Powerful

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

ICHI is a Japanese samurai movie with a twist: the blind warrior of the title is a woman in this one. Heavily based on the popular and long-running ZATOICHI series of films, the story sees Ichi ending up in a small town that's been overrun by bandits. The plot is complicated when another swordsman, traumatised by the events of his past, falls in love with her, is mistaken for an expert swordsman, and becomes the town's protector.There are shades of YOJIMBO in the look, style, and feel of this production, but it manages to be a successful film in its own right. It also reminded me a little of AZUMI, although ICHI is more drama than action focused. And it's in the characters and the human drama where this film excels: there's emotion to spare in this story, along with characters you learn and care about throughout, and the acting as a whole is superior for the production.ICHI is hardly an action packed movie but there are some key moments that impress, alongside an extended climax that makes up for some of the slower points in the story. The swordplay is over with pretty quickly, as is the norm for samurai cinema, and CGI blood is overused, but it's not much of a detraction. As a whole this is a mature, intelligent, and enjoyable piece of historical film-making.

Ichi is supposed to be a remake of Zatoichi but for some reason I feel that its more like the 1st Crimson Bat movie.I think a lot of the negative reviews is because of its inevitable (since it claims to be a zatoichi remake) comparison to Zatoichi. The characters are of course blind but while the zatoichi characters have mannerism such as the way he acted, the facial expressions and the way he talked. This Ichi is totally devoid of all personality. Ichi's features range from wooden stoic to wooden sadness to wooden expressionless. Her speech is in monotone and her action/motion are no different from people with vision, except for the cane.However if you compare it to Crimson Bat it becomes better. The plot and character becomes almost similar, abandoned by parent and took up Goze as a living. Travelling in search of the parent. The unseeing open eyes and expressionless face (although Crimson Bat still shows more personality). Even the gambling sequence where she wins by listening to the dice.The actions scenes with Ichi are not bad, nice quick and slow motioned sequence. One cut type kills. But the action sequence are far in between. But the part where she fights the main baddie is weak.A well shot movie thats worth a watch. Just don't compare it to Zatoichi.

Ichi is a blind woman with a gift, she is a expert swords woman. However,she has chosen to remain isolated, in search for her father. On her journey she encounters a samurai who fears killing people, a village plagued by the Yakuza.Ichi is a film that focuses on the story rather than action and although the action is always great, it holds the audience's attention with likable characters and at times its very intense. The actors are all brilliant in their roles, and really give the film some depth. When the final fight finally does arrive, we've seen the lives of the characters making the end very satisfying, as well as sad.

I haven't seen the original films in the '60s and '70s, but I watched the 2003 Zatouichi starring "Beat" Takeshi, which was a very strong film.This remake starring Ayase Haruka has its share of improvements, but just as many shortcomings.Sori Fumihiko's direction, as with "Ping Pong", was wonderful. Cinematography was very beautifully done, and the slow motion in action sequence for dramatic effect was spontaneous and enjoyable.One thing that really impressed me was the music. I saw the name "Lisa Gerrard" under musical scores in the opening credit. My first impression was, "huh? A Japanese jidaigeki with foreign sounds? Unthinkable!" But it turned out to be incredibly dramatic and accommodated every scene perfectly.Unfortunately, I can't say the same about the casting. Ayase Haruka was really beautiful and cool as the blind assassin, but she was hopeless in a particular singing scene, and some other 'everyday' scenes. I can't help but to notice how blood wasn't spilling all over her face like the 2003 version. An inevitable consequence of an idol film. Nakamura Shidou as the villain was outright horrible. He severely overacted and made the film feel incredibly cheesy. Although I'm a huge fan of Kubozuka Yousuke, I must admit his presence was too modern for an edo-period film like this. He just seemed out of place, talking like a modern teenager. Only Oosawa Takao fit the role and delivered a decent performance.I guess most of the blame should be placed on the script, which not only set the tone of each character (that the actors were not capable of...), it failed to illustrate the most important feature of the character Ichi. When I watched the 2003 version, what impressed me about the character was that he can be so deadly even though he was blind, merely using the sound of opponent charging and feeling of enemy presence. This remake, however, completely failed to show how the character was strong as she was, and also ignored the weaknesses, such as the scene where the crowd was making a lot of noise, but she was still able to easily defeat her opponent.The movie had nice action and few touching scenes, but plagued by miscasting and a weak script that also over-dramatized the story. Not nearly as good as the 2003 version in my opinion, but still fun enough to watch.