A. O. Scott: The Way of the Samurai, Followed by a New Master. In: The New York Times. 23. Juli 2004, abgerufen am 30. Juli 2008 (englisch): „Like many musicals, The Blind Swordsman works better in individual scenes than as a whole. Mr. Kitano is not the most disciplined storyteller, and the plot meanders along tangents and stumbles into flashbacks, losing momentum for long stretches in the middle. It often feels like many episodes of a serial compressed into a single feature. This may, in the end, be easier to digest than 25 sequels and a hundred hours of television. It may also whet your appetite for more.“
