The Blind Woman's Curse

'Blind Woman's Curse (1970)' is a bit of a mishmash of genres, a female yakuza semi-exploitation movie by way of early J-horror such as 'Kuroneko (1968)'. It's the first starring role for the piercingly beautiful Meiko Kaji and it showcases her steely gaze, strong constitution, gentle strength and capacity to kick ass right out of the gate; it's easy to see why she became such an icon. The film is mostly successful despite the disjointed nature of its relatively loose narrative, kept afloat by a bevy of colourful side characters and the never-quite-delivered-on promise of powerful otherworldly intervention. It establishes itself as an interesting endeavor right from its opening titles, which play over a battle that ensues after the lead reveals her gang's dragon tattoo which slithers its way across all of their backs. The narrative's most intriguing elements are relegated to the background for a lot of its runtime, but even the standard gang v gang stuff is compelling enough for what it is. Everything comes to a head in a brilliant final movement which begins with a striking sequence of a gang's march to war in front of an ominous blue sky, proceeds to feature several stabbings and slashings which spew geysers of ruby red blood, and ends with a one-on-one battle set in a surrealist arena marked by strange swirling clouds and the heavy presence of long-held hate. It's a really strong note on which to end and it makes up for the flick's slower portions towards its midsection. Still, this ultimately isn't as good as some of the films it obviously heavily inspired ('Lady Snowblood (1973)', for instance) and almost feels like a fairly standard entry in its specific subgenre. It has all the right elements but doesn't quite combine them in the most potent way. It's an enjoyable but relatively forgettable affair.

I found this movie to be a weird mix and to be totally honest, I am not sure if I like this movie. This movie seems to have a weird mix of visuals from gore, psychedelia,Jidai Geki and yakuza elements. I personally found it a little off putting and there were parts of the movie, the psychedelic gore parts with the visuals and colouring, that I did not enjoy. Meiko Kaji stars as tachibana doing her soon to be trademark stoic, unspeaking character. Like her later characters Scorpion and Lady Snowblood, she does not say much nor shows much emotion. While it worked (very successfully) with these characters it does not work in this movie. Instead of driven she looked uncertain. Not the best movie but an interesting movie and a look at the development of meiko kaji as an actress.

All I have to say is that them Japanese seem like they have way too much fun sometimes. Lots and lots if bloody sword fighting. Eccentric characters. The plot is straightforwards although it jumps around to odd places here and there. Not for everyone thats for sure.

The dragon-tattooed leader of the Tachibana Yakuza gang, Akemi (Lady Snowblood's Meiko Kaji) tries to avenge the death of her father in a rain-drenched showdown, only when she is about to deal the final death blow, she slashes at the eyes of the rival's boss younger sister, rendering her blind while a mysterious black cat laps up her blood. Akemi spends three years in jail before returning to the head of the Tachibana clan, where she intends to stop the violence that is causing her city to bleed and live out her days in peace. With the help of a Tachibana turncloak, a rival gang headed by Dobashi (Toru Abe) starts to invade Akemi's territory, planting drugs in their stalls and fighting them in the streets.

Dobashi finds some unexpected help with the arrival of a blind female swordsman, Aiko (Hoki Tokuda), the woman from the opening scene who is seeking vengeance. It's here that the film starts to get seriously weird. Working as a knife-thrower at a carnival show, Aiko is accompanied by two assistants, a grotesque hunchback with a fetish for decapitation, and the black cat that Akemi believed put a curse upon her for mutilating an innocent. Soon enough, Akemi's gang are turning up dead, often with their dragon tattoo flayed from their back. Less of a threat and providing most of the film's comic relief is another gang boss permanently adorned in a thong and cursed with foul-smelling body odour.

Blind Woman's Curse's mix of sword opera, Yakuza gangster movie, horror and surrealism is an unbalanced and occasionally frustrating concoction. If the story wasn't out-there enough, Kaji's disappointingly limited screen-time means that there is little holding everything together. The supernatural elements occur so sporadically that they seem out of place, but thanks to cinematographer Shigeru Kitaizumi, are beautiful to behold. The carnival scene is a montage of macabre and vibrant colours, with strange dancing and avant-garde plays from it's performers, and the climactic showdown between Akemi and Aiko plays out against a lavish painted backdrop of spiralling clouds. It's completely nonsensical, but it's an experience like no other.

The way this film juggles being a samurai/yakuza, crime, and horror film all at once is quite impressive, and keeps things from feeling predictable. It's worth watching to see all those genres in play at once.

I think it may have become a little less satisfying in the second half, with maybe more characters than it needed, and Meiko Kaji (who's great here) unfortunately gets a little less focus in that back half.

It comes together well enough by the end at least, and the action's pretty good, the samurai/yakuza stuff is fun, and the horror elements work well, leading to a couple of creepy sequences. It's an odd and pretty good movie overall.