Zatoichi's Conspiracy (English Subtitled)

Everything comes full circle when Zatoichi returns to his hometown. He finds that a childhood friend has become a feared crime lord, keeping the locals in debt and bilking them of their rice.

Capping off Zatoichi's feature film era before the transition to television in 1974, this entry is suffused with melancholy, closing the series on a note of emotional heft that it has well earned.