I saw the 2003 remake of Zatoichi a few weeks ago. Recently, I was reading some things about Japanese film makers and it mentioned that alot of people consider "Zatoichi" Takashi Kitano's masterpiece. I didn't really like that film.
I've seen countless Japanese films, including the first 5 or so Zatoichi films. I found Kitano's 2003 remake pretty average. It didn't really add anything to the Zatoichi stories, and in fact, I couldn't tell you the difference in the stories between the 2003 remake and the 5 I've seen. Also, I found those tap dancing/"
Stomp"-style scenes to be probably the corniest thing I've ever seen. I didn't even watch the film to the credits because it ended on a giant tap dancing scene. Don't get me wrong, I'm not dissing choreographed dancing scenes in film, but it was god awful.
Do any of you have any opinions? Why is this a great, award-winning film? I don't get it.