Teaming up for my entertainment, any way. = P
Had a bit of creative blockage lately, so I filled my downtime watching something new (Luke Cage Season 2) and something old and familiar (the Zatoichi film series) to maybe shake myself out of it.
Briefly, I very much enjoyed LUKE CAGE SEASON 2. It had its flaws here and there--mostly it being too long by about 3 episodes and some bits and storylines being obvious filler. But there was a lot to like.
Marvel to its credit has seemed to take the criticism to heart, and has been stepping up it's villain game in both the movies and its netflix shows. Not all of them hit the mark (like Jessica's mom) but Luke Cage made Season 2 all about its villains and did a mostly outstanding job. Alfre Woodard hit it out of the park with her portrayal of twisted crime boss Mariah, and we got some surprising and entertaining depth to other villains like Shades and Bushmaster, the latter of whom was a great new addition.
Mike Colter again did a great job as the title character. Though he does have an arc, its not as well developed as the various villains' stories, but was still great in places. Plus the episode with the Iron Fist team up was great fun, and I appreciated some of the nods to the old comics (particularly "Where's my money, honey?" which made me lol for real.)
ZATOICHI is a classic Japanese film series from the 60s and early 70s, about a wandering blind swordmaster in the late Edo period (early 1800s) in japan. There were 20 odd films and a TV series. There were a few sporadic modern remakes, but my heart for this series will always lie with the original.
Although this series is usually lumped together with the samurai flicks of the same period, Ichi ('Zato' refers to his titular profession, a masseur) is yakuza in his origins, and is forever on the lowest rung of japanese society of that era. He often keeps the fact that he is a terrifyingly skillful swordsman under wraps, usually until some idiot mobsters run afoul of him and he ends up having to cut a fool or fifty.
ichi is played by the great Shintaro Katsu, who usually does a great job in balancing both the character's tragic, human side as well as his goofiness. Ichi is noble in intention but often flawed in his actions, but is also not afraid to have a laugh at his own expense.
The series does have some flaws, but as a whole it has a lot of great action, good humor, and even some occasional compelling drama. My favorites are the first two movies ("The Tale of Zatoichi" and "The Tale of Zatoichi Continues"), the seventh ("Zatoichi and the Chest Of Gold," which basically ends in a horror movie massacre in a dark mansion with Ichi as the 'monster'), and number seventeen ("Zatoichi Challenged") which probably has the very best fight of the series, a clip of which is below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=_Hvc1Ae-YCU
Most of the movies can be found on youtube, plus they're also on dvd and blue ray. Well worth looking up and watching.
