Môjû

Moju is ambitious art-house film. It's staged as homage to fine arts and for the most part theatrical. Artist's studio is huge, dark exhibition place for human limbs and parts of human body sculpt out of clay, with two giant naked female body forms in the center. That's the psychedelic stage where this story is to take place. I think it soon became clear there was one most likely scenario for me as viewer: to approach it on intellectual level. Blind Beast has a lot to offer visually, but it's stripped down in its core, an extreme psychology workshop with highly effective, post modern interior. I have noticed certain restraint here, it's not trying to evoke emotional response as primary goal.

Blind sculptor (Michio) with slight Oedipal complex becomes fascinated with young s&m model. With the help of his mother he kidnaps the young girl (Aki) hoping to use her as model for his art. Things do not go quite as planned, turns out the girl is strong willed and stubborn with certain dislike of her new position. Battle of wills thus ensues. Using basic psychology she manipulates naive, asocial artist to gain his trust and up her chances for escaping the house. But, after several failed attempts she is forced to accept her fate and form a relationship with him.

Both of them go through changes, each new step force them to adapt, and find a way to cope with the situation. It resembles a weird game, with ever changing dynamics between the two protagonists. It becomes apparent the girl, whom I first though was superficial or simply ordinary, shows considerable intelligence, and new found appreciation for the world of touch (the only world known to her captor), senses and darkly pleasures. And things escalate from there.

Although protagonists are taking the realm of senses to extremes and turn pleasure into pain, most of violence happens off screen so Blind Beast's subtle and visually beautiful while demonstrating excessive, pathological desires and ideas. I first thought the titular Blind Beast is the sculptor, but have changed my mind during the film...twice. Having seen it, I don't think either of the characters are, I think the title refers to lust, surrender to senses, confirming there is such thing as too much of a good thing.

Yes, believe it or not, these weird, artistic looking, violent, sadomasochism movies are actual part of a much larger genre, that mostly the Japanese have specialized in. Its genre is often hard to watch but at the same time you will also be able to appreciate the visual beauty and delicateness of the movie.

Out of all the movies I have seen so far that can be put under the same label as "Môjû", this movie is certainly one of the better ones. Its storytelling shock you more than the actual images of the movie and visually it's also a great looking movie with grand and unusual looking sets. It's definitely an artistic movie but it's story will still grab everyone, no matter how simplistic it and odd it all gets at times.

Even though in essence its a sadomasochism movie, the movie is more focused on its psychological sexual aspects and how the characters experience them. There is nudity and gore but that is not just simply what the movie is supposed to be all about.

It's definitely a movie you simply need to experience. A lot can be written about it but it in no way can capture the essence and mood of the movie.

8/10

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There are sometimes films which are depraved for the sake of being depraved. There is some seriously disturbing stuff happening on the screen but the progression of the narrative to reach that extreme stage seems so contrived that you ultimately end up somewhat dissatisfied in the end!

Based on Rampo Edogawa's story, Yasuzo Masumura's "Blind Beast" (1969) falls in this category. Michio (Eiji Funakoshi) is a blind sculptor (blind since birth) who has, over the years, developed the "sense of touch" to the fullest to satisfy or please himself. All other senses like sound, smell and sight are of no use to him because they aren't the real deal and "sight" he has never known! He has come to learn a lot about how things may look and has developed his own understanding of the forms of various objects around him. Most notably he has become obsessed with the female body as he finds it the most beautiful creation and feeling up the female body parts gives him the most pleasure(!). He has a studio built out of a warehouse and it contains a lot of sculptures of the female body and the individual parts as he has perceived them using his sense of touch! And now he has made "pioneering the art of touch" his life's mission! "An art form for the blind, by the blind" as he describes it!

Enter beautiful model Aki (Mako Midori), stories of whose beautiful body Michio has heard! A desire to feel up Aki's exquisite anatomy and to use her as a model for his latest sculpture drives Michio into kidnapping her with the help of his mother and holding her captive in his studio. Aki tries her best to flee but is overpowered by the blind sculptor and his mother. Amidst the labyrinth of giant female body parts including eyes, lips, nose, breasts, hands, legs, he starts building a sculpture, feeling up a reluctant Aki once in a while and then moulding his clay accordingly!

