Zatoichi and the One-Armed Swordsman (Japanese: 新座頭市・破れ！唐人剣; Chinese: 獨臂刀大戦盲侠), also known as Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman and The Blind Swordsman Meets His Equal, is a 1971 chambara-wuxia crossover by Japanese film director Kimiyoshi Yasuda and Chinese film director Hsu Tseng Hung. A Japanese-Hong Kong co-production, the film stars Shintaro Katsu as the blind swordsman Zatoichi and Jimmy Wang Yu as the "One-Armed Swordsman" Wang Kang. It is a crossover of the long-running Zatoichi series and the One-Armed Swordsman film series.
The Chinese edit of the film reportedly featured a different ending where Wang Kang was victorious in the final duel, rather than Zatoichi.
Contents
Plot
While traveling the Japanese countryside the blind masseur Zatoichi (Shintaro Katsu) comes across the One-Armed Swordsman, Wang Kang (Jimmy Wang Yu), who is in hiding and protecting a child from a corrupt Japanese priest and a group of yakuza. Zatoichi and Wang Kang, each from very different worlds yet heroic swordsmen in their own right, at first seem to get along but a language barrier and a series of misunderstanding leads Kang to distrust Ichi. Soon the two heroes are at each other throats while each attempts to stop the true villains from taking the child.
Cast
Shintaro Katsu as Zatoichi
Jimmy Wang Yu as Wang Kang
Yūko Hama as Osen
Michie Terada as Oyone
Kōji Nanbara as Kakuzen
Tokue Hanasawa as Yosaku
Shinsuke Minami as Henoichi
Shirō Itō as Shinshichi
Toru Abe as Boss Tōbei
Wang Ling as Li Yumei
Cheung Yik as Li Xiangrong
Production
Yoshinobu Nishioka - Art director