ZATOICHI MEETS THE ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN (1971)

  If we want to remember just one scene from this Japanese samurai film(and perhaps the whole Zatoichi series!) it's got to be the epic moment when our hero, Zatoichi, is trying to get busy with a prostitute and is rudely interrupted by some peeping-tom's peeking through some paper windows at him and he responds by letting loose a nice fart right in their faces. Truly a heroic moment if there ever was one! Besides this you get a fairly standard 70s samurai flick with the inclusion of our one-armed Hong Kong hero(played by Jimmy Wang Yu who would also go on to star in the great ONE-ARMED BOXER). Zatoichi definitely came off looking to be the superior fighter in this to me but that's mostly because he's the main focus of the film and this seems more like a Japanese production overall. 

 An interesting experiment mixing two existing franchises(it's the 22nd Zatoichi film and the 3rd ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN movie with Wang Yu) that's worth a look for Samurai or kung-fu fans. 

AKA THE BLIND SWORDSMAN MEETS HIS EQUAL and ZATOICHI MEETS HIS EQUAL

THE RETURN OF MASSEUR ICHI (1962)

 I've seen a bunch of these Zatoichi movies over the years but I don't believe I've ever seen this one(only #2 out of 26 in the series) until now. It follows BLIND SWORDSMAN: THE TALE OF ZATOICHI and it's fascinating to watch how they set the mold for the character early on. It's also interesting because we get to meet Zatoichi's brother, who's not a very nice fellow and apparently goes around raping women. If you've seen one of these you probably know what's going to happen but it's all done so well and filmed so artfully that the simplistic plots don't bother me as much as they might some viewers. So if you dig artsy swordplay where a blind dude cleans house give this series a look and start at the beginning because the black and white photography adds a lot. AKA THE TALE OF ZATOICHI CONTINUES and ZATOICHI 2

THE DRAGON LIVES AGAIN (1977)

 This one has got to be one of the strangest examples of Bruce Lee-sploitation ever. If you described the plot of this movie to your average lame-brain civilian they would probably assume you were on some heavy psychedelics.
 OK, so, intermingling reality with fantasy, Bruce Lee(or in this case Bruce Leong doing his best Bruce Lee impression) dies and is sent to this underworld where he becomes friends with Popeye, The Sailor Man and The One-Armed Swordsman, from the kung-fu flick THE ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN. There's a gang of bad guys consisting of Zatoichi, The Blind Swordsman, Clint Eastwood and James Bond(why all these heroic characters are now evil here I have no idea, but they are). This gang is led by a couple of fellows named The Exorcist, who has an unexplained French accent, and The Godfather. I guess in Hong Kong popular movie titles make for good names. They also pal around with Emanuelle from all those soft-core classics except here she has an English accent for no reason. If this isn't enough idiotic insanity Dracula shows up along with that Cobra Kai gang in the skeletons suits(who I think are supposed to be zombies?) and a bunch of mummies. Everyone does kung fu(usually very badly!) and it all ends with Bruce Lee floating away like a balloon.   
 You might think this is a movie for children, and I would too, except there's sex scenes and very ample boobs and almost complete nakedness on display. The whole thing reminded me of on of those crazy Turkish superhero films where copyright is no issue and even Spider-Man himself might be a murdering bastard. I was fortunate enough to see an actual film print of this last night in a theater and it surely made me question my sanity. I was also a little sad that I will probably never find another Brucesploitation film that will top this in the bat-shit wacky department. AKA DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU

The title sequence alone might be better than anything Hollywood has ever attempted:

BLIND SWORDSMAN: THE TALE OF ZATOICHI (1962)

 This is the first in the 26 film-long series of Zatoichi, The Blind Swordsman samurai movies and it's probably the one I've gone back and re-watched the most. Although slow in many spots, as they build characters and relationships, I find this one an overall worthwhile watch that I never get bored with. I'm not sure if technically you can lump these samurai flicks into the exploitation genre since they all seem way too artistically and seriously made for that but they do have that same sort of aesthetic(with their own unique Asian flavor added to them) that your better made spaghetti-westerns have(not too mention the obvious elements they share with kung fu movies) so I guess they fit in the upper echelon of b-movie's. There's the typical plot of everyone underestimating our hero and trying to take advantage of him before realizing that he kicks ass. There's some beautiful cinematography in this one especially one stand out scene light by a large moon. If your a fan of Akira Kurosawa art films these are definitely worth checking out for similar thrills and artiness.