Aki starts thinking up ways to escape and even makes several attempts to trick the mother-son duo into letting her go. But a dramatic change of events turns this kidnap drama into a strange tale of macabre fetishism, as the kidnapped starts identifying with her captor and finds herself embracing his perverse ways…..

"Blind Beast" surely has the power to grip from its very first frame. The initial few sequences after the kidnapping are very well filmed and give a distinctly eerie and claustrophobic feel as Aki fumbles and stumbles in the surreal studio full of sculpted body parts. It is also commendable that the film doesn't follow the oft-trodden path that kidnap dramas usually take. The final half hour takes an entirely different direction and that's a good thing. What isn't very appealing, however, is the abrupt manner in which that direction is taken! The jump or transition is somewhat half-baked. It is not entirely unusual for kidnap dramas to portray their victims as utterly stupid and clumsy idiots whose repeated attempts to escape always predictably fail, because if the escape really happens, then there is nothing left to film! "Blind Beast"'s Aki is no different, as in spite of some clever tricks she plays to fool the mother-son duo whilst trying to escape, she always manages to bungle up in the end. That's not all, what's more frustrating is how she even gets overpowered by a completely blind man and sometimes even misses some blatantly obvious chances of getting the better of him….all for the sake of movie continuity perhaps?

It also doesn't help that the otherwise efficient blind person who is very adept at sensing a presence from their smell, footsteps and breathing sounds, lacks consistency and behaves in the clunkiest manner at times. Towards the third act, as the film gets to its focal point in a bizarre twist to the proceedings, we, the audiences wonder…how did things even get so far? It just doesn't quite cut it.

But for all its worth, "Blind Beast" is a watchable film and manages to disturb the viewer in the final act, with terrific performances from the two leads Mako Midori and Eiji Funakoshi. One wonders though, whether this film was an excuse for the filmmaker and the lead actor to simply to feed their nasty appetite of fondling their lead woman, because moments when she ISN'T groped in this film are few and far between!

Score: 7/10.

The successful Japanese model Aki (Mako Midori) is abducted by the obsessed and lonely blind sculptor Michio (Eiji Funakoshi) and his mother (Noriko Sengoku). Aki unsuccessfully tries to escape from Michio's studio, and seduces and manipulates Michio against his mother. Aki develops a weird, sick and tragic relationship with Michio, after her long imprisonment and the close contact with him.

The first thing that came up to my mind while watching "Môjuu" was the clear inspiration of its storyline in William Wyler's "The Collector" (1965); by the other hand, the screenplay of the recent "Tiresia" (2003) is certainly based in these two movies. These three films have the same storyline - an obsessed fan kidnaps a woman and imprisons her, but have very different conclusions. "Môjuu" follows a bizarre and weird way, using destructive sadomasochism between the two lead characters, and the most impressive, in a 1969 movie, i.e., thirty seven years ago. Mako Midori is extremely beautiful; the sets are awesome; the cinematography is wonderful; but this unforgettable sick SM love story is recommended for very specific audiences only, since it is impossible not to feel a disturbance after watching this movie. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Cega Obsessão" ("Obsession Blind")

I had been haunted by an image in Phil Hardy's Overlook Encyclopedia of Horror of the two leads in orgasmic contact. The description of the film made me wonder what sort of sick twisted film this was. Twenty years later the film came out on DVD and I picked up a copy.

The plot, such as it is, concerns a blind man who kidnaps a model and holds her against her will. What happens next would be telling, as the three characters, the blind man's mother is his accomplice, interact in ways that are both surreal and primal. Even if you know what happens, you still can't be prepared for what happens.

This is NOT for every taste. The psycho-sexual twists and turns may be not some peoples cup of tea. Even the blood, which by todays standards isn't much, kicks you in the head.

No, its no perfect. The film is a bit too long, but its a trip and a half for those willing to take it on its terms.

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