Zatoichi and the One-Armed Swordsman fight a duel in this Hong Kong-Japan co-production
Zatoichi and the One-Armed Swordsman sees a Hong Kong film character fight a Japanese one. Who won depended on which film version you saw
Japanese characters were usually portrayed as cruel and dishonourable in the Hong Kong martial arts films of the 1960s and 1970s. But such on-screen animosity did not stop Hong Kong production companies from collaborating with their Japanese counterparts.
Around 30 Japanese directors were brought to Hong Kong by Shaw, some of whom were given Chinese names to disguise their nationality from local viewers.
But the most famous Hong Kong-Japan collaboration was not from Shaw Brothers, but its “upstart” rival Golden Harvest. It co-produced, with Japan’s Daiei Film Company, Zatoichi and the One-Armed Swordsman (1971), also known as Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman.