks if Hyoroku paid off the police to release him, but is informed that no, it was Eboshiya, the silk merchant who did that. Hyoroku leads Ichi Eboshiya's home, which used to be Hyoroku's. 01:17:27.38 Jala And Eboshiya is waiting on the fourth floor, And now we're shown that Ichi's actually afraid of heights for real, for real. 01:17:31.75 Will (FNGC) Mm-hmm. 01:17:34.75 Jala And he is wary as he's traveling up those stairs to see that merchant to the point where once he gets to the steps, he's on all fours climbing up the stairs um because he's terrified. 01:17:46.47 Jala And when he finally gets up there, Eboshiya requests Ichi's services as an Anma and chats with him. 01:17:52.93 Will (FNGC) which is like a very funny scene, him you crawling on and his hands and knees, getting up there. That being said, if I was also legitimately blind, I think fear of heights is a very normal fear to have. 01:18:02.23 Jala Right. Well, mean, like if he, if he can't see the steps and then if he steps wrong, he could go tumbling down all of those stairs, you know, or down, God forbid, down the center where there's nothing but air, you know, going down the center of the house. 01:18:02.90 Will (FNGC) I'm like, well... 01:18:18.54 Jala And something else to note, to tie this back to the other episode, all three of us did before, the Bunraku episode with the prison escape, where you have the little side view where you see the people on the stairs and everything. 01:18:30.35 Jala This is nowhere near as stylish as that is, but this is one of those things where you're seeing through the wall and you're seeing him climb up the stairs on the set, you know, like from, from the side. 01:18:38.84 Will (FNGC) That was the same, wasn't it? Yeah. Nice, it nice. Good call. 01:18:41.38 Jala Yep. 01:18:41.49 Moxie very cool. 01:18:42.92 Jala yeah Yep. Yep. So Sasa is informed by Masagoro. Meanwhile, elsewhere that Ichi has become Eboshi's bodyguard, effectively pitting Sasa against Ichi more directly as they are now working for rival groups. 01:18:55.14 Jala He leaves for Eboshi's manner at this point. 01:18:58.20 Moxie So there's a weird dynamic here where whether or not characters realize that Ichi is a badass seems to entirely be determined by how convenient it is to the plot at that exact moment. 01:19:13.02 Moxie Because like it's strange that on the one hand, either people don't say, like, wait, you mean the blind guy is his bodyguard? 01:19:21.62 Moxie Or on the other hand, if like everyone knows it, you would think that a Segura would comment on Ichi being an infamous criminal. So like, I know this is just kind a funny dynamic. 01:19:34.90 Jala Well, the first thing that you hear about Zatoichi from Masagoro is Masagoro saying he's worth a hundred ryo. He's got a bounty on his head. And then that's the first thing. 01:19:44.31 Moxie Oh, is it? okay I missed that. 01:19:46.05 Jala Yeah, that's the first thing out of Masagoro's mouth. That's where Sasa first gets the bug in his ear to get up and go outside and take a walk and go look for this guy. So that's why Sasa ends up encountering Zatoichi the first time is because Masagoro comes to him and says, hey, this guy who's dangerous, who has a hundred real bounty on his head is here. 01:20:08.35 Jala And he's an Anma, but he's here and you've got to do something about this. 01:20:13.94 Jala So Ichi has refused to stay permanently in the town, but Eboshiya gets him to agree to stay a few days. Just then Sasa arrives and sets fire to the manor. 01:20:23.73 Will (FNGC) Such a good scene. 01:20:24.12 Jala Everybody's running around frantically out of the home and Ichi terrified scrambles down the stairs. ah Sasa notices how scared Ichi is of heights and well, you were giggling. 01:20:36.67 Jala I'll let you talk about this. 01:20:37.07 Will (FNGC) Yes, so he calls incorrect directions to him to get him to hang off the ledge for just a few feet off the ground. 01:20:44.27 Will (FNGC) So he's like, oh, this way, that way, ends up slipping off, holding on, his you know feet barely dangling off the ground. However, of course, he does not know this. So Ichi, in a panic, tosses a sake bottle over to see how far the ground is, just kind of testing to hear and see how long it takes to shatter. 01:20:51.47 Jala Mm-hmm. 01:20:58.27 Will (FNGC) course, Sasa, seeing this, catches it, holds it, waits a little bit. slams it on the ground after like waiting you know the better half of a minute so then he starts freaking out of course then he starts tickling Ichi's feet so this is just two bros having a great time just palling around messing with each other if you ever been hanging around with your friend and you just kind of give them shit for no reason this is exactly what's happening here 01:21:21.25 Jala Mm-hmm. 01:21:21.55 Moxie And it's amazing this scene after that, because they're like, what, walking back to the bar or something? I forget where they're going. but um And Ichi is just so pissed with Sasa. 01:21:34.84 Moxie Just, you know, just, you know, how could you prank a disabled person? What's wrong with you? 01:21:41.38 Jala Mm-hmm. 01:21:42.02 Moxie Like, it's very funny and very adorable how, like, scandalized he is. 01:21:49.58 Jala Well, and what's funny about this whole scene is that it's important that when Sasa's doing this, he's doing this when Ichi can't actually get hurt by falling. you know 01:21:58.58 Moxie True. 01:21:58.99 Jala So like there's that. But then like the way the music, like this the strings come out right when Zatoichi is like starting to hang from the ledge and he's barely struggling you know struggling to hold on. And he's just like... 01:22:12.00 Jala You know, it's really tense, and then just then there's Sasa sitting at the bottom just going and tickling his feet and just like fucking with him, you know, it's like, bro, you know, and I'm sure Sasa's answer to that would be like, you know, you couldn't have gotten hurt, whatever. 01:22:12.79 Will (FNGC) Very dramatic. 01:22:30.25 Will (FNGC) yeah like, you would have been fine. Stop crying. 01:22:31.07 Jala You know, it's fine. Yeah. Quit your bitching. You know, so it's so bad. 01:22:33.89 Will (FNGC) but It's literally... and just love also, too, how Sasa just casually sets fire to the place. 01:22:38.67 Jala Yeah, he does. And what's funny too is that like when Eboshiya, because Sasa receives money from Eboshiya, so he will leave. And then he turns to, because when he first says fire to everything, he just casually comes in and starts and he's like, hey, there's a fire. 01:22:52.29 Jala There's a fire. 01:22:52.40 Will (FNGC) Mm-hmm. 01:22:52.93 Jala Get out. you know and then you And nobody's going to dare do anything because these are all very small men by comparison to you know ah Sasa himself. And he has a sword and he's a samurai and they're not. So they're like, 01:23:06.17 Jala Okay, we're leaving now. um But like when he's paid off, then he's suddenly like, hey, there's a fire in here. but Put out those fires. Get some water. you like And he just changes on a dime immediately. 01:23:19.39 Moxie And something to keep in mind here is that like fire was a really serious thing at this period of time. 01:23:27.88 Moxie I mean, if you think about traditional Japanese architecture, like these are houses that literally made out paper, um you know, like what Kyoto burnt down a couple of times, stuff like that. 01:23:39.86 Moxie So like, this is our pretty serious thing he goes and does. 01:23:44.52 Jala Yeah. Yeah, it is. But because he's Sasa, he's just like so laissez-faire about it, you know. 01:23:48.99 Will (FNGC) Very unserious. 