Just saw a great film!

Zatoichi
http://imdb.com/title/tt0363226
Not anime!

About a blind assassin masquerading as a gambler and masseur who wanders into a town over-run by gangsters. Along the way his path crosses with two geishas who are out for revenge over the killing of their family.

Incredibly violent, with CGI blood used to great effect ("and the Oscar for Most Realistic Arterial Hemorrhaging and Abdominal Puncture goes to...") it's also very funny. I'm pretty sure the director was also spoofing American Westerns as we have all the traditional elements in this film from the frontier town to the barn raising and big hoe-down at the end! Much more than a samurai film, Zatoichi is just plain fun.

Seriously, if you can get this on DVD I really recommend it. If the aftermath of the RNC, the polls and politics in general have you down right now this is a wonderful film to take your mind off it all -- or at least allow you to fantasize about what you'd like to do to the repugs.

Note: I watched a pretty good fan-subbed version with the original Japanese dialog that I downloaded via a bit torrent. Amazon shows a region 1 DVD being released this November.

from the sixties, The blind swordsman. They were wonderful.

Runs this series every so often.