Just FYI I watched Zatoichi (well half of it) last night,
Huh? Zatoichi is like 25 films and a whole TV series, how do you watch “half” of it in one evening.
The Kitano remake is simply called “Zatoichi”.
Ah, right. I completely forgot about that version.
And since we’re at it, you mentioned 25 films earlier: don’t forget the 26th episode released in 1989. Still don’t know why Criterion (and Wild Side in France) didn’t release this one (it can however be found as a zone 1 edition).
Well I can’t say for sure, but I did a quick google search and it seems that the films were made by several production companies. The bulk of the first 25 being made by Daiei Studios (some Chinese studioes apparently got involved at the end), and the last film from 1989 was made by Katsu Production which was founded by Shintaro Katsu himself after Daiei Studioes closed. It seems Katsu prod. owns the rights to the 1989 film, while someone else acquired the rights to Daiei’s films at some point. So I guess Criterion only got the distribution rights to the Daiei films.