For years, the Japanese cinema cranked out samurai adventures about a blind swordsman named Zatoichi. As a job description, “blind swordsman” does not sound reassuring, but it’s a gimmick that has ...

Nobody can make you like this stuff if you don't want to. So although there's no doubt that "The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi" is the summer's most rousing action picture, it's also hard as nails, bloody ...

The hundred episodes of the TV series followed 1970s TV dynamics: Zatoichi was (mostly) unchanging from one episode to the next, and the 45-minute episodes (allowing for 15 minutes of advertisement ...

Those in the mood for a bit of authentic swordplay (sans Tom Cruise, that is) would do well to catch Zatoichi #4: The Fugitive this Saturday night. In this 1963 episode of the renowned Japanese film ...

Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/3807446/3807447" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> A ...

Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/3852106/3852107" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> NPR's ...