01:23:50.83 Jala Yep. So he, Sasa, follows after Ichi, taking his leave of Eboshiya's house, calling ah Ichi, mekura, blind bastard, over and over again to goad him. 01:24:02.09 Jala Some of Masagoro's men attack, and Ichi takes them out. Sasa tries to start a fight, but the wind picks up and he can't see. So Ichi calls him mekura. And then a passable of men attack Sasa this time, and then Sasa takes them out. So they're both having turns fighting random groups of men who I guess they're Masagoro's. 01:24:26.06 Jala I don't know whose men they are, but somebody keeps coming up and trying to attack them and then dying. 01:24:30.90 Moxie It's the it's they like playing a Yakuza game where it's like, why are these people attacking someone that can clearly... 01:24:36.42 Jala It doesn't matter. Just it's fine. 01:24:37.32 Will (FNGC) Why not punch them? 01:24:38.21 Jala Yeah. 01:24:40.25 Jala I mean, the thing is, is that like, especially since this is like a little farming village, there's not a battle with samurai where they have like specific emblazoned colors or a uniform or anything like that. 01:24:51.70 Jala They're just random guys. So like they could be anybody's men. I don't know who they are. You know, they attacked. So I killed them, you know. 01:24:59.39 Will (FNGC) Easy peasy. 01:25:00.96 Moxie It's funny when Sasa bows out at the fight, this is dumb, but the thing it reminds me of is actually, uh, Jala, your dog, when, when it's right-- Her dog loves to chase laser pointers all around the house, but then when it gets tired, it doesn't want admit that it's tired and needs to stop, so it'll be like, oh, I'm not tired. 01:25:30.45 Moxie I just, you know, have a scratch all of a sudden, or like... 01:25:34.30 Jala Yeah, I need to go get a snack. I really need some kibble right now. 01:25:39.60 Jala I need a drink of water, actually. 01:25:42.21 Moxie Yeah, and there's... 01:25:42.55 Jala What's happening over there? hey who are you? what are you doing? you know, like, yeah, Pooh Bear does that. 01:25:48.10 Moxie And there's that exact energy where Sasa is like, oh, I can't see anymore, but that's not why I don't want to fight. 01:25:50.69 Will (FNGC) Smart pup. 01:25:56.60 Jala Right, right. It is. It's 100% the same energy as my 15-year-old schnoodle girl. 01:26:05.72 Will (FNGC) So Ichi visits Hyoroku, telling him that he will stay in the village for a few days because he is worried about Umeno-san and Eboshiya does not sit well with him either. Cut to Eboshiya and the police chief. 01:26:17.80 Will (FNGC) The chief wants to pin the blame on Masagoro, but Eboshiya refuses, saying that Masagoro is still his son and he doesn't want him hanged, as we mentioned before. There's still that little bit of love there, so you can't you know fully disconnect from family even if you disown them and they're pieces of garbage in your eyes. 01:26:32.73 Jala Mm-hmm. 01:26:33.32 Will (FNGC) Eboshiya says that the real problem is Masagoro's Yojimbo. Uh-oh, so here we're starting to get those kind of tangled webs weaving. Everyone's starting to get into this nice big ball of fighting that's going to happen shortly. 01:26:40.16 Jala Mm-hmm. 01:26:45.39 Will (FNGC) So cutting to Masagoro, who comes up to Sasa and asks if Sasa thinks Eboshiya really has gold hidden somewhere. Sasa says if it were in the house, he would have seen it because people grabbed their most precious possessions in the event of a fire, but he didn't see any gold, so it has to be hidden somewhere. 01:27:00.39 Will (FNGC) So I'm kind of imagining and then that that was the push for him to set the place on fire, whereas it'd be like, I'm see if the gold is in there. 01:27:07.01 Will (FNGC) Let me go ahead and try to burn this guy's house down, which I guess is effective. 01:27:09.35 Jala Well, and well there's there it was a who two purposes for that. 01:27:15.14 Jala He says before he goes to Eboshiya's house, which nobody would remember, but I remember because I wrote these notes, that um right before he goes, Masagoro's like, where are you going? 01:27:21.25 Will (FNGC) Hey, win-win. 01:27:26.40 Jala Because he gets up and he leaves. And then what his answer is, is I'm going to go get some money real quick. So then he goes to Eboshiya's house and he does it in part to see if the gold's there, but is also in part so that he can be paid off to leave so he can get some money so he can go drink again. 01:27:47.49 Moxie And I also feel like ah from the purpose of the movie, this to me strikes me as kind of a foreshadowing of us eventually learning that Yojimbo's a spy. 01:27:59.48 Jala Yeah. 01:27:59.88 Moxie Because the whole thing where he's like, oh yeah, people would have grabbed the gold if it had been there, is much more savvy than anything he has done so far in this movie. 01:28:10.95 Jala Right, exactly. 01:28:12.63 Will (FNGC) that's very true all right so cutting to Ichi and Hyoroku the old man explains that Eboshiya's younger son married into the family that controls the mint cut over to Sasa explaining that Eboshiya's other son messed with the purity of the gold in the minting process to shave off the extra for himself and that is what Eboshiya has and is hiding so we're starting to really get into the weeds here there and i mentioned but not mentioned but i believe you had mentioned before Jala when I was talking about the purity of gold and we were talking about the Ryu and the Bun and you know how oh the purity was met with and I was thinking the back of my head I didn't like yell it out during I was like oh no not the mint who would ever mess with the mint here we are here exactly where we are 01:28:52.34 Jala Yeah, right, right. 01:28:58.71 Will (FNGC) ah Back at the old man's place, Ichi says he will go to the Yakuza gambling den to make some money. Hyoroku offers for Ichi to stay with him for free, but Ichi refuses as he is also a criminal. So, again, it can't have him becoming a collateral damage rent. 01:29:08.94 Jala Yeah, he says, I can't accept charity from good people. I'm a criminal. I have to go about criminal ways to get my place to stay. 01:29:23.77 Will (FNGC) That he does. 01:29:24.04 Moxie I've got a truck from sake bottles to show how hard I am. 01:29:28.22 Jala Right. Exactly. 01:29:28.97 Will (FNGC) I can't 01:29:29.49 Jala It's so hard. Yeah. It was so funny the way he did that. Cause it was such a toddler move. He was totally channeling toddler energy. 01:29:37.40 Will (FNGC) I don't think I had said it before was at that point too, but the same like face he made when he had drank from the bottle earlier. I just love throughout the entirety of the movie Zatoichi's character. you know just His different like little facial expressions. 01:29:48.35 Will (FNGC) His little like really just sells the whole thing. 01:29:48.65 Moxie Oh yeah, yeah. 01:29:50.04 Jala They're so good. 01:29:52.25 Will (FNGC) It's awesome. 01:29:52.73 Jala Yep. 01:29:54.81 Will (FNGC) As Ichi leads to the gambling, rather heads to the gambling house, he passes Sasa, who is on his way to Umenos. Zatoichi asks for two boo, half a rio, to start gambling with. Sasa says he does not have small change, he has three ryo. 01:30:07.64 Will (FNGC) So, of course, what he just got from burning down Eboshiya's house, or attempting to... 01:30:11.25 Jala Yeah, and he and he pulls him out and he's like, you know, putting him in his hand and slamming him down to hear the clink. 01:30:16.46 Will (FNGC) yeah and I don't have small change. 01:30:18.83 Jala And then, mm-hmm. And that's when. 01:30:21.77 Will (FNGC) Ichi slices one in half, takes it to go gamble, so he slices it cleanly, gets it, he's like, oh, thanks, I'll return this later. 01:30:22.30 Jala Mm-hmm. 01:30:29.61 Jala And off he goes. So. 01:30:32.08 Moxie And, you know, after the slice, he has exactly what he asked for, half a ryo. Which, not gonna lie, like, I think I could be a top gambler if I started off with half a year's, like, food money. 