somewhere above someone wondered how the scene was shot.,,, It is in a studio, the lighting and camera angles indicate shots from below ground etc. and the lighting is clearly from their feet in the closeups.... but the snow falls but not on their clothes because it is being shot through a curtain of falling snow then the actors, then another curtain of snow behind the actors to give depth. and yes the snow is fake... a few stray flakes do not melt on an otherwise very active actor in lights. Plus you can't see their breaths. Not to take away from the film at all, but just imagine trying to do some 20 films about every 8 months. These are all masterpieces....

I've been searching for these films ever since I was a young man.
The series are truly cinematic treasures.It's not Shakespeare, but has a lot of Shakespearean elements throughout most of the stories.Todays filmmakers need to review these films and take notes.

Beautiful cinematography, good story, a very good guy who is very respectful, kind, helpful and honorable to women and girls of all ages, never a creep and so sweet. He is also such an AWESOME sword master, his swordmanship is absolutely outstanding, and the fact that he is blind makes it even more astonishingly awesome! Good action scenes predominately involving the usage of sword, nice music, highly stylistic and i love this - perfect costumes, perfect scenery, perfect cinematography, very very convincing and feels so real - the videos are all very high quality for the '60s too! Good morals, but not too prachy, our hero does have his flaws like a little too much drinking in some of the films and a little too much gambling, but overall he is very caring, he really cares about the good people of the world, the children, the other humans who are treated badly by society or wronged or in need of help - and its great because the women and children are NOT portrayed as stupid or totally and utterly helpless mindless annoying objects, they are portrayed as real humans with heart, courage, and strength i mean sometimes they get scared especially the children or the children can be little brats/punks but thats another aspect i love about these films - quite realistic, the realism, we can really feel we are a part of the era in which Zatoichi often called Ichi for short lives. A glimpse into an often tough world but there is much beauty and good in it nonetheless. Very very nice. Sometimes the films are slow and if you are looking for straight-up action action fight fight fight constantly you won't find it - but there is always a good story that goes along with it all and when the action comes its incredible and worth it. Some good bits of humor too, and not over-the-top and ridiculous like in a lot of other movies of the martial arts/sword/asian genre, not to be racist im Asian i do indeed though get bored sometimes of the over-the-top stuff thats in a lot of our movies. Not so much in this one. It isn't completely realistic either i should add because its a little tamer (these films) than real life was in the era portrayed so its good for both kids and adults. Great stuff males and females will equally like. stick with these you won't be disappointed, give them a chance - we are so used to everything being fast since 2000 or so its al boom boom boom light speed but also these are not at all boring. I reccomend these to people interested in Japan and Japanese culture as well, and its inspiring to see a blind man or any man for that matter be so good skill-wise/human-wise. And also have little mostly harmless flaws so he is believable instead of i don't know Superman or something. Classics. Very impressed by the quality of the videos that haven't even been remastered wow so beautiful and high quality even for today and especially considering they were made from 1963-1971 (although the era is supposed to be probably late 1700's Japan). I like seeing the countryside a lot too. My grandma actually liked these, my little brother loves these, my friends...regardless of race nationality or age. Its pretty easy to read the subtitles because though some things happen very fast of course there isn't SO much dialogue (another thing i like) that its like WHAT ON EARTH ARE THEY SAYING (a lot of our asian action-like movies i must admit have WAY too much dialogue so that it can get meaningless...the dialogue in these are the perfect amount to get the characters, stories, and scenes across, and even when they are talking really fast in some of the action scenes its realllly easy to figure out whats up. But you never know what is going to happen next quite exactly - they aren't totally thrillers but there are twists and turns. Pretty much perfect balance.). Check them out for yourself :)

These movies are, without a doubt, some of the best cinema ever produced. With Shintaro Katsu at center, they are like fresh John Ford or Sergio Leone films for western audiences. The brilliance of the cinematography and editing is poetry for the eyes. Incomparable. Five stars.

These movies rock me. Some of the best cinema of all time IMHO. I'm often struck by the length of the shots - long, complex scenes all done in one shot. You can see where Tarantino got his inspiration. Truly enjoyable art.

I have been waiting to see Zatoichi Challenged again for years. Not only is the character of the blind masseur one of my favorites of filmdom (next to mad max and michael corleone) but the cinematography of Zatoichi Challenged (as most in the series) is absolutely stunning. Seriously. The lighting and locations and the framing give a zen cinemascope feel that ranks up there with the great westerns of john ford. And stay until the end for the big fight in the snow. For me, this encapsulates everything that is great and good about Zatoichi. I have wondered how they shot this for a long time. Is the snow real or fake? Did they wait until a snowy day to shoot it? How, if it was fake, did they keep the snow off of the characters clothing (the way real snow melts on you if you are outside having a sword fight?) All I come away with is that they did one hell of a job. Bravo Ichi!

Awesome, beautiful films. The most successful, durable action hero of all time isn't sly stallone or Van Damme, it's the Japanese fellow who plays Zatoichi. While not all the films are equally, ALL of them are watchable, and ALL are as good as any movies coming out nowadays. Good job to Hulu for getting these out there for us.