A Ameaça Cega

Shintaro Katsu plays blind masseur Suginoichi, a character who in this earlier film is, aside from his affliction and occupation, the complete antithesis of Zatoichi the honorable and big-hearted Blind Swordsman. An outcast born in poverty, even as a young boy he's an accomplished extortionist with big plans for his future. The film then follows Suginoichi as an adult, when a chance meeting with an ailing traveler who's carrying a large sum of money launches him on a Grand Guignol spree of murder, theft, betrayal, blackmail and rape.

I have to hand it to Katsu: Suginoichi has to be one of the most fascinatingly repellent characters I've ever seen. He has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. He hates the world and everyone in it, especially women, and they'll all be made to pay. The lesson he's taken from life is that if he can rise fast enough, he'll be able to keep one step ahead of retribution for his evil deeds. And for a time, a long time in fact, he prospers, but in an ironic and highly appropriate twist, Suginoichi's comeuppance arrives when a nasty trick he played on the occasion of his first murder backfires at the worst moment.

If you watch this film expecting something like the Zatoichi series, especially if you're looking for dazzling displays of sword-play, you'll be sorely disappointed. If on the other hand you like dark period dramas, shot in the starkly beautiful black-and-white in which Japanese cinematographers once excelled, I recommend checking this one out.

Quite surprised to find out that Shintaro Katsu had already played a blind masseur before he started the Zatoichi series, I was eager to see this film. Yikes, what I got was very unexpected.

The film starts out with a few scenes of the main character, Suga-no-ichi, as a blind child. The sightless scamp is already concocting schemes to swindle people out of money. Cut forward to Suga as an adult, now a priest working under the also blind head priest who is Secretary of Religious Affairs for the Shogun. Curiously all the other priests in this temple are blind, it's not explained in the film why this is. Suga gets sent out on errands by the head priest and he uses this as a chance to rob, swindle, rape and murder while wandering around Japan. Suga joins a band of thieves while running his own schemes independently. But foremost in Suga's mind is the position of Secretary of Religious Affairs and he hatches a plan to get it.

Shintaro Katsu is excellent in the role. A number of Zatoichi mannerisms are already present in his portrayal of the blind masseur. The film is well directed and photographed in black and white. Unfortunately, the character of Suga is so despicable that the film is tough to follow, only Katsu's performance makes it tolerable. There is nothing of the noble Zatoichi here. Also there's no sword work, this is not a chambara film at all. The film might have worked better if it was played with more humor and less rape, but it's rather serious about the whole story. The ending is a cop-out. Interestingly, Katsu's brother, Tomisaburo Wakayama, played a similar, though much less despicable, character in the "Wicked Priest" series a few years later.

Recommended for Katsu fans, others might want to rent a Zatoichi film instead.

If you're a big Zatoichi fan like me, this might genuinely be one of the most unsettling movies you'll ever watch.

It'd be even worse than finding an old Avengers-style movie where Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo etc spend the whole movie acting like the droogs during the first 15 minutes of A Clockwork Orange.

But it does assure me we don't live in the darkest timeline, because in the darkest timeline, there exists one Zatoichi film and 26 Suginoichi films...

I did not really know what to expect when I started seeing this movie. It starts with a blind boy doing some mischievous deeds. It then cuts to his adulthood where he is a masseur. From here we really start to get to know him and follow his life. Rarely have I seen a character with no redeeming qualities and so cold.

Acting and story is quite good in this movie. Do not expect any sword fights or anything like it. It just evolve around Suginoichis life and deeds.

Would I recommend this movie? Well if you look for samurai action look another place. If you are looking for a disturbing story about a blind man then this may be a good choice for you. I would recommend it but it is not for everyone. And the main character is truly not a nice person to follow.

I only discovered this film by accident after watching over a dozen of the great Zatoichi series with Shintaro Katsu. As of this date, the film is available for free on Hulu, and titled "The Blind Menace".

This film, made in 1960, precedes the first Zatoichi by two years, but may have triggered the notion of a blind protagonist. In this, Shintaro Katsu is blind, but is not a swordsman like Zatoichi. Instead, he is an evil and devious thief and rapist, thoroughly nasty.

If you liked the Zatoichi series, this film is worth watching, if only to see a slightly younger Shintaro Katsu playing quite a different character than the good-hearted and humble Ichi that followed.