Takeshi Kitano, the Japanese actor-director best known in the U.S. for his quirky, ulraviolent gangster movies ("Fireworks", "Brother", "Sonatine") applies his off-kilter sensibility to the samurai genre in "The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi". A blind masseur (Kitano with his hair dyed white) wanders into a small town divided up by rival gangs. Though hunched and shuffling, Zatoichi soon reveals his deadly skills as a swordsman. He befriends a pair of geisha girls with secrets of their own and helps them hunt down the bandits who killed their parents. But one of the gangs has just hired a ronin, a masterless samurai, whose fighting skill may equal the blind swordsman's. "Zatoichi" mixes a melodramatic storyline, deadpan comedy, and dazzling, CGI-enhanced swordfights into a supremely entertaining package. In Japan, Zatoichi is a recurring character in popular action movies, but Kitano places his own unique stamp on the series.