Zatoichi

3 out of 5 snowstones To my knowledge, tapdancing, swordfights to the death, and cross-dressing are rarely combined in one movie. Takeshi Kitano tells a seemingly familiar story of a lone, unbeatable hero safeguarding a small, defenseless community against a group of thugs. But the lone, unbeatable hero is blind, members of the small, defenseless community run around in their underpants, and the thugs have computer-generated blood spurting out of them. All in all, Zatoichi is a somewhat unevenly paced, elegantly edited, kick-ass swordfight extravaganza with beautiful surroundings, lots of humor and, yes, tapdancing. I understand there are 29 other Zatoichi movies; let's see them.