{"id":11675,"date":"2015-06-25T12:14:25","date_gmt":"2015-06-25T16:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=11675"},"modified":"2015-06-25T12:14:25","modified_gmt":"2015-06-25T16:14:25","slug":"teruo-ishiis-blind-womans-curse-comes-to-blu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=11675","title":{"rendered":"Teruo Ishii\u2019s Blind Woman\u2019s Curse comes to Blu"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/BlindWomansCurse_poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-11679\" alt=\"BlindWomansCurse_poster\" src=\"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/BlindWomansCurse_poster-370x1024.jpg\" width=\"222\" height=\"614\" \/><\/a>I\u2019m an admitted newcomer to the various genres in sixties \/ seventies cinema that that undergone a renaissance on DVD and now Blu-ray, and Teruo Ishii\u2019s <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=11674\" target=\"window\">Blind Woman\u2019s Curse <\/a><\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=11674\">\/<strong> Kaidan nobori ry\u00fb<\/strong><\/a> ((1970), new on Blue via Arrow Video USA \/ MVD Visual, is an amazing, weird little gem that offers a perfect mix of mysticism, action, mayhem, and a surreal character played by choreographer Tatsumi Hijikata.<\/p>\n<p>Hijikata had previously appeared in Ishii\u2019s <strong>Horrors of the Malformed Men<\/strong> (1969), which will be covered in a future entry, but the main attraction in Ishii\u2019s <strong>Curse<\/strong> are the rival female characters who ultimately decimate their enemies and engage in a final duel.<\/p>\n<p>Nikkatsu\u2019s catalogue of exploitation films (and later Roman Pornos) don\u2019t seem to favour pro-active women, making this production a bit of a revelation in that gang leader Tachibana (Meiko Kaji) and rival blind swordswoman Aiko Gouda (Hoki Tokuda) are feared and respected by the men. They don\u2019t take crap, they act fast, and certainly Tachibana\u2019s lieutenants (mostly women) are highly loyal.<\/p>\n<p>Arrow\u2019s new Blu is lovely, and Jasper Sharp\u2019s commentary is superb and deserves revisitation for tracking down related and influential genre entries. Only disappointment: there\u2019s no soundtrack album featuring both Hajime Kaburagi\u2019s score and the vocal tracks in this beautiful production that\u2019s presented in super-wide 2.44:1.<\/p>\n<p><em>Coming next:<\/em> reviews of Pat Boone\u2019s cinema debuts in <strong>Bernadine<\/strong> and <strong>April Love<\/strong> (both from 1957), with the latter in a sparkling Blu-ray edition from Twilight Time.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor<br \/>\n<strong>KQEK.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Review of Teruo Ishii\u2019s Blind Woman\u2019s Curse \/ Kaidan nobori ry\u00fb ((1970), new on Blu from Arrow Video USA \/ MVD Visual.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11680,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[3728,2562,2563,3729,3727],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/BlindWomansCurse_featured.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-32j","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11675"}],"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=11675"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11681,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11675\/revisions\/11681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}