THE ZATOICHI LEGEND
Zatoichi is one of the most popular heroes in Japanese period drama. I think everybody over 30 in Japan knows Zatoichi. Because it's been over 10 years since a film about him was made, now there are younger Japanese who aren't familiar with him. I hope my film gives them the opportunity to know him.

ORIGIN OF THE PROJECT
This project was proposed to me quite unexpectedly by Madame Chieko Saito, one of my mentors during my Asakusa period. She was a very good friend of the late actor Mr. Shintaro Katsu, who starred in the original episodes of the Zatoichi series on film and TV (from 1962 to 1989). A few years ago, she asked me if I would make a Zatoichi sequel. It sounded interesting because I had never directed a period piece. When she asked me she also wanted me to play the lead character, I panicked. There was no way I was going to replace Mr. Katsu! I politely declined, but Madame Saito wouldn't take no for an answer. I finally gave in on one condition: I would have to be allowed to make the film the way I wanted as long as the main character remained a blind masseur named Zatoichi who is also a master swordsman and a dice-gambling genius. Everything else would have to be entirely my own creation.

THE NEW ZATOICHI
My screenplay was not based on a story from any of Mr. Katsu's ZATOICHI films. I also saw no point in trying to impersonate Mr. Katsu's version of Zatoichi. I set out to create a new version that would be as different as possible both physically and psychologically. Mr. Katsu's Zatoichi had dark hair, dressed in a plain-colored kimono and carried a brown cane sword. Although this worked well in his time, I thought I would make my Zatoichi conspicuously different visually. My Zatoichi is actually a pretty eccentric person. He has platinum blond hair and a blood-red cane sword. Also, in terms of mentality, my Zatoichi is far more emotionally detached from the other characters. Mr. Katsu's Zatoichi was more about almost heart-warming relationships he made with the good and meek townspeople. Mine doesn't fully mingle with the good guys. He just keeps slaying bad guys!

ZATOICHI BAFFLES
Zatoichi is practically invincible. He can take anybody on. The question is how? He is blind so he shouldn't be that strong not seeing his opponents. I finally decided the secret to Zatoichi's strength is "This is a film!" I even played with the notion of Zatoichi's blindness at the end of the film: Maybe Zatoichi isn't blind after all… Zatoichi baffles you, but that's his role.

ZATOICHI'S CANE SWORD
I thought red for the cane would be the natural choice. It would have looked un-cool if Zatoichi used an unpainted wood cane. It would have been too down-to-earth and might have made the film too much of a heart-warming story about ordinary townspeople. I thought that if Zatoichi was blond and carried a red lacquered cane, the other characters would be a little wary of him and nobody would want to get involved with him too much.

PERIOD PIECES
One would expect that period pieces impose greater restrictions than contemporary films, because of the costumes and locations having to be faithful to historical facts, etc. On the contrary, I felt greater creative freedom, because basically you can fabricate everything in a period piece. Every detail -- the looks of the characters, locations, etc. -- is actually more fictitious than in a contemporary piece since everything is being recreated. For example, almost all actors have to wear hairpieces to replicate the styles to suggest old times. As to the language, my choice went for modern Japanese as the film's essence is not of a classic period drama.

COMPUTER GRAPHICS
More and more films are beginning to rely on computer graphics and visual effects, but mostly in modern pieces. I have not felt comfortable using them in my films in the past. But to use it in period piece, it can give the film an almost cartoon-like tone, which is more suitable. We mostly used computer graphics only to show cuts and wounds. In the old times, you could get away with not showing blood gushing out nor showing the wound. But times have changed. So, we tried to show the wounds whenever possible more graphically.

SWORD AT MY SIDE AT ALL TIMES
I didn't want to rely on computer graphics and visual effects for the action scenes. I wanted to do my own swordplay stunts as much as possible because I love doing it! In the story and original films, Zatoichi holds his cane sword in a backhand grip when he unsheathes it. This imposed considerable restrictions on how I used the sword. I only had a few choices in terms of action -- swinging it up, downward or sideways. In order to capture sword movements on film in visually composed ways, I had to do those scenes in physically unnatural postures. There was a lot of painful twisting of my wrists, elbows and shoulders. It definitely required some practice.

DIFFICULTIES OF PLAYING BLIND
It was even more difficult to perform the sword movements with my eyes closed when the camera was facing me. Sometimes I didn't know where I was swinging my sword! It was very disorienting to have to do everything with my eyes closed. Even just walking straight was hard. Even with ground marks, I had my share of stumbles and falls. I couldn't tell what was the space between me and my co-stars. I couldn't see their expressions or actions when acting with them. It was tougher than I expected. When you act with your eyes open, you can indirectly get the feeling of how to make your moves and say your lines even though you can't physically see yourself.

