La bête aveugle

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.

The only 'pinku' film I'd seen before this one was Masaru Konuma's Wife to be Sacrificed, but that didn't prepare me for the oddity of this Japanese 'classic'! Quite what the writers and directors were on is anyone's guess, but whatever it was; it lead to them creating an interesting and unique film that is memorable thanks to it's strange storyline and the way that the ideas are presented without a lot of fuss, which only increases the potency of what the film has to say. The basis of the story is sadomasochism, but director Yasuzo Masumura seems to want to go further as the pleasure-pain idea that S&M is based on is completely overruled by the idea of absolute pleasure through the sense of touch. The film focuses on a blind sculptor who, along with his mother kidnaps a young model after he heard some young kids talking about how exquisite she is. He takes her to his warehouse, which is filled with huge statues and naturally she wants to escape as soon as possible. After a couple of failed attempts, however, she begins to buy into the sculptor's ideas, and soon develops his fixation.

This film definitely is shocking, but not because of any large amount of gore or particularly brutal sex scenes. Director Yasuzo Masumura has done an amazing thing in that he's made a film that is shocking thanks to the ideas that it promotes. Naturally, there's a fair amount of nudity; but it's very soft and clearly wasn't what the director valued most when it came to making this film. There is a rather visceral sequence towards the end which is sure to get the audience cringing, but it's not the most shocking thing about the film - which again is amazing since this would have been the standout in most other movies like this. The atmosphere is surreal throughout, and this is good as it allows the director to throw in just about anything and it comes off as being believable in spite of the fact that a lot of the ideas in the film are really quite ridiculous. I always find it difficult to judge things like acting when a film is subtitled; but the lead duo are at least believable, while Yasuzo Masumura's cinematography and attention to detail is the finishing touch that makes the film what it is. Overall, Blind Beast is a bizarre oddity that verges on brilliance. Well worth seeing!

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.

Based on a novel by Edogawa Rampo who's name sake is Edgar Alan Poe, it's a mystery intrigue that's his specialty. But this one must be one of the most far left story he's ever written.

A blind masseuse kidnaps a model to enjoy her in his private atelier. She finds herself in his wonderland that is dedicated to women's body. If that sound's weird, you're right. This is one of the weirdest movie I've seen.

Mako Midori who plays the lead was known for her good figures. She was also known as actress that's bit out there, so she was the perfect choice for this role. Despite her sexuality, she's confessed that she was rather a late bloomer in regards to sexual matters. Her first boyfriend didn't help in this regards either. But as an actress, she was some what of a sex symbol, as you can see in this movie.

The movie is bit like the "Collector" in that she was collected by this masseuse, and became his sex slave, but I think this is a better made movie. It really is an artistic movie. The fact that it's written by Edogawa Rampo almost guarantees it, and recruiting Mako Midori was an inspired choice.

Not a mainstream movie by any means, but one of the most interesting that's out there.

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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