01:30:46.92 Will (FNGC) Half year's worth of rice. 01:30:49.70 Jala Well, Ichi then goes to Masagoro's place and cheats them out of a lot of money. So how he's doing this is, you know, because he's blind, everybody thinks that he can't play dice. So he intentionally, um, drop, you know, shakes the, you know, shaker cup thing and then puts them down, but intentionally leaves it where one of the dies are outside of the cup just to make them think that he fucked up. 01:31:12.14 Jala And so like he does that and then, you know, he ends up cheating them, you know, through his dice play um out of a lot of money after going, oh, you know, Masagoro puts a bet down and then he's like, oh, is that it? 01:31:25.48 Jala Boss Masagoro can't put more down. And then of course Masagoro having, what did you say to me? 01:31:30.28 Will (FNGC) Very slick with it. 01:31:32.92 Jala Man, child energy. And then slams all of it down. And then that's probably what all of which Zatoichi wins. 01:31:39.73 Will (FNGC) Yep, yep. 01:31:39.91 Jala So. So yeah, ah Ichi goes to Umeno's to return the half-ryo to Sasa, but she is not there. When Sasa and Ichi talk, Ichi learns that Umeno had to borrow um borrow money from Eboshiya to keep her place running after her parents died, and that is why she became a geisha two years ago. So when she went to ask for money, he says, I'll give this to you as a gift because my son killed your lover. 01:32:05.15 Jala ut she says, no, I was borrowing that money, and I don't want to owe you anything. Fuck that. So Sasa is upset. 01:32:12.26 Will (FNGC) It's understandable. 01:32:13.03 Jala Yeah. And then Sasa is upset about this because he likes her just as she likes him. ah Both of them. It's been pretty clear by this point that they have some energy going there. um But, you know, he's mad because he's like, she's a whore. 01:32:27.36 Jala She's a prostitute, blah, blah, blah. And he's mad that she is because of this whole situation um that has happened to her. 01:32:32.89 Will (FNGC) Mm-hmm. 01:32:35.62 Jala So cut to Umeno talking to Eboshiya. And, um you know, this is back in Eboshiya's house again. And of course, we already, but you know, this is where you get that reveal of where that money came from. 01:32:47.54 Jala And Umeno finds out that Ichi has been employed by Eboshiya and that Eboshiya's son in Kyoto has sent another man, Kuzuryu, to protect him, Eboshiya, as well. 01:32:59.81 Will (FNGC) Another one. 01:33:00.72 Jala We've got another Yojimbo coming into play here. So we've got ah Sasa, who is Masagoro's Yojimbo. That is the drunk man. Then you have Zatoichi, who is being employed by Eboshiya. 01:33:12.46 Jala And then now you have Kuzuryu, who is another dude coming from Kyoto to this little village to protect Eboshiya. So that will be two against one if in terms of like the Yojimbo count or whatever. 01:33:26.87 Moxie Mm-hmm. 01:33:28.12 Jala But Kuzuryu is known to be very, very deadly. And he has a special weapon that nobody else has. And we'll learn more about that when it happens. 01:33:37.87 Will (FNGC) So cut to Ichi appearing at the police station, saying that he will stay there for the next few days since he is a wanted criminal. He helps himself to Tozo's food and drink. So as, of course, a wanted criminal, you walk into the police station, you say, I'm going to hang out here for a bit. 01:33:51.29 Will (FNGC) Give me your donuts. 01:33:51.37 Jala I'm a criminal, so I should be housed here, don't you think? 01:33:52.37 Will (FNGC) Give me your drinks. Yep. 01:33:55.09 Will (FNGC) Give me your food, by the way. Yep. 01:33:56.77 Jala Well, and he does. He's like, you know, where's my rice? And he grabs Tozo's bowl. And then, you know, where's the chopsticks at? And he feels around. And then Tozo tries to stab him with the chopsticks. 01:34:07.48 Jala And then, um you know, Ichi grabs them from him. 01:34:10.24 Will (FNGC) Yep. 01:34:10.63 Jala And then he's about to use them in the rice. But because Tozo had already eaten with them, he brings them up to his mouth. And he's like... It smells, smells, ooh, it stinks like Tozo, and then breaks them on the table, and then eats with the broken chopsticks. 01:34:28.00 Moxie Yeah, there's amazing, I love the fact that, like, by this point, he's what? He has knocked out several police officers, staged a jailbreak, is wanted for murder, know, all this stuff, and the police are just kind like, what do we do with this guy? 01:34:51.10 Will (FNGC) Mm-hmm. 01:34:52.08 Jala Well, they already know that he's way bigger fish than they can handle. So, you know, like they're aware that they can't do anything about this guy, really. 01:34:56.33 Moxie Right. 01:35:00.56 Will (FNGC) let's wait the next couple of days for the head enforcer, the head inspector to come in. 01:35:03.83 Jala the Inspector. Yeah. Right. 01:35:07.62 Will (FNGC) so Of course, after this, another fire breaks out at Eboshiya's and we see Kuzuryu looking at it. 01:35:10.94 Jala Mm hmm. Mm hmm. 01:35:14.06 Will (FNGC) so i always thought this was funny. I love this line here where the scene in general because it's like, if I had a nickel for every time a fire broke out at Eboshiya's house, I'd have two nickels, which is not a lot, but it's crazy that it happened twice. 01:35:28.30 Jala Absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, oh, it's fine. 01:35:30.59 Will (FNGC) So Umeno makes her way home, or do you have another? Let's say, yep. So Umina makes her way home and finds Sasa sleeping there. She goes to fetch a blanket, but Sasa gets up and leaves before she returns. 01:35:42.03 Will (FNGC) Yogo, the young man Ichi helped spring from prison, is now watching over Umeno for Ichi and informs her that a new Yakuza has appeared. Umeno realizes that this is Kuzuryu and Sasa is in danger. 01:35:54.04 Will (FNGC) She actually passes him on the street and runs to Sasa to tell him about it. However, Sasa dismisses her concerns. So all the pieces are kind of lining up. All the players are getting in their spots. And yeah, we're about to have a little bit of damage pop up shortly. 01:36:09.89 Jala Ichi returns to the police station, but the head inspector shows up. So Tozo shoves Ichi into a wardrobe to hide him. Ichi overhears that the government has caught wind of the gold manipulation scam and is making inquiries. So Tozo needs to scoot or risk being beheaded. 01:36:26.11 Jala Eboshiya pays off the head inspector, who informs him that their relationship is over due to the inquiries. Ichi then goes to see Hyoroku, who tells him that the Eboshiya, that Eboshiya is the one paying for the 130 Jizo statues and that Eboshiya plans to build a shrine for them. Hyoroku just carved the 129th statue. 01:36:47.99 Jala So he has only one more to complete his task. And this is his last wish. ah He is dying. He does not feel well. His hands are cold. You know, he's on the verge of death at this point. 01:37:00.73 Jala So... Sasa and Masagoro's other men are lying in wait for the head inspector intent on pumping him for information. When they wait, while they're waiting there, Kuzuryu appears and kills the inspector and all of his men. 01:37:13.02 Jala He basically does that, that, you know, samurai movie thing of like, he runs through the men and then they all fall and die. 01:37:18.76 Will (FNGC) yeah just good ah Yeah, gone. 01:37:18.98 Jala It's that. Yeah. 01:37:21.02 Will (FNGC) So we waited all this time for the inspector to get there. 01:37:23.14 Jala And he lasts about five minutes of screen time to pass on some info. And that's about it. Sasa then calls out to Kuzuryu and it's revealed that they are both spies. Actually, Kuzuryu was sent to clear things up because Sasa was taking too long. 01:37:38.90 Jala Sasa, this is where we get the official word. Sasa is a spy. And, um, Kuzuryu accurately states that Sasa has focused on the gold rather than the evidence he's supposed to be gathering for this trial or whatever that the shogunate was supposed to be holding. 