As soon as the first scene ends and Akira Ifukube’s score drops in, you know you’re in for a Samurai treat with “Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo”. Of course, just from the title and cast alone, you should be prepared for nothing less than a match made in heaven. Look at what we have here. Shintaro “Zatoichi” Katsu kicking ass on the same film reel as Toshiro “I’ve played a million badasses” Mifune. This is the recipe for a fantastic film, and in the end, the 20th film in this series truly delivers the goods.

Zatoichi returns after three years to a village he harbors fond memories of, only to find that he is not really welcome. He just wants to relax and bathe his worries away at the hot springs, but because of a web of deceit within the Shogunate Mint, he is forced to find the root of the town’s ill fortune. This is where the central conflict lies in “Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo”, a triangle of trouble between Yasuke Eboshiya and his two sons, one who’s a bastard and the other who manages to be an even bigger bastard.

Just like in other Zatoichi films, the most intriguing aspect is the character of Zatoichi himself. It’s really hard to get a concrete pin on him just by watching this single film, and the viewer would benefit greatly from the added familiarity you get from watching the previous movies. His stance on greed and honor, among other things, can sometimes come off as vague, though this is a capital characteristic of Zatoichi. He aims to prove that he can fight, heal and sometimes even con just as well as someone with the ability of sight. Just when characters like Mifune’s Sasa Daisaku think they have Ichi pegged, they realize they were completely wrong about him.

Just as you would be hard pressed to replace Wakayama Tomisaburo in the Lone Wolf films, Shintaro Katsu is untouchable in his position as Zatoichi. He owns this character, down to every small detail. Coming from someone who hasn’t seen it yet, it will be interesting to see what Beat Takeshi adds to the character in his 2003 Zatoichi film.

Complimenting Zatoichi’s more lax character is the tempestuous titular Yojimbo, brought to life by Toshiro Mifune. Daisaku is a raging drunken bodyguard hired by Masagoro (the bastardlier son of Eboshiya) and is offered a 100-ryo reward for claiming Zatoichi’s head. He soon finds out that Ichi is a force to be reckoned with and will be more trouble to kill then he had accounted for. Like many before him, he took Zatoichi as a simple blind man, incapable of putting up a true fight. Throughout the course of the film, we find his character is deeper than at first glance, as he shares his own ties to the village he now begrudgingly uses as his own lush drinking den.

Some may find this films slow pace a drawback, but if you’ve seen more than a handful of Samurai films, it should come as no surprise. “Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo” takes its time to reach any sort of rise in action or circumstance. It allows the characters to settle into the film along with the viewer, and focuses more in its first half on the conflicts and temporary resolutions met between Zatoichi and Sasa Daisuke.

Aside from the at times plodding pace, one other minor gripe is that one of the films coolest characters is added so late into the story that his presence is almost completely inconsequential. The man in question is the menacing Kuzuryu, who brings a new deadly approach to fighting to the table, a gun. It’s too bad that the viewer is so engulfed in the present conflict between the family of the Shogunate Mint by this time, that Kuzuryu slinks by on the screen virtually unnoticed until the finale.

This film is more or less essential viewing for those following the series, and with the older films now seeing some great releases it’s the perfect time to get started. But even if you don’t know your Zatoichi from your Ichi the Killer, this is a more than ample serving of two Japanese acting legends sharing the screen with an interesting plot and a bevy of supporting characters that only add to the quality of the whole.