Blind Woman's Curse/Kaidan Nobori Ryu (Teruo Ishii, 1970)

[venoms5]

BLIND WOMAN'S CURSE 1970 aka KAIDAN NOBORI RYU

Directed by Teruo Ishii

Meiko Kaji(Akemi Tachibana), Hoki Tokuda(Aiko Godan), Makoto Sato(Tani), Toru Abe(Dobashi), Tatsumi Hijikata(The Hunchback)

Avenging the death of her father, Akemi Tachibana and her Yakuza compatriots attacks the Godan Clan killing those responsible but accidentally blinding the clan leaders sister, Aiko with a sword slash across the eyes. A cat appears suddenly and begins lapping up the blood pouring from Aiko's eyes. Seeing this, Akemi believes she is forever cursed. After spending several years in jail, Akemi is released. A macabre horror carnival as well as a mysterious blind woman arrives in town and members of Akemi's gang begin turning up dead; the dragon tattoos on their backs removed. Another rival Yakuza gang soon becomes involved in the elimination of the Tachibana Clan leading to a gory confrontation and a duel of vengeance between Akemi and Aiko.

Another oddball Teruo Ishii movie this one melding the Yakuza genre with the Ghost Story movies that propagated from the likes of THE GHOST OF YOTSUYA (1959;probably the most famous example), KWAIDAN (1964;a big budget failure in Japan but influential just the same) and KURONEKO (1968) among others.Of the Ishii movies I've seen, none of them make a whole lot of sense save for his two EXECUTIONER movies starring Sonny Chiba (and also Makoto Sato from this film) but then, Ishii hated doing those movies so perhaps that's why he instilled some realm of cohesion to the narratives of those films?

Either way, the film jumps back and forth from the gangster motif to the horror themed elements but seems to drop the latter once the Hunchback is killed although the demonic cat makes an appearance during the final sword fight. It seems once Akemi swiftly kills the animal, Aiko's thirst for revenge has ceased as if some evil spirit has left her body. Also of note, is that Aiko manages to land a cut on Akemi's back directly across the eyes of the dragons head on her back. What's interesting about the Tachibana gang is that when they stand shoulder to shoulder, their tattoos make one gigantic dragon.

Meiko Kaji is fine here as the Yakuza swordswoman. I haven't seen enough of her movies to really comment on her although she was really memorable in LADY SNOWBLOOD (1973). BLIND WOMAN'S CURSE (1970) is her first major role. She performs decently enough in the sword fighting sequences although she's no Etsuko Shihomi. The sword fights, the finale notwithstanding are just average and nothing overly special.

The main course here is, like with the other films I've seen from Ishii, the cinematography and art decor. Some truly beautiful and hauntingly bizarre sequences including the carnival bits featuring the murderous hunchback played by the bent and twisted Butoh dancer Hijikata who was strikingly horrifying in HORRORS OF THE MALFORMED MEN (1969). The Yakuza mob boss, Dobashi and his multi mirrored opium den filled with naked drug addicted sex slaves are another highlight. As is the final duel between Akemi and Aiko set among a painted backdrop of swirling clouds with dust dancing around their feet. An extremely visual experience albeit an often confusing one.

I still have a few other Ishii movies to watch such as some of his JOYS OF TORTURE series. Teruo Ishii seems to have a decent sized fan following in America although I can't say I'm a part of it. His movies make for an interesting watch but they can become frustrating in an effort to figure out just what is actually going on. If you have a sweet tooth, than you can be assured Ishii's movies provide plenty of cinematic candy for the eyes.

[Alex]

this one was actually a bit of a let down, good but not as good as the Female Yakuza Tale movies

[venoms5]

I watched it again right after I finished it and it made a little more sense. The only thing I'm really enamored with when it comes to Ishii's movies is his lighting and art design. He kind of reminds me as the forerunner to HK's Wong Jing.

[venoms5]

Thanks for the kind words, Daigoro. This version here from discotek, the same company that released ZERO WOMAN: RED HANDCUFFS (1973), another trashy exploitation movie from Japan as well as the recent US dvd of EBOLA SYNDROME (1996)...

http://www.deepdiscount.com/viewproduct.htm?productId=9445607

This dvd of BLIND WOMAN'S CURSE (1970) has trailers, a lengthy text essay about the film and Ishii, photo gallery and a commentary track by Chris D. A beautiful print, too.

[vengeanceofhumanlanterns]

A good film. I don't regret purchasing it.