{"id":11674,"date":"2015-06-25T12:14:09","date_gmt":"2015-06-25T16:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=11674"},"modified":"2015-06-25T16:31:45","modified_gmt":"2015-06-25T20:31:45","slug":"br-blind-womans-curse-kaidan-nobori-ryu-1970","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=11674","title":{"rendered":"BR: Blind Woman\u2019s Curse \/ Kaidan nobori ry\u00fb (1970)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"BlindWomansCurse_BR\"<\/a>Film<\/strong>: Excellent<\/p>\n

Transfer<\/strong>: \u00a0Excellent<\/p>\n

Extras<\/strong>:\u00a0Excellent<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0<\/strong>Arrow Video USA \/ MVD Visual<\/a><\/p>\n

Region:<\/strong>\u00a0A, B<\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0March 24, 2015<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong>\u00a0 Yakuza \/ Gangster \/ Ghost Cat<\/p>\n

Synopsis:<\/strong>\u00a0A woman blinded during a swordfight enacts an elaborate revenge scheme to decimate her aggressor before a final duel.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Audio commentary by Japanese film historian Jasper Sharp \/ Theatrical Trailer and additional Trailers \/ Collector\u2019s Booklet \/ Region 1 DVD with identical extras.<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Teruo Ishii\u2019s revenge film is given the deluxe treatment by Arrow Video in this very nice Blu-ray edition, which sports a sparking transfer and a great full-length commentary track by Jasper Sharp.<\/p>\n

Sharp\u2019s been writing liner notes for the Nikkatsu Roman Porno titles<\/a> released via Impulse Pictures and Synapse Films, and his expertise on studio Nikkatsu and Japanese cinema in general is pretty massive, making his track a detailed primer on the country\u2019s studio system and the various genres and players who transgressed between classic and newfangled genres.<\/p>\n

Ishii was obviously a craftsman \u2013 Blind Woman\u2019s Curse<\/strong> is extremely well-directed and shows both style and care for characters, story, potent visuals, and great use of colour and surreal elements \u2013 but he was also a little eccentric, folding together action, violence, severed body parts, some erotic bits, and genuinely surreal imagery. The biggest surprise for Nikkatsu connoisseurs, though, is how the heroine and her lead lieutenants are powerful and respected women.<\/p>\n

Meiko Kaji is amazing as tough-willed Akemi Tachibana, leader of a gang and the \u2018head\u2019 of a long dragon that\u2019s tattooed on the backs of herself and her lieutenants. She becomes the primary target of Aiko Gouda (singer \/ actress Hoki Tokuda) when the latter is blinded during a swordfight that kick-starts the film.<\/p>\n

Aiko cleverly plays several gangs against each other, and with her own lieutenant \u2013 a hunchback named Ushimatsu (Tatsumi Hijikata<\/a>) \u2013 she knocks off sections of Akemi\u2019s \u2018dragon,\u2019 craving out the tattoos and sending them to Akemi with malice. Secondary characters have romances, and rival gangs are headed by sly sadists or foul-smelling thugs, and the entire drama comes to a head in a graphic swordfight with blood that sprays hose-like from slain victims. When every rival has been neutered, Akemi must battle Aiko in a duel that\u2019s eerily reminiscent of the finale in Quentin Tarantino\u2019s Kill Bill: Vol. 1<\/strong> (2003), and one soon realizes the tentacles of this influential thriller.<\/p>\n

Both the finale and the blood-spraying were worked into Tarantino\u2019s homage, but Ishii\u2019s film is more than a period revenge film. Certain elements \u2013 sunglasses, hats, use of telephones \u2013 create a clash with the films\u2019 supposed 1920s setting, and there\u2019s the hunchback character who seems more of a creation of performance artist Hijikata than Ishii.<\/p>\n

Jasper Sharp provides a good overview of Hijikata\u2019s career as a pioneering member of an anarchic theatrical style<\/a>, and his character hops, licks, tumbles, somersaults, and grins his way through assorted action scenes. He\u2019s also a member of Aiko\u2019s carnival troupe \u2013 her cover that allows her to get close to clans within their territories \u2013 and while he may well date the film with a theatrical number typical of the late sixties (a purple-hazed set where Hijikata hops around while an assistant is humped by a dog clad in the Japanese flag), he adds the right does of the surreal to an already strange little film filled with gangsters, swordplay, inventive torture, and a blood-licking black cat with more than nine lives.<\/p>\n

Blind Woman\u2019s Curse<\/strong> could easily have been a violent, erotic film with pure action, but whether due to Kaji\u2019s performance or a role tailored to her stoic persona and screen power, Akemi remains a three-dimensional character with loyal swordswomen, and there\u2019s great power in Tokuda\u2019s minimalist performance as the blind aggressor. Sharp characterizes the film as one of the last theatrical films produced by Nikkatsu before the studio switched to erotica and Roman Porno, making this drama about strong-willed women leading, manipulating, and overcoming male schemers a bit of revelation.<\/p>\n

Ishii\u2019s direction is kinetic yet never showy, Shiheru Kitaizumi\u2019s 2.44:1 \u2018scope cinematography is filled with gorgeous pastel colours, and Hijime Kaburaji\u2019s score features some great dramatic tracks. Kaji, herself a skilled singer, croons the films\u2019 poignant end theme which Tarantino used to close Kill Bill: Vol. 1<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Kaji would soon appear in the Female Convict Scorpion, Stray Cat Rock, and Lady Snowblood series, whereas Tokuda would step away from film, having previously appeared in just two films, Nippon Paradise<\/strong> (1964) and Chinkoro amakko<\/strong> (1965).<\/p>\n

Director Ishii worked steadily into the early seventies, but he\u2019s perhaps best-known for his weird adaptation of an Edogawa Rampo tale, Horrors of the Malformed Men<\/strong> (1969) starring Hijikata.<\/p>\n

Arrow Video\u2019s release includes trailers and a booklet, and replaces the prior 2007 Disotek Media DVD (although that release features a proprietary commentary track by American Cinematheque\u2019s Chris D). Sharp\u2019s commentary provides a great intro to Japanese cinema of the sixties and seventies, discussing other influential genres whose pivotal entries will surely push listeners to further explore Yakuza and ghost cat films.<\/p>\n

Composer Hajime Kaburagi\u2019s other credits include Tokyo Drifter<\/strong> (1966), Blackmail is My Life<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0 (1968), Retaliation<\/strong> (1968), Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701\u2019s Grudge Song<\/strong> (1973), and the nutbar S&M Roman Porno Fairy in a Cage<\/a><\/strong> (1977) under the nom de plume Taichi Yamanashi).<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2015 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References:<\/strong>
\nEditor’s Blog<\/a> — IMDB \u00a0<\/a>— Composer Filmography<\/a>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nVendor Search Links:<\/strong>
\nAmazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Teruo Ishii was obviously a craftsman \u2013 Blind Woman\u2019s Curse is extremely well-directed and shows both style and care for characters, story, potent visuals, and great use of colour and surreal elements \u2013 but he was also a little eccentric, folding together action, violence, severed body parts, some erotic bits, and genuinely surreal imagery…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[3728,1977,3730,3729,3731,3732,3727],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-32i","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11674"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11674"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11707,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11674\/revisions\/11707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}