Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman

While most international film critics laud Toshiro Mifune's and Tatsuya Nakadai's samurai performances in Japanese film, Shintaro Katsu will forever be enshrined by Japanese cinema fans for his Blind Swordsman Zatoichi series, which spanned scores of features, a TV series, and spinoffs. A canny producer, Katsu had his finger on the pulse of what attracted moviegoers, much like that of Hong Kong's Shaw Brothers. Katsu paired Zatoichi with Toshiro Mifune's Yojimbo to much success. Crossing over to Hong Kong, his next team up led to Zatoichi pairing with a Chinese swordfighting franchise counterpart in Jimmy Wang Yu's One Armed Swordsman , which was the first HK film to break HK$1 Million B.O. With a subtext of how miscommunication can lead to conflict, the film was a smash hit in both countries, in part due to 2 separately filmed endings.