01:37:56.19 Jala So he warns Sasa that he will kill him if he gets in the way. 01:38:00.84 Moxie So I like the dynamic that's suddenly revealed here that we realize that Sasa's methods of being a spy are actually very Ichi-like in that he's, you know kind of infiltrating and playing both sides and that sort of thing to get information. 01:38:21.21 Jala yep 01:38:21.32 Moxie Whereas, and Kuzuryu is actually the guy who's like, His game plan is basically like, I'm just going kill everyone, and then I've killed the criminal by definition. 01:38:36.31 Jala Right. 01:38:38.00 Will (FNGC) I mean, hey, he gets to the point. He's like, look, if everyone's gone, then obviously the deed is done. 01:38:45.58 Will (FNGC) Finished. Finished. 01:38:45.67 Jala Make an omelette, have to break a few eggs. 01:38:47.12 Will (FNGC) Except all the eggs in this case. 01:38:49.23 Jala All of the eggs. you know how expensive those are? Anyway. 01:38:53.50 Will (FNGC) Oh goodness gracious. 01:38:53.78 Moxie Ha ha! 01:38:55.02 Will (FNGC) So Sasa finds two packs of Ryo on a body and Ichi shows up. Sasa offers to work with Ichi and tosses him half the gold. Ichi says he will work however he needs as a crook in order to get the 200 Ryo, but he will not become a spy for any price. So line drawn, right? You got that line in the saying, I'm not going to be a spy. 01:39:13.35 Will (FNGC) I'll go kill people. I will cheat all these criminals. However, spying... 01:39:18.07 Jala I'm not a stool pigeon. 01:39:19.61 Will (FNGC) There you go. and No snitches here. 01:39:20.78 Jala No rat. Yep. 01:39:22.92 Will (FNGC) So the two agree to work together for a while and decide to start by checking in with Tozo, the policeman, who, of course, is murdered. 01:39:29.91 Jala Mm-hmm. 01:39:30.17 Will (FNGC) All the policemen are dead in town. So ah Kizuru... Kizuru... Kizuru... 01:39:34.01 Jala Kuzuryu. ((pronunciation assistance)) 01:39:35.05 Will (FNGC) Kuzuryu 01:39:36.05 Jala Mm-hmm. 01:39:36.64 Will (FNGC) Apologize to the guy. So, of course, kill the police officer, kill Tozo. Their next move is for Sasa to provoke Masagoro and Ichi to provoke Eboshiya, so they both go after each other. 01:39:48.06 Will (FNGC) A bunch of young men show up to fight for whichever side pays more, as they are wont to do. 01:39:53.20 Will (FNGC) So, Sasa demands 200 ryo from Masagoro. Ichi requests an extra 100 ryo from Eboshiya, pointing out that he is aware of the extra money Eboshiya is shaving off of the mint. 01:40:03.08 Jala Right. And that is happening where um like Ichi comes in and Eboshiya is there and Eboshiya is like, oh, good, you're here. Work out these kinks in my spine. And while they're working on that, then, you know, Zatoichi is like, yeah. 01:40:18.91 Jala about that money, i was thinking I could get 01:40:20.38 Will (FNGC) Mm-hmm. 01:40:21.78 Jala You know, or, you know, I hear that there's a way that you can shave money off of this gold and blah, blah, blah, blah. blah And this, that, and the other insinuating a lot of shit. Right. And lining up that he knows exactly what's going on. 01:40:34.32 Jala And then he's like, so I guess you can afford to pay me another hundred. 01:40:34.52 Will (FNGC) Okay. 01:40:38.32 Jala to owe And then it both. She is like, I like you. I didn't realize you were such a crook. And he's like, yeah, we're all crooks here. It's fine. 01:40:45.81 Will (FNGC) Indeed. 01:40:48.72 Will (FNGC) So Hyoroku finishes the last Jizo statue and of course is killed by Kuzuryu. So ah pretty much anytime you're popping up and you're doing something finally or you're actually getting to the point of what you're supposed to be doing in this movie, you will be killed by this this assassin that just showed up into town. 01:41:03.30 Jala This guy. Well, and this is the first time. 01:41:06.23 Moxie I only have one week to retirement. 01:41:10.22 Jala Right. Well, and this is the first time that you see that he has a gun and he shoots, he shoots Hyoroku and that's how he dies. 01:41:13.87 Will (FNGC) Yeah. Shoots him. 01:41:17.44 Jala So he, he is sitting there and he just finished carving the last statue. Kuzuryu walks by and goes, blam, and then walks off. And then, Hyoroku just kind of like slumps over on the Jizo statue, which is how, um, Zatoichi finds him of just a little bit later. 01:41:25.24 Will (FNGC) Yep. 01:41:34.44 Will (FNGC) So Masagoro demands money of Umeno, saying Sasa would give her all of his money, but she says she has none. Masagoro attacks, but Yogo defends her. 01:41:43.83 Jala That's a little guy. 01:41:43.88 Will (FNGC) Ichi comes in. 01:41:44.85 Jala Mm-hmm. 01:41:44.92 Will (FNGC) Yep, the one from the prison. Yep, so he's been watching over her this whole time. 01:41:48.14 Will (FNGC) So he does come to her defense as Masagoro attacks. Ichi comes in, and just in time to save his Yogo's life, who is about to die... However, Ichi says the reason Masagoro needs the money is to pay Sasa, but Sasa will just bring it to Umeno. 01:42:00.56 Will (FNGC) So he's delivering it where it needs to go. He hands Umeno his 200 ryo advance from Eboshiya, saying that Sasa instructed him to give it to her. So this is very fun, but it's a lot of twisty-turvy. 01:42:12.71 Will (FNGC) It's like they literally just take the same 200 ryo, and they're just like ring around the rosy, passing it to each other. 01:42:18.17 Jala Uh-huh. Right. Well, and that's the whole point that Zatoichi's making here. 01:42:23.97 Jala So Masagoro comes in, he's threatening Umeno, the little scrawny guy from the prison comes and defends her, just almost dies, but is saved by Zatoichi, and then is like, look, you are trying to extort this money from her because you need it to pay Sasa. 01:42:39.50 Jala Sasa loves her and is just going to come back here and drink all of that money away here. So it should just go to her in the first place. 01:42:44.70 Will (FNGC) Correct. 01:42:47.70 Jala Let's just not even, let's just take out the middleman. We're even going to mess with that. 01:42:50.24 Will (FNGC) Cut them out. 01:42:51.30 Jala We're just going to give it to her straight. By the way, this is from him. yeah like That's what he says. 01:42:57.04 Moxie Zatoichi just being like the real enemy was capitalism all along. 01:43:00.77 Jala All along, right. 01:43:02.98 Jala So a bunch of fights start breaking out between the two factions. There's a bunch of different scenes of just like massive amounts of people fighting in the village and killing each other. Umeno and Ichi are walking and Ichi tells her what she that she should run off with Sasa and does ah whole ojousama laugh, which is great. 01:43:21.65 Will (FNGC) Was it the ho, ho, ho, 01:43:22.87 Jala Yeah, but he's doing it like with a Zatoichi laugh, but like he does the little face like the Ojousama, like I'm going to tilt my head to the side, bring my shoulder up and then bring my hand to the side of my face, you know, kind of thing that that's that trope from anime. 01:43:37.43 Moxie Wait, so what is Ojousama? 01:43:40.59 Moxie I don't know that one. 01:43:40.84 Jala Ojousama is like a noble lady laugh. 01:43:42.20 Will (FNGC) A noble lady, right? It's like a high... 01:43:45.85 Jala So like it's a trope in anime where you have that character who has that haughty kind of laugh. like 01:43:53.32 Jala ah ha ha ha! 01:43:53.57 Moxie Oh, okay. 01:43:53.93 Jala It's that kind of laugh. So that was more of a Naga impression, but Naga does an Ojousama laugh. 01:43:55.88 Moxie Okay, I get what you're saying. 01:43:59.41 Jala Yeah. Naga from Slayers. 01:44:00.51 Moxie Okay. 01:44:00.91 Jala so Anyway, so Umeno takes this money ah to Eboshiya that she's just gotten from Ichi and you know gives it to him and says, here, I'm free. Bye. Yeah, here's your money back. 01:44:12.10 Will (FNGC) Here's your money. Here's your money back. 01:44:15.28 Jala Deuce. Deuce. And then he's like, oh, but I'm going to be all alone if you leave me. And then she's like, no, you're not. You have your younger son. Fuck you. 01:44:27.04 Will (FNGC) Correct. 