Screenplay
No século 19, o lendário samurai cego Zatoichi (Kitano) ganha a vida jogando e fazendo massagens. Por trás de sua aparência humilde há um habilidoso e imbatível espadachim. Zatoichi é membro da máfia Yakuza e mestre em iaijutsu (a arte de desembainhar a espada). Invencível graças à sua impecável técnica, ele é perseguido por malfeitores ao tentar salvar a vida de duas gueixas.
Torajiro becomes homesick during his travels after watching a television report about his hometown and meeting a young woman that reminds him of his sister Sakura. Meanwhile, a new tenant moves into Toraya restaurant.
After an encounter with a dying yakuza's son and at his sister Sakura's urging, Torajiro attempts to change his vagrant lifestyle and become an honest worker with a steady job.
After winning big at the races, Torajiro Kuruma wants to take his aunt and uncle on a trip to Hawaii to partly pay the great filial debt he feels he owes them, but the plan hits a snag. Also, a pretty kindergarten teacher rents a room at Toraya.
Seijuro Fujihana, head master of the Fujihana dance school, is a proud and lonely artist. And because of his character, his group lacks the prosperity of others. He wishes his daughter Kasumi, gifted like himself, to take over and develop the Fujihana, but she wishes to marry Hiroshi, head of a jazz band which her father opposes. Kisaburo, Seijuro's No.1 disciple, wants to marry Kasumi and take over the Fujihana with the backing of the chairman of the supporters' association.
Kuruma Torajiro is discovered looking around Kyoto for someone special to him.
A detective tries to outwit a jewel thief who has kidnapped the daughter of a jeweler to get to an exquisite diamond.
Suzuko, a woman in her twenties who has a brother with political problems (due to communist reprisals), lives for over five years in a love affair with Tate who's a young lieutenant in the Army, ultimately becoming a right-wing fundamentalist revolutionary. She marries another man, one totally dedicated to the rigorous practices of Noh theatre, in an arranged marriage, but the bond that connects her with Tate is too strong.
