Zatoichi makes friends with a dangerous chess player, while fending off angry yakuza and bloodthirsty relatives out for revenge, and trying to save a sick child. Meanwhile, his luck with dice is turning.
Acting
Narita's Jumonji: chess genius, emotional wreck, unforgettable.
Direction
Misumi lets silence scream louder than swords.
Writing
Jumonji's backstory reveal hits like a board to the skull.
Director
Kenji Misumi
Shintarō Katsu
Zatoichi
Mikio Narita
Tadasu Jumonji
Kaneko Iwasaki
Otane
Gaku Yamamoto
Tomonoshin Sagawa
Saburo Date
Tatsuo Endō
Yakuza boss of Ejimaya
Takuya Fujioka
Ryo Horikawa
Rokkō Toura
Kanae Kobayashi
Widow Tarozaemon
Fujio Suga
Injury prone Banyu yakuza
Rokkō Toura
Crippled yakuza
Yukiko Takabayashi
Kume
Naomi Fujiyama
Miki
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was the eleventh Zatoichi film in just four years—Katsu reportedly learned actual dice techniques from real gamblers to make Ichi's losses convincing.
The chess variant played is shogi, and Jumonji's 'silver general' strategy mirrors his own sacrificed position in the yakuza hierarchy—Misumi rarely this on-the-nose.
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