He has done audio commentaries for The Criterion Collection editions of SEVEN SAMURAI and THRONE OF BLOOD, taught a class on Japanese Cinema for 12 years at George Mason University and for 30 years has written the calendar notes for the repertory programs at New York City's famed Film Forum. His company R5/S8 Presents premiered the uncut version of Akira Kurosawa's THE HIDDEN FORTRESS and relaunched Kihachi Okamoto's ZATOICHI MEETS YOJIMBO. Michael Jeck was the film programmer of the AFI Theater at the Kennedy Center for a decade, and for the first years of the AFI Silver Theatre. DIR/SCR Kihachi Okamoto SCR Tetsurô Yoshida PROD Shintarô Katsu. The pairing of these two characters and the actors playing them is fertile ground for raucous comedy and thrilling swordplay, complemented by the flair of director Kihachi Okamoto (in his only ZATOICHI film) and the marvelous widescreen photography of Kazuo Miyagawa (RASHOMON, YOJIMBO and five other ZATOICHI films). The 20th film in the long-running ZATOICHI series finds the blind swordsman Zatoichi (Shintarô Katsu) crossing blades with a bodyguard-for-hire (Toshirô Mifune, heavily implied to be the same character he played in YOJIMBO) charged with protecting a young crime boss who is feuding with his father for control of a village. Zatoichi treks to a village that has always been a favorite spot of his, only to discover that it's become a living hell, plagued by feuding father and son yakuza as well as the younger crime boss's bodyguard-Toshiro Mifune's scruffy, smart-mouthed, cash-hungry Yojimbo of legend. Special Features: Introduction by Michael Jeck on Aug. The blind swordsman returns back to his charming hometown only to find the place is overrun by the yakuza.
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