01:44:27.53 Jala ah Right. And then there's a bunch more fights breaking out. There's a bunch of this going on. Like this is the escalation where everybody in the town is dying left and right all and center everywhere. Sasa is meanwhile drinking at Umeno's, but Umeno is also now drinking because like she's paid the money back. 01:44:43.91 Jala So this is her victory celebration. 01:44:44.39 Will (FNGC) It's good to go. There you go. 01:44:46.03 Jala She's like, it's done. It's done. So she's drinking. And then she suggests that they leave the village together the way that Ichi suggested to her. And he says he was considering it. 01:44:56.65 Jala But when she says that Ichi suggested it, he gets mad. 01:45:02.31 Jala And he's like, no, somebody's going to come and try to kill me anyway. So I can't do it. But also Ichi said, so I'm not going to do it. 01:45:10.08 Will (FNGC) It's the classic, I was going to do it, but then you told me to do it, so now I'm not going to do it. 01:45:14.25 Jala Yeah, exactly. So then Sanemon, which is Eboshiya's younger son, is in a panic. He shows up and he asks Eboshiya where the gold is because of all these investigations, because he's under, you know, like ah investigation as well back in Kyoto. So he comes to this village to dad. Where's all that money I gave you? 01:45:35.77 Jala And then ah meanwhile, Eboshiya is like, I'm not going to tell you because if you know, you can't stay calm with all the inspectors coming after you. You can't truly convince them that you don't know if you actually know. 01:45:50.22 Jala So I'm not telling you. So even more fights break out. We have lots and lots of this. And again, this is just like the, the fights in this movie are massively like large groups of people dressed as villagers going at each other and you don't know who's who. 01:46:02.39 Will (FNGC) Yes. 01:46:05.71 Jala And I imagine that's very much like how those fights were back in that era anyway. But yeah, Who's to say there's just people fighting all the time. Ichi grabs a group of young men and recruits them to go look for the gold. 01:46:18.71 Jala He's like, hey, do you want a different activity that maybe won't get you killed, but it'll make you some money? And then they're like, sounds good to me. Everybody's dying. 01:46:28.69 Will (FNGC) yeah but I'll take that deal. 01:46:29.12 Jala That sucks. 01:46:29.89 Will (FNGC) Yeah. 01:46:30.51 Jala Right. So as Sasa, meanwhile, is coming out of Eboshiya's manor to get information, or coming to Eboshiya's manor to get information about where the gold is. 01:46:42.11 Jala Sanemon, the younger son from Kyoto, then attacks his father with a sword, mortally wounding him, but not so bad that Eboshiya can't stumble all the way to the edge of the village. 01:46:52.32 Will (FNGC) mortally wounding. 01:46:53.32 Jala Right. He goes, and it's so so like he stabs him and then Eboshiya's like, OH! My. Son! you're like doing this William Shatner shit right and then he's just like crawling and then not only is he crawling that the wildest shit about this movie is like the 15 minutes or so that it takes for Eboshiya to crawl from his manor all the way to the edge of the city with his son Masagoro crawling after him who's also been injured and then Sasa and Ichi and Kuzuryu and all these other people just walking after them, just watching them crawl towards wherever they're going to go because they're just waiting to see where the gold's at. 01:47:34.33 Will (FNGC) Where the gold is, yep. Just straight up. 01:47:36.68 Will (FNGC) So Ichi shows the young man where that the gold is, dust stored in pouches inside each Jizo statue. 01:47:36.72 Jala So... 01:47:42.81 Will (FNGC) He asks them to pile up the gold dust. Which I do want to ask that question here. Do we see up to this point, I'm trying to remember, was it when Ichi comes back and sees Hyoroku dead and then he sees the dust bags? 01:47:51.92 Jala Yeah, it that's when he finds out there's a pouch. 01:47:54.26 Will (FNGC) Okay, so... 01:47:55.46 Jala Mm-hmm. 01:47:56.00 Will (FNGC) So I guess at that point, because of course Hyoroku is the one making them, um and they're all fully enclosed to my understanding, I believe that's how the Jizo statues are, so he knows that that's where the gold is from for the Eboshiya, and he's doing this of his own accord. 01:48:08.71 Will (FNGC) It's not Eboshiya coming in after the fact that they're being made and putting the bags in there. 01:48:13.01 Jala It could be something like he could be assuming that those bags contain written prayer things or something like that. 01:48:22.38 Will (FNGC) Okay, so we don't know that he knows that it's gold. 01:48:24.09 Jala Like he, you Hyoroku might not have even known that there was gold in there. 01:48:29.05 Will (FNGC) Gotcha. 01:48:29.30 Jala because he has like a very high estimation for Eboshiya so I don't think he knows or knew he just didn't ask he was like this noble guy is giving me money so that I can make these statues to make amends for the thing that I did and so I'm great 01:48:35.06 Will (FNGC) He wouldn't even ask, yeah. 01:48:42.22 Will (FNGC) Yep. And it's my like my dying wish, so yeah, I get it. He was just like, no, I'm just going to go ahead and head down head down and do it. 01:48:48.09 Moxie oh see I actually read it the other way. Like I read it as this was like almost like a Stephen King, like the rot at the and middle of the small town where like, no, this like ah mayor that appeared to be the one, ah group you know, like good more guy was actually the one who's responsible for all of this stuff to begin with. 01:49:13.95 Jala Well, he was responsible for it, but not for the reason of the gold, because he was the one who was trying to protect the town from the other villages coming and stealing the crops when there was a famine, that they had bonus crops in their city. 01:49:24.64 Moxie right 01:49:27.17 Jala So they would have been okay, except other people started coming in. So then he hired the Yakuza and that was his mistake. And that got a lot of people killed. And that got the to the point where the Yakuza now rule the town and have been ruling the town. And Eboshiya bought out his house and Eboshiya did all these other things and all of that. I don't think that he was complicit in that because at this point, his whole thing is he's on his redemption arc. And that's like a really big thing in all of the Japanese media anyway. Like if you've got a character who did a bad thing in the past, and not just Japanese media, but it's really prevalent. You've got revenge theme and then you have redemption arc theme. 01:50:04.31 Jala And those are like two big ones, you know? So I don't know, like I could be wrong, but I really don't feel that that character is like the one that did it, you know, like that, that, you know, knew that there was gold in there. 01:50:18.81 Will (FNGC) Like he's in cahoots with Eboshiya. Yeah. 01:50:20.88 Jala Right, right. So because I mean, if he if he was aware of that gold in there, then part of his redemption arc to get the Yakuza out of town would have been to report it to the shogunate. 01:50:34.55 Jala And then that would have fixed the problem. 01:50:37.68 Jala So if he knew about the gold, there would have been a different path for him to take than to just do these Jizo statue things. So Ichi is with the young men. He's at the gate ah where all the Jizo statues are. All the young men are grabbing all the money out of all of the things and piling it up gleefully in this big pile of gold dust that's shimmering there. 01:50:56.60 Jala Everybody is heading there. So Sanemon is following, Sasa and Kuzuryu are following. Masagoro is climbing along. Everybody's going, some of the people are crawling. 