People are voting emotionally.

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo is the twentieth film in the Japanese franchise about the blind masseur, skilled swordsman and lowly yakuza. Yojimbo's character is inspired by Akira Korusawa's critically acclaimed Yojimbo and even played by famous actor Toshiro Mifune. The movie tells the story how Zatoichi grows tired of having blood on his hands and retires to his peaceful hometown. Upon arriving, he realizes that the town has lost its charm over the past three years. After a terrible drought, the leader of the village seeked the protection of yakuza against people from other villages who were trying to steal reserves. Since then, two bosses are controlling the territory. The delicate thing is that one of them is the wise father and the other one his impulsive son. The former decides to hire Zatoichi as protector while the latter hires Yojimbo as his bodyguard. In addition to the familial and territorial conflict, there are rumors of an important quantity of gold hidden by the older boss for his second son. Zatoichi's and Yojimbo's interests, paths and swords cross multiple times until a dramatic showdown during a storm.Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo looks great on paper but turns out being the weakest film in the franchise so far. The movie overstays its welcome with a length approaching two hours and especially the middle section is plodding and at times hard to sit through. The sword fights aren't as sepctacular as in several previous movies. The film is filled with boring, repetitive and stereotypical dialogues. The addition of odd comic relief in certain scenes also drags this movie down and makes characters like the younger boss look ridiculous. The plot is a times hard to follow because it focuses on too many characters and side stories at the same time. Yojimbo is a one-dimensional character in this film who is busy swearing, sleeping and drinking. Even the usually sympathetic Zatoichi isn't quite convincing as he aimlessly walks around, occasionally cooperates with dumb thugs and often swears and drinks in his ambiguous relationship with Yojimbo.There are only very few redeeming qualities in this movie. The poor Japanese village certainly has its exotically rural charm. The viewers get to know a little bit more about Zatoichi's background and past even though this option wasn't exploited enough in my opinion. The story line is more developed than usual but also confusing at times.To be honest, Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo is the movie in the franchise that I've enjoyed the least so far. The characters are often one-dimdensional, the comic relief doesn't fit in and the plot is plodding. I would neither recommend this film to fans of the brilliant Zatoichi franchise nor to those who loved Korusawa's Yojimbo. Don't get fooled by the seemingly intriguing concept of combining two of Japan's greatest chambara characters. This film doesn't deserve the acclaim and attention it gets.

I originally got this movie before I saw any other Zatoichi movie, whereas with the Yojimbo movies I know very well. So I decided to sit down and watch at least one of them and I did. By this point I am very glad I did watch the Zatoichi movie I did but it seems like this Yojimbo character is a completely different character to the character you will see in the Kurosawa movies, that and Zatoichi is the hero of the movie.The plot is that Zatoichi decides to spontaneously go to a village he hasn't been to for three years, This kind of puzzles me - How does he know where he is for point of reference? Once he gets there he finds the town is under attack by 2 gangs, both led by an estranged father and son. They are fighting to find gold which is hidden somewhere. Zatoichi helps the gang lead by the father and a nameless gangster who's Yojimbo to the son and sensei (who's also a secret agent) tries to kill Zatoichi for 200ryo.The biggest problem is the seemingly false advertising you get. After I watched the Zatoichi movie I thought "So this movie is going to be a crossover of what is at the time 2 of the most beloved samurai movies of all time? Hell yes, I'm in", well - with Yojimbo he seems like less of an intelligent yet slightly cynical bad-ass and more of an assassin who takes contracts for the highest price to buy booze. Even when he's revealed he didn't seem like Yojimbo. Even if it was the same character though, why couldn't he just ask Ichi to go out of town where nobody will see or hear them and say what his intention's are.So people who enjoyed Yojimbo, if they want to see the character again may seem disappointed (although to be fair, as typical of Toshiro Mifune, his acting is excellent). So if you watch a Zatoichi movie and like that then the question is "Will I get my fill on that?"... Yes. It almost seems to me that the writers wanted to go about and make a Zatoichi movie but thought because there's a bodyguard who also fights for good and they got Mifune they thought "screw it, we got Toshiro Mifune - one of the greatest Japanese actors of all time, lets slap 'Yojimbo' on the title to give the producers more money".Aside from that I'll go onto the points that didn't disappoint me. It kind of goes without saying but the acting from all involved is great, the father-son struggle is good even if they down-play it a little and the love relationship between Mifune and Umeno is also something I liked. The action is really fun to watch and the cinematography is so much better than the other movies now that it's in colour among other things like the final scene when the wind is blowing during the sword-fight between gangs.So, at the end, this is just another Zatoichi movie. I am really sorry if you guys sat down and watched this expecting another movie with the character in Yojimbo. I do think that if you can get over the false advertising the movie is actually a decent watch. Is it as good or anywhere near what the title suggests? No. But I will safely say, it does in many respects come close.

