XX: Utsukushiki kyôki

A blind female assassin lives alone in a remote house; her superiors occasionally send her "clients" / targets that she shoots right after having sex with them in her completely darkened bedroom. Things get complicated when another (male) assassin spies on her with his night-vision goggles and begins to fall in love with her when he sees her crying herself to sleep.

The English title for this movie is "Beautiful Weapon", and it makes it sound a lot more exciting than it is. The movie is VERY HARD TO SIT THROUGH. It could function better as a sleeping pill. The female lead is pretty and gives a fine performance, but I still had to fight off sleep on several occasions. There are also a couple of plot twists which are annoyingly lacking in logic. Because the movie did not offend me (unlike "Beautiful Prey", which did), I will not throw it away. But will I ever see it again? Highly doubtful. (*)

An attractive, blind woman who is initially known only as "Miss" (Masumi Miyazaki) is one of three assassins employed by a man named "Masahido Yoshizawa" (Kunio Murai) who essentially acts as a go-between for his rather paranoid Yakuza boss "Yasuhiro Kokubu" (Takeshi Kato). At first Yasuhiro's main concern is to eliminate certain government inspectors who might uncover graft involving bribery and fraud. However, after eliminating these threats his attention begins to focus on those who have knowledge of these hits and might betray him so he orders all three of these assassins killed one-by-one. The first works at a coffee shop and is sent to the house of the blind assassin who seduces the man and then shoots him when he least expects it. The second assassin by the name of "Kenji Sakagami" (Masao Kosakari) plays the piano at a nightclub and is ordered to have sex with the blind woman and then to kill her afterward. What nobody knows is that Kenji secretly witnessed the assassination of the coffee shop assassin and is basically aware of what to expect. However, in order to accomplish the task as ordered he voluntarily exposes himself to the danger that lurks in the dark. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film had some pretty good things going for it. The suspense and mystery were both in abundance and I thought Masumi Miyazaki also performed quite well. Likewise, she certainly didn't hurt the scenery in any way either. On the other hand, some of the scenes-especially toward the end-lacked depth and coherence which gave the overall film an unrealistic and unbalanced nature. It's almost as if some scenes were left on the cutting floor and those scenes that remained were then spliced together. Or maybe it was all just an attempt by the director (Kazuo 'Gaira' Komizu) to look "artistic". That being said, it still wasn't a bad movie overall and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

A blind woman is hired to kill people which she does only after sex with the victim.

While the premise is simple, the movie goes in various directions from there which kept my interest throughout the rest of the film. I like not knowing what's next. At 93 minutes, it felt much shorter. Part drama. Part crime thriller.

The acting was good. Masumi Miyazaki who plays the lead was very good. She is absolutely gorgeous which added some authenticity to her character. I liked that her character started with a lot of mystery which gets cleared up as the story progresses. A couple of times she didn't appear blind but that was not her fault. The script or direction allowed the mistakes. There is a couple of holes in the story but nothing I couldn't deal with but that's why I didn't rate this film higher.

There are several scenes of nudity and sex but nothing erotic or explicit. In fact, the story is always in the forefront and the sex while a part of the story that's all it ever was. A part of the story.

I had low expectations for this film but it definitely surpassed it. This is an example of a Pink Eiga (tho it's 93 minutes long) that you watch only because it's an excellent film. Good story. Good characters. Good acting. Good movie to watch.