01:51:08.31 Jala Everybody's getting there somehow though. 01:51:09.72 Will (FNGC) This is like the little old lady that swallowed the fly. 01:51:11.95 Will (FNGC) I'm like, there's the fly and the and it was after find the cat and the dog and the cow and the horse. Yeah, it's just all just tracking each other to this gold dust. 01:51:17.99 Jala Great. 01:51:20.60 Jala Right. So Eboshiya and Sanemon find the good dust and they get there. 01:51:25.77 Jala They're right over the gold dust pile. And then the two of them start fighting. They go at each other. So all of that grace and decor, by the way, like any kind of grace and decorum that either of these men had at any point, like Eboshiya did before seem like a very refined gentleman, you know, like a refined gentleman, white collar crook, but a refined gentleman. 01:51:45.82 Jala And now his hair is all fucked up. 01:51:46.39 Will (FNGC) Mm-hmm. 01:51:47.98 Jala His kimono is all disheveled. And then like all of these principles that he had where he's like, I don't want Masagoro to die. I don't want this to happen. Even though I disowned him, I still want to take care of him and blah, blah, blah. All of that's out the window. He is trying to murder his apple of his eye son Then his son is trying to kill him. And, you know, nothing is, is sacred for these people. 01:52:10.30 Jala And Eboshiya ends up stabbing his son and then Kuzuryu shoots Eboshiya with his gun. So one after another, that one man dies, the other dying man dies. 01:52:20.56 Will (FNGC) All fallen. Mm-hmm. 01:52:22.35 Jala Sasa then appears and then asks why Kuzuryu killed them when they were supposed to be witnesses to be brought to justice, witnesses or culprits or whatever, to be brought to justice, to be put through an inquisition back at the shogunate. And then he points out, oh, you're after the gold too. And Kuzuryu's like, yep. 01:52:41.56 Will (FNGC) He's like, I know why it's not done. Sasa, you're after the gold instead of getting the information. I'm also after the gold. 01:52:49.77 Jala Mm-hmm. So I'm going to have to kill you. Yeah. So everybody's trying to kill everybody over this gold. 01:52:53.12 Will (FNGC) Yeah. Hmm. 01:52:55.40 Jala So Kuzuryu then tries to shoot Sasa, but then Umeno gets in the way. Like she runs out of wherever she came out of. Like she's also trying to run to the gate to try to protect somebody. 01:53:06.03 Jala And then so she runs out and gets in the way and then she takes the bullet for him. So devastated Sasa kills Kuzuryu and then takes Umeno to Tome the blacksmith to cauterize her wound while Ichi is handling Kuzuryu's men. 01:53:21.13 Jala So Ichi's fighting off all of the other guys, you know, like the optional extras in the scene while this other drama is playing out and we're wondering whether or not Umeno is going to live. 01:53:27.63 Will (FNGC) Yep. 01:53:32.06 Jala So Sasa then goes after Ichi until they find out that Umeno has survived her wound and will live. So they're starting to fight and they're starting to turn on each other until, you know, Tome sticks his head out and he's like, she's going to live. And then they both end up like going and checking on her and everything. 01:53:51.92 Will (FNGC) I like in their fight too because it was like fair no obviously pretty stalemated as to be expected when you have a blah versus or blah meets. But yeah, like what I believe Ichi had slashed Sasa across the chest or the back one of the two and or was it vice versa? 01:54:06.85 Will (FNGC) And then I think Zato actually had stabbed Sasa in like the thigh or like slashed him across the thigh. 01:54:11.15 Jala Mm-hmm. 01:54:12.01 Will (FNGC) So they're both just like, 01:54:12.98 Jala Hobbled them. Uh-huh. 01:54:14.32 Will (FNGC) Both, you know, just really jacked up and about to go and try to finish the job on one another. Pops his head out. 01:54:19.30 Will (FNGC) She's going be okay. And there's like... All right, fine. 01:54:22.53 Jala And then they just both go over there and then, right, right. 01:54:25.95 Jala Well, and then too, when Ichi runs to her side, he comes and puts his hands right on top of hers or about to put him there. And then Sasa's like, don't touch her, you know? And he's like, I don't have to touch her to feel her warmth, you know? 01:54:38.88 Jala Like just one last little moment with her. 01:54:40.99 Will (FNGC) I'm not touching you. I'm not touching you. 01:54:42.40 Jala Right, right. Well, I mean, the thing that's very sweet about this is that like, I understand like Zatoichi is not jealous of Sasa when it comes to Umeno-san. He's letting go and letting Sasa take the place or whatever. 01:54:56.06 Will (FNGC) It's like the happy that she's happy type of situation for him. 01:54:57.79 Jala Right, right. And so he's just like, okay, that was my goodbye. And then he leaves. And then, you know, after that, he's leaving the shack and then Sasa's staying there with Umeno and they're leaving each other with like respect, right? 01:55:16.78 Jala And then Sasa, like the wind is blowing the dust away and everything, leaving nothing. But then Ichi and Sasa both meet up again at the spot where the gold dust was and they're looking around anyway to see if they can find Sasa. 01:55:30.42 Will (FNGC) Yep, because he got another what? 01:55:30.84 Jala you know, just anything left. And then they look up and look at each other and then they laugh about how similar they are. And then they part ways a second time, this time for real, for real. So ah we can assume at the end of this that we have Sasa un and Umeno's happy ending. 01:55:47.46 Jala And then Ichi just goes on to continue his travels from here. So... 01:55:53.26 Moxie And then Yo goes, just like, wait, what happened? 01:55:57.19 Will (FNGC) He screwed up. 01:55:58.30 Jala Everybody else in the town except for the blacksmith is dead. 01:56:01.97 Will (FNGC) Yeah. 01:56:03.60 Jala and So and maybe those young men, I don't know where those guys went. They probably ran off when all the additional fighting happened. You're like, OK, bye. That's enough of that. So, oh yeah, there was ah actually a point where during the fight between Ichi and Sasa, ah Ichi had a bag of the gold dust hidden in his kimono. And then like it was slashed when he was slashed by Sasa, it slashed open the bag with the gold in it. So he found out that he didn't have any money left from it. 01:56:31.75 Jala And that's why he ran back to the gold. And that's where he found Sasa also looking for the gold. So, so yeah. 01:56:38.40 Moxie It is a little funny. I realize this isn't the point, but like he has supernatural gambling powers to get basically infinite money. 01:56:53.06 Will (FNGC) The cheat codes. 01:56:54.91 Jala That's not the point because there's the thrill of finding basically buried treasure, right? 01:56:59.77 Moxie Right, right. 01:56:59.94 Will (FNGC) True. True. 01:57:00.53 Moxie Yeah, totally, totally. 01:57:02.49 Jala Plus, I mean, if he goes to a gambling house and cheats them out of all of their money, then he's got people after him even more than before. And then now he's got to deal with that shit. 01:57:09.28 Will (FNGC) Mm-hmm. 01:57:10.61 Jala So, you know. 01:57:11.80 Moxie True. 01:57:13.20 Jala He's like, I just murdered an entire town to get this gold dust. I didn't even get any. So... So yeah, that wraps us up on Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo. So um now at this point, I will ask who would you recommend this movie to y'all? 01:57:31.78 Will (FNGC) So, I mean, anyone that just likes, you know, of course, these classic kind of samurai flicks, they're very much in there. But if you're also someone who I think it's becoming a little bit more common, um I don't know if either of you have seen this more modern movie called Bullet Train. 