ZATOICHI'S STROKES
We had a sword fighting choreographer on the set, but I ended up choreographing almost all the sword-fighting scenes myself except the one with the two geishas versus Ginzo's henchmen at Ogi's residence. I didn't want the sword fighting scenes to resemble those in past films where you can tell the same combinations are being used. I tried to do something different than the well-known fight sequences choreographed by the experts. I hate duels where the sword dictates everything, resulting in a lot of clinking and clanking. Luckily, Zatoichi usually strikes with just one stroke, so I was able to avoid that type of sword-fighting. In contrast, I let actor Tadanobu Asano (as the ronin bodyguard Hattori) perform trickier stuff that I had accumulated over the years. Coming from Asakusa's comedy scene, I had done a fair amount of training in sword fighting, which was compulsory for any comic in those days. We often adopted sword fighting in our sketches on stage. My comedy master would first show us basic movements and then we rearranged it to make it look funnier. Ever since then, I had quite a few ideas in the back of my mind for tricky sword-fighting choreography, which I had always wanted to use in a period film if ever I would make one.

THE ACTOR RECEIVING THE BLOWS
Sword fighting in film is not about how good the fighter is, but how good the actor receiving the blows is. If the opponent is not skilled, the timing will be wrong and the scene will look unnatural. I didn't want to see actors receiving blows then collapsing facing the camera.

FILMING SWORD FIGHTS
Sword fights are all about timing. You can't be slow. I had to be fast. Sometimes the sword stroke practically flew by. But this is contrasted with the opponents' slower movements. To capture the swift sword movements, we used both a high speed and regular camera. The advantage of using two cameras simultaneously is that if one camera doesn't catch a certain moment, you have to rely on the other. Sometimes a camera didn't film the sword at all, so I had to count on the other camera to catch the action on film.

GUNS VS. SWORDS
The bam! of a pistol and the zunk! of a sword have different meanings. When it comes to filming a gunfight, not very many cameras are needed. There are times when the gun isn't even filmed. Also, when the gun goes off, there really isn't much else the guy that was shot can do. But with sword fights, you don't know what the next movement is going to be. When the blow is struck, the sword fighter must then attack his opponent's unguarded area. At times, he can't strike. Even after repeating the same thing several times in rehearsal, it comes down to reflex and agility in the filming.

ATTITUDE ON EDITING
I had to use more cuts in ZATOICHI than in my previous films. I needed to take several shots to hide imperfections, since the actors wear hairpieces and kimonos and every detail has to be in place. Using short shots is a norm, especially if there are a lot of camera movements. A period drama without moving the camera would look like a silent movie.

THE KUROSAWA WAY
Kurosawa usually did numerous takes of a well-planned out sword fight, which I think has a tremendous impact. It takes a lot of stamina to film the Kurosawa way. ZATOICHI's rain sequence is my homage to Kurosawa's SEVEN SAMURAI ... Incidentally, while shooting that scene, not only was it cold, but the smell of the rain changed at some point. Apparently, water from a carp pond was used because there wasn't enough tank water. It really stunk. It felt like we had carp pouring down on us.

ATYPICAL HAPPY ENDING
I used to make fun of Japanese period dramas, which all had identical endings. For example, when the hero leaves town and walks on a road along a rice field, the farmers plowing the fields suddenly started singing and dancing while they worked. When it came time for me to direct my first period piece, I thought, "Why not do my own rendition of a typical happy ending in a period drama!" I felt it would be boring to reproduce traditional Japanese folk dancing with a bunch of amateurs, which isn't too exciting visually and sonically. Then it struck me, "Why not let them tap dance?!" I figured that the basic premise of the Zatoichi story -- a blind masseur cum master swordsman who can draw his secret sword cane at the speed of lightning -- was in itself preposterous enough for me to set out to make an all-out entertainment movie. So I did my modernized rendition of typical festival dancing scenes in a period piece. I let Japan's top tap dancers, appearing as farmers and carpenters, dressed in traditional kimonos, wooden clogs and straw sandals, do the latest style of tap dancing backed by hip-hop rhythms.

TAP DANCING
A great entertainer should be able to do all kinds of things. I did myself some tap dancing but I found it to be a bit plain, no pizzazz. I didn't like the Gene Kelly type of tap dancing. But when I discovered the type of tap dancing Gregory Hines performs without music, I thought it was amazing. A few years ago, I became acquainted with the Japanese tap dancing team named "The Stripes." I saw their show and was completely fascinated by their dancing. I was awestruck as to how different their style was from the traditional style in which I was trained. That's how I came to use "The Stripes" in ZATOICHI.

HUMOROUS TOUCHES
I wanted a sense of balance to the film. I didn't want to have just action scenes throughout the film. I wanted to add some humor to lighten up the film. The character of Ogi (played by Saburo Ishikura) was supposed to be a very bad guy, but he joked around so much I decided to keep it. So, he's kind of a funny bad guy. The funny good guy, Shinkichi, Zatoichi's sidekick, is played by one of my oldest comedy prot?g?s, Guadalcanal Taka.