Kitano at Toronto

[Susan Morrison]

Kitano's "Zatoichi" screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on
Saturday to a very large (1500)  audience consisting mostly of fans who
applauded at the appearance of his name on screen as the film began. It is
very very violent, to the delight of many of these same fans, and  it has
those Kitano autographic 'comic' bits where violence is the basis for
humour, an example here being when a crazed young man who believes himself
to be a samurai warrior is bonked on the head by Zatoichi's 'blindly'
tossing a piece of wood in the air.

Asano Tadonobu's role is very confused; he's introduced as a sympathetic
character of unsurpassable sword skill who nonetheless is summarily
finished off as a kind of mini-climax to the plot. He's onscreen for maybe
10 of the 120 minutes of the film.

And the grand finale is a real eyeopener. A synchronised chorus line of
geishas and peasants in wooden clogs actually do tapdance a 10 minute
(?)number that has elements of Stomp, Tap Dogs and a heavy dose of Savion
Glover. The accompanying music is produced with Kodo type drums, hammers
and similar noises which are syncopated, rather than musical instruments.
There was an article in the New York Times a few weeks ago about the
popularity of tap dancing in Japan which stated that Savion Glover has a
very large following among the Japanese practitioners.  I believe it now.