ICHI (2008) Ichi

Original title: Ichi

Country: Japan

Year: 2008

Genre: Action

IMDB Rating: 6.5 ^{440 votes}

Plot: Ichi is a sole goze (blind woman singer) carrying only a shamisen (Japanese stringed instrument) and a walking stick, traveling on her own to find the man who has brought her up and cared for her as a child. People try to take advantage of the fact that she is blind, but Ichi fights back with her unusual skill with swords, using the sword hidden inside her walking stick.

An incident brings her to meet Toma, who tries to save Ichi from the Banki-to gang, but ends up showing his awful skills in swordplay and is saved by Ichi in return. Ichi unwillingly starts traveling together with Toma, and comes upon the village, where the Banki-to gang, led by the inhuman heartless Banki, is taking charge. They also run into Toraji, who is the successor of the Shirakawa yakuza family trying to keep order of the village apart from Banki. Toma offers to help, but Ichi is uninterested, until she finds that Banki might know the man she was looking for.

Now the dead battle is about to begin!

• Fumihiko Sori, acclaimed for his direction in 'Ping Pong' (2002) and a hit CG Animation 'Vexille' (2007), revived classic Zatoichi saga with the main hero re-imagined as a female. The screenwriter is Taeko Asano, who worked on screenplay for popular live-action movie 'NANA'. And swordplay direction done by Hiroshi Kuze, the man behind sword battles in Akira Kurosawa's 'Ran'.
• Haruka Ayase is only the second person to take up the role of blind sworldman from Shintaro Katsu who played in 27 feature films beginning in 1962 after Takeshi Kitano starred in his 2003 version 'Zatoichi'.
• Actors Yosuke Kubozuka and Shido Nakamura also worked with Fumihiko Sori in 'Ping Pong'.
• Filming took place in Shonai and Tsuruoka City, Yamagata Prefecture, Japan.

Language: Japanese

Colormode: Color

Running time: 120