IFC used to show Zatoichi movies on their "Samurai Saturday" pretty regularly. All of a sudden they are repeating a line up of about 10 different movies over and over, but no Zatoichi.
Anyone know what's going on?
I've tried contacting IFC but they won't reply.
"Leave the gun, take the cannoli."
I was wondering about this myself. I just started getting into Japanese cinema almost a year ago and was lucky enough to find out about the weekly Saturday morning films on IFC. I was disappointed when the same films started repeating and wondered if IFC just had a set number of them to show. At least from reading your post I now know they showed the Zatoichi films at one time. I've resorted to Netflix and will probably receive the first film in the series on Monday. I just returned Sanjuro, another movie I have often wondered about whether it gets shown on TV.
At least they showed the 3 Hanzo the Razor movies :) They were not shown on a Saturday morning, but I believe a Friday or Saturday night, so now I just check my program guide and go through every day on IFC to see what I can find. They ran High and Low a couple times recently.
Thanks for the reply. Since my OP the lineup on IFC has remained the same. Granted, these are some great movies being shown (over and over), but just when I got into the Zatoichi movies they stopped showing them! I fear I will have to go the Netflix route also.
Repeated written inquiries to IFC have gone unreturned.
"Leave the gun, take the cannoli."
Jofus, I started getting the Zatoichi films from Netflix and I am hooked! I got the one-at-a-time unlimited monthly plan. As soon as I get one, I watch it and ship it back, sometimes the same day :)
I just got the 5th one in the mail today but probably won't get to watch it until tomorrow night. I loved the beginning of the 3rd film (or was it the 2nd?) where the gang kicks the peasants out of the boat so they can use it to cross the lake and they find Zatoichi sleeping in it. The leader throws him overboard then realizes he got cut in the eye by Zatoichi as he was throwing him out. Classic!
I love the series so far and hope it stays good throughout. Can't wait to get to the one where he meets Yojimbo.
On a separate note, Zatoichi 14 is unavailable through Netflix and after doing some research found that it hasn't been released due to it being owned by the Katsu estate (or something like that), so I managed to track it down on eBay. Of course I won't be watching that one for a couple months or so :)
Well doleman, I went the same route as you (Netflix) and just last night finished watching #26 Zatoichi (1989). Check out my review of it in the posted comments.
I loved the series! Sure it has high points and low points, but overall I loved it. I'm keeping a watch to see if #14 comes available somewhere, I'll post again if so.
Did you try the 2003 remake?
"Leave the gun, take the cannoli."
jofus, you beat me to the end!
I had to take a break from Netflix for awhile and stopped after watching #21. I had also started getting the Lone Wolf and Cub series from them and was alternating between that and Zatoichi for a few weeks. I'm hoping to start getting Netflix again in a couple weeks to finish the series. The 2003 remake is in the queue as the last one. I actually have the Zatoichi TV series in the queue as well, so it will be awhile before I have seen everything. The TV series is kind of a mystery to me because I have seen comments about there being many more episodes than what is available on Netflix. I'll have to research that.
But yeah, I definitely miss seeing Zatoichi in action. IFC is still showing the same loop of Japanese movies every Saturday morning, but at least they have been showing the Razor series with Katsu.
I emailed IFC a couple months ago, and it took two tries to get a reply from them, but they finally did.
They said they no longer have the rights to play the Zatoichi series, so alas, we can no longer look forward to seeing him on IFC. They didn't elaborate as to WHY they couldn't show them anymore.
I went out and bought a DVD player/burner to hook up to my TV last year, and luckily I was able to burn copies of most of them, however I did miss a few, so it looks like I'll have to buy those.
Thanks seabee26-1, I tried contacting them and checking a number of forums but was unable to get any answers.
"Leave the gun, take the cannoli."