Preview screening held for Fumihiko Sori’s ICHI, new trailer released

Director Fumihiko Sori joined ICHI stars Haruka Ayase and Takao Osawa yesterday for a preview screening of the film and greetings from the stage. As is typical for these press events nothing particularly informative came out of it, but a lot of praise was poured on Ayase for being able to handle all her own fight scenes without the benefit of a stand-in and a relatively short amount of time to train. Sori was particularly impressed by her natural reflexes and fighting spirit.

"Ichi" offers a fresh take on the Zatoichi franchise. The film stars Haruka Ayase as the blind swords(wo)man. Prior to this project, the Zatoichi character had only been played by two men: Shintaro Katsu from 1962-1989 in both a TV series and 26 movies, then by Takeshi Kitano in his 2003 film, Zatoichi. In Sori's version, Ichi is not a blind masseuse (for obvious reasons), but a blind singer and shamisen player. A samurai named Tōma (Osawa) intervenes when a group of men appear to be threatening Ichi in a mountain town. However, she ends up saving him when she pulls a hidden sword from her walking cane and dispatches her attackers without breaking a sweat. Tōma and Ichi soon get caught in the middle a war between two factions vying for control of the town and must eventually face off against the minions of a powerful warlord (Shido Nakamura).

Trailer:

ICHI opens in Japan on October 25, 2008.

Official website

• 
  US Trailer - ICHI (2008)
  Posted: November 28, 2009
• 
  Full cast info, first teaser for Shinobu Yaguchi’s “Happy Flight”
  Posted: July 19, 2008
• 
  Trailer - ICHI (2008)
  Posted: July 16, 2008
• 
  Teaser - ICHI (2008)
  Posted: July 16, 2008
• 
  Trailer - Makai Tensho: Samurai Resurrection (2003)
  Posted: May 17, 2008