01:57:45.73 Will (FNGC) But I think if you are a fan of like kind of absurdist action and sorry, absurdist comedy in action, which is getting like a bit of a renaissance, at least for me, more modern times, um this is very much like that kind of old school, really setting the ground for the kind of movies like that. 01:58:01.20 Will (FNGC) It's got good action. It's got really great character moments, but of course it's just funny and silly and got so many little puns and jokes. I'm trying to recall, um I believe it was in the note that Moxie shared where they had one of the puns that was talking about like, oh, I fell down seven and I had to, you know, 01:58:20.80 Will (FNGC) And I ate or it was something to that effect. And of the course, when you're working with the translations, they they really had to go out of their way to kind of try to make those work. ah But they did, in my opinion, translate it fairly well across here, um even though I butchered it. 01:58:28.65 Moxie Oh yeah. 01:58:32.93 Will (FNGC) And yeah, just getting across some of that absurdist comedy plus the action just makes it really fun watch. 115 minutes and it does not feel like it. So highly recommend if you like any kind of action, any kind of comedy, ah put this on and you're going to have a blast with it. 01:58:40.74 Jala Mm-hmm. 01:58:45.81 Jala And even if you don't like action and comedy so much, but you just like the twisty turny kind of stuff, like if you're into mystery stuff, I would even say this is fun for mystery folks too, just because there's so many twists and turns to the plot. 01:58:54.64 Will (FNGC) Very true. 01:58:58.63 Jala So if you're somebody who likes even detective type stuff or spies or other things like that, even though the spy element isn't really heavy here, um there are enough twists and turns to the plot that, you know, it's fun to see everything unfold. 01:59:12.25 Jala So, and how about you? 01:59:13.41 Moxie Yeah, I would say, to a certain degree, I'd say anyone just to, this one of those movies, or these are one of those characters that you watch, you should watch just to realize how many other things reference them. 01:59:31.24 Jala And, well, I just want to say for both of the characters in this one, because, you know, both of them are such big characters that influence so many other media. 01:59:36.10 Will (FNGC) Yep. yep 01:59:36.52 Moxie Right. 01:59:41.20 Moxie And so I think particularly with that, I think this would be a great option to like watch this. And then if you like one or both of these characters, you can then, you know, watch the rest of their movies. 01:59:57.44 Moxie More comedically, I'd say the person that should watch this is my freaking martial arts instructor. 02:00:04.93 Moxie My martial arts instructor is a massage therapist. And I've been trying to get him to watch Zatoichi forever, and he just hasn't gotten around to it. 02:00:17.29 Jala Well, I will recommend another one, another Zatoichi film for folks, if you like this one. I will say watch Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman. 02:00:30.64 Jala So the One-Armed Swordsman is also a guy who has his own stuff. He's like ah a wuxia guy from China. And so... 02:00:39.18 Jala In that film, you have another established character who is like a big character from Chinese cinema from wuxia style films. So if you like wuxia, this is not ah like the Zatoichi Meets One-Armed Swordsman is not wuxia but it has some elements of it in there. 02:00:54.85 Jala And it's got like that kind of humor and stuff that goes on in this one, the Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo. It's not quite as funny. 02:01:04.97 Jala like It's not so much a buddy movie because like ah the wuxia main character is always so noble and you know trying to do this that, and the other. so like its It doesn't really have room to be the same style um as this one is, but it's also a really good watch. 02:01:20.27 Jala and it's Again, it's another one that brings in, here's a wuxia guy that you should probably know about. 02:01:27.13 Moxie You know, another angle I'd say on this is I think this would be a good movie if you're someone who would like to see... Samurai movies, that sort of thing, but is kind of turned off by the sort of like ah almost chivalric, you know unrealistic, like you know noble hero type thing. 02:01:52.16 Moxie this is This is very much a movie that's not like that. 02:01:58.22 Jala So yeah, I think that really wraps it up really well. And one more note about the one-armed swordsman while I'm thinking about it. So that one in that one, because they don't speak the same language when Zatoichi and you know, like the, the Chinese characters come into contact with one another, the Chinese person says something and then Zatoichi says, like gets a totally different picture of it because like the word sounds like a Japanese word, but they're totally different things, you know, and that kind of is um like an and a running gag of um the Japanese kanji and everything coming from Chinese originally. 02:02:27.65 Will (FNGC) Yeah, 02:02:38.43 Jala So, it's a really good language barrier hijinks thing. 02:02:45.42 Will (FNGC) yeah like a fun inside joke in. 02:02:46.94 Jala Right. Right. So yeah, Yeah, I think that does it for us for this episode. So again, both of you are on other shows. We have Moxie who is on The Level Podcast from DuckFeed TV, a video game round table discussion. 02:03:04.07 Jala So what have you been playing recently, Moxie? 02:03:08.94 Moxie Um, recently I've been, uh, playing a lot of Fallen London, which is the narrative, uh, you know, kind of browser game that was the start of Sunless Skies and Fallen Seas. 02:03:22.84 Jala Mm-hmm. 02:03:23.26 Moxie Um, also a little bit of Elite Dangerous. I'm, though, I'm thinking of jumping to, I'm looking at either El Paso Elsewhere, or follow on with what Kole is doing and try out the Forever Winter. 02:03:41.99 Jala Well, El Paso Elsewhere, when I first shared that link, I was like, Moxie, you got to look at this. I think you'd like this. So, so if you do play that one, let me know. 02:03:52.79 Jala I would be interested to hear what you have to say about that. 02:03:54.80 Moxie Sure. 02:03:55.76 Jala So, and Will, how about you? You are from Friday Night Gamecast. 02:03:59.48 Will (FNGC) Yep, yep. 02:04:00.99 Will (FNGC) So I'm playing tons of games, but however, I am fully immersed in the world of Monster Hunter Wilds. ah So I have been playing that, but it came out, what, three weeks ago at this point? Maybe two, three? And I have 110 hours in it, and so I'm just, yeah, absorbed. I'm completely in there. 02:04:18.48 Jala Right. 02:04:18.59 Will (FNGC) But it's funny, because I beat the high-ranked story, I think maybe... 02:04:25.22 Will (FNGC) 70 hours in, 60 hours in something like that, which means the other 50 plus hours or so, uh, getting close to, should say 50 hours have just been Fashion Hunter. I am killing monsters to make new clothes. 02:04:38.12 Will (FNGC) Uh, so yeah, like the other night I was up till like two in the morning, just putting together different outfits. 02:04:43.41 Will (FNGC) I'd go to Gemma and I'd be like, what do you have available for me to make? Oh, I have to get some claws from this guy. i will go turn this young dragon into boots and that's what I did. So I have like 10 saved outfits right now just sitting there lined up. 02:04:57.22 Moxie At least if you play it like me, it's not even clothing I'm wearing. It's Palico fashion. 02:05:03.21 Will (FNGC) Oh, Palico fashion is good too. For sure. 02:05:04.87 Jala Nice. 02:05:05.25 Will (FNGC) For sure. Yeah, my Palico is looking fresh. I have a nice Gundam set up for myself. 02:05:10.44 Moxie Nice. 02:05:10.74 Will (FNGC) And then I gave my Palico like an Eva, like an Eva 01 kind of color scheme. 