this may not be the best zatoichi title, hindered by a complicated plot and an unusually long runtime (116 mins), but it's easily an 8/10 compared to other zatoichi films (1989's 'zatoichi' being the worst and a 1 out of 10). if you're a zatoichi fan you are not allowed to miss this one or you're out of the club.shintaro katsu and toshiro mifune are in excellent form and their presence alone makes it worth seeing. both of them look great. mifune is in his post-kurosawa days, but still in his prime and his face is aged to perfection. don't expect a kurosawa film––this series was made as entertainment, not art. of course yojimbo is a better film, but this is every bit as funny and entertaining.

Funnily enough a few years ago I wrote this (...BUT): First things first, for those that are concerned (and I'm sure you will be as I was), Toshiro Mifune is NOT playing the Yojimbo character from the Kurosawa movies. The title is purely a cash-in, though I'm not sure if it is for the modern Western market or the original title translates as such and was designed to con the Japanese market. The only other film I know of where Mifune genuinely plays the Yojimbo character is "Ambush at Blood Pass" which was the film the both actors completed after this one.In all respects, this is a bad film sadly. It has a few nice moments but its clear this was a commercial venture utilising the two most famous male Japanese actors and characters at the time. In all honesty, I know little about the Zatoichi character, but imagine that the original film must be far superior to this. I couldn't really recommend this film to anyone unless you're a hardcore fan of Japanese Cinema or of the two actors. There are many, many better films of the genre to choose from. Even "Ambush at Blood Pass" which is not a great film is still significantly superior to this one. "Zatoichi versus Yojimbo", like many Japanese films of the time seems confused over what audience its aiming at. The result is an unsatisfactory soup of part comedy, part slasher, part period drama, part morality tale which limps from moment to moment. As said previously, some of these scenes are nice in themselves, but the overall effect is somewhat bland with some scenes almost cringe-worthy. For the uninitiated, always try a Kurosawa film first, if not (and you are interested in Samurai films from an historical perspective) then you may prefer to look at the films of Mizoguchi or Kobyashi. If you just want to see a good samurai flick with Mifune in it, then you may want to look at films such as "Red Lion", "Samurai Assassin" or "Samurai Banners" which are more rounded films and are currently available. As said, I don't know much about Zatoichi, but I would imagine the original and early films are better than this one and worth the effort. Still, I hope this proves useful, it would have saved me money!Now after seeing it again I'm surprised with myself. I've seen so many more Japanese films since and I realise how wrong I was. It must be stressed that it is NOT "Yojimbo" from the Kurosawa films but taking the point that this film is purely "entertainment" then it really is a good film, I watched it with harsh critical eyes when I wrote this and I was wrong! The Zatoichi films vary a great deal in quality, and the character has grown on me a great deal since seeing the recent Takishi film. This is by far one of the best from the original set. So I guess I should now say, if you want a high-art samurai flick, then you'll still be disappointed as with my previous comments; but if you want to see a good, well structured, entertaining film with a very good insight into human nature than I would certainly say give it a whirl.