Shintarô Katsu has been blind since birth. Even as a child, he knew how to use his blindness to manipulate people for his advantage. Now he is an adult, apprenticed to the Tôdô-za, the guild of blind men. He uses his apparent guilelessness to accumulate wealth as the head of a criminal gang. Can he gain control of the guild? If he does so, what are the limits to his power?
Katsu is best remembered for the innumerable movies and TV shows as Zatoichi, the blind swordsman. This Shakespearean sort of tale is an early role in the model, and it is very well done, with his early misdeeds keeping the audience wondering when they're going to catch up with him. It's based, like Zatoichi, on a germ of reality: a guild of blind men was established near the beginning of the 15th Century, and they were the only men permitted to become masseurs. Like all Japanese organizations, the few at the top could become extremely wealthy, while those at the bottom lived in terrible poverty.
Katsu is best remembered for the innumerable movies and TV shows as Zatoichi, the blind swordsman. This Shakespearean sort of tale is an early role in the model, and it is very well done, with his early misdeeds keeping the audience wondering when they're going to catch up with him. It's based, like Zatoichi, on a germ of reality: a guild of blind men was established near the beginning of the 15th Century, and they were the only men permitted to become masseurs. Like all Japanese organizations, the few at the top could become extremely wealthy, while those at the bottom lived in terrible poverty.