02:05:14.51 Jala ah nice 02:05:15.40 Moxie Mm-hmm. 02:05:15.74 Will (FNGC) So it's been pretty cool. 02:05:16.15 Moxie Mm-hmm. 02:05:17.15 Jala Awesome. Awesome. As for me, I have been playing Shining Force 3, Scenario 3, to do another episode on Shining Force 3. But um I've also been playing Danganronpa Ultra Despair Girls. So I finally dug into the bonus extra side story shit from Danganronpa, which Moxie knows. Like, that's a thing that I have this deep love/hate thing with. Like, anything from Spike Chunsoft I have this deep love/hate with and so like I am constantly very mad but also there's elements about it that really I dig so much that it makes me keep playing them so um you know like ah this one this one is Ultra Despair Girls is different because it's not like the whodunit murder school thing that they do in the mainline games this is a shooter 02:06:10.86 Will (FNGC) Oh, different. 02:06:12.14 Jala Why not? It's not... So the mechanics of it are not like quality shooter. But it's doing some weird things. and I still want to see where it goes and everything. So I'm still going to play it. I mean, it's serviceable, but it's not like... I'm a person who loves to explore. I love to explore so much. I love traversal. I love exploring. If you make those things fun, I will love your game. See Dishonored. I love that. 02:06:40.04 Will (FNGC) yeah there you go. 02:06:40.62 Jala But this one... There's nothing in the world for you to go look for. It's pretty empty. And so I'm like, eh. I mean, like, there's stuff to look at, but it's not that exciting to look at. 02:06:51.28 Moxie So you're just rage playing it? 02:06:54.68 Jala No, it's not rage play. Like, I just have to understand that there's no reason to look around. There's no reason to look around. You just have to go where the thing is pointing you and then go to the next point. 02:07:03.27 Will (FNGC) Lock yourself in tunnel vision. 02:07:04.81 Jala oh and move on to the next thing. So like, it's fine. I haven't been mad at it at all. I actually thought I was going to be more angry because they have this character that's in the first Danganronpa, Genocide Jack or Genocider Sho, depending upon if you're going with the Japanese name or the American name. 02:07:21.75 Will (FNGC) okay 02:07:25.19 Jala But this character is basically like this sheltered novelist lady who is, you know, like into, I don't know, self-debasement and stuff like that. But then she also has a serial killer alter ego. She has a split personality and she has a serial killer that lives inside of her called Genocider Sho. And that character shows up in here. And I hated that character the first game, but they've actually made her like, pretty fine like I haven't been mad at her so either I have become over the course of all of the time I've been playing different Spike Chunsoft stuff completely inoculated where it doesn't bother me or it's more tolerable here I don't know which so anyway that's my take in a very long tangent about something that's not Zatoichi where in the world can people find you on the internet if you are to be found anywhere moxie 02:08:24.87 Moxie You can find me on The Level. 02:08:27.30 Jala Mm-hmm. And Will, how about you? 02:08:30.56 Will (FNGC) So if you're looking for me specifically, you can find me on Blue Sky. It'll be KingZosotai. BlueSky, whatever that kind of standard setup is, but KingZosotai is the title, so you can find me there. 02:08:38.78 Jala Yeah. 02:08:42.08 Will (FNGC) You can also find me at that other Hellscape, but it's the same name. So go ahead and look for me there as well if you'd like to. 02:08:45.76 Jala Mm-hmm. 02:08:48.56 Will (FNGC) Outside of that, if you're looking for more Friday Night Gamecast-related information, as far as our overall episodes and our podcast, you can find us on all podcast-related episodes. So things like Apple podcasts, Spotify, all the fun places there. 02:09:03.58 Will (FNGC) Additionally, I do run the Instagram for Friday night game cast. I occasionally post up some fun reels about me bonking a monster on the head with a giant hammer ah from 30,000 feet up because monster hunter does not have fall damage and it's beautiful. 02:09:16.06 Will (FNGC) Also, you can check us out on Twitter and Bluesky on Friday Night Gamecast on both of those platforms as well. 02:09:23.28 Jala And you've also been on some other shows guesting, not just here, but also over on Tales from the Backlog and I'm sure other ones too. 02:09:29.61 Will (FNGC) Yep, indeed. Yep. So, I mean, we're in this this lovely ecosystem with a lot of our really fun podcasting friends. So realistically, if you've hit up some of these fantastic podcasters kind of adjacent to Jala and the team here who have also guested, yes, we all just get a little incestuous there, right? 02:09:43.56 Jala Who have guested on my show before. Everybody guests on everybody's show. 02:09:51.47 Will (FNGC) We're all talking to each other, we' all hanging out. 02:09:51.61 Jala Right. Right. 02:09:53.30 Will (FNGC) um So another big thing, too, is... saying i might be dropping heat i don't know if nick's gonna come busting through the wall like the Kool-Aid man and but if you happen to be in Boston around the time of pax east you might see the boys there so be on be on the lookout be on the lookout there we're gonna be there live and in color and then um that is when we're gonna be making our triumph and come back gonna be posting a little something something about pax east so uh stay tuned for that it's gonna be a good time 02:10:18.02 Jala oh that'll be fun. 02:10:20.57 Jala Awesome. I miss that they yeah they used to have PAX South down here. And like the last year that they did PAX South is the first time that I met Dave, my husband. 02:10:29.95 Will (FNGC) Oh, nice. 02:10:30.63 Jala So he came to go to PAX South and that's when we got to meet face to face because we met on Twitter. 02:10:30.67 Will (FNGC) Okay. 02:10:38.75 Jala Because of podcast people. 02:10:41.70 Will (FNGC) There you go. Yep. We all talk. 02:10:44.18 Jala So we all talk. So. So anyway, yeah but the last PAX South was when he came to visit and then COVID happened right after that. 02:10:54.75 Jala So anyway. 02:10:54.81 Will (FNGC) Gotcha. Gotcha. Let's say you're smack dab in the middle. So yeah, you got to hit an East or West. One of these days, you got to just make a pick one and then fly out there. 02:10:59.50 Jala I know, I know. Right. I know. And then I have so many people to see if I go to either one. Oh, I don't even know. Then the people on the other coast will be mad that I went to the other one. 02:11:09.71 Jala Yeah. 02:11:10.00 Will (FNGC) and Next year you got to come here. Yep. Yep. Yep. Hey, you can't make them all happy, right? 02:11:12.55 Jala yeah Right, right. Anyhow, it's been fun. You can find me anywhere you can find me on the internet at Jalachan if I am to be found there, including Jalachan.place where you got this episode and all of the others. 02:11:24.61 Jala And with all of that banter and side tangents out of the way, that is all. 02:11:29.57 Moxie Zippers! 02:11:30.64 Jala Yeah, that is all for Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo and for us for today. So until next time, take care of yourself and remember to smile. [Show Outro] Jala Jala-chan's Place is brought to you by Fireheart Media. If you enjoyed the show, please share this and all of our episodes with friends and remember to rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice. Word of mouth is the only way we grow. If you like, you can also kick us a few bucks to help us keep the lights on at ko-fi.com/fireheartmedia. Check out our other show Monster Dear Monster: A Monster Exploration Podcast at monsterdear.monster. Music composed and produced by Jake Lionhart with additional guitars and mixed by Spencer Smith. Follow along with my adventures via jalachan.place or find me at jalachan in places on the net! [Outro Music]