Sara, I watched the Zatoichi films with very low expectations, they were better than I expected but certainly nowhere near Kurosawa, strange thing is the Zatoichi films are as popular if not more so in Japan compared to Kurosawa's films.

The films are low budget and the standard of the transfers I've seen have been average at best.

I do think you'll see a big difference with Kitano's version, better production values for one thing and of coarse, Kitano himself.

Cheers Trev.