Zatoichi's Cane Sword

When he learns his trusty cane sword is on the verge of breaking, Zatoichi gives the blade away to an old man and starts massaging full time at a large inn, but his peaceful life is immediately interrupted by the usual yakuza shenanigans. A less-than-inspired entry in the series that tries to inject a little variety into the formulaic "save the villagers" story by depriving Ichi of his sword for most of the time, but that just means there's almost no action until the very end.

While not among the very best of the series, it does feature Zatoichi beating people up with no more than a stick and performing a song about ducklings.

One the on hand it has more going on with the characters than most entries, but nothing that can't be and isn't stripped away to make room for the cane sword finale. Denizen is right about ichi losing his sword - makes for an action free movie, and it makes attempts to ratchet up the sense of threat ichi is under without a sword but nothing hits home for tension. Good or bad we instead get to see the blind swordsman perform an absurd song and dance about catching a duck

Main point of interest is the development with Ichi's sword but apart from that it's a pretty mundane installment.

More pointless filler than most, but the climax is probably one of the best yet.