Blind Woman’s Curse (1970): Teruo Ishii’s Weird Jigsaw of Japanese Genre Cinema (Review)

Japanese cinema is known for its eccentrics, whether its Seijun Suzuki, Takashi Miike, Sion Sono, or the many people keeping the splatterpunk movement alive in the still-thriving V-Cinema scene that gave birth to Miike career some twenty-odd years ago. Sitting at the top of that tree, however, is Terou Ishii. Suzuki withstanding, all of the other free spirits have sat under the learning tree of what Ishii did decades before them. Just look at Arrow Video’s Blind Woman’s Curse for the proof in the pudding.

This is at its most evident in the new release from Arrow Video, a surreal period film of many titles, whether Blind Woman’s Curse, Black Cat’s Revenge or Tattooed Swordsman, Ishii’s film is as diverse as the titles it is given. Ostensibly, a film about Akemi Tachibana (Meiko Kaji) protecting her yakuza clan from groups that have eyes for her territory. That’s the story on paper; on-screen Blind Woman’s Curse has no intentions of playing it straight. Samurai cinema, women in prison, horror, comedy, surrealism, and just about anything the director can get his hands on, it’s all here.

The clan held the honour of the yakuza and the virtue of the samurai share common ground, no surprises then that they work together given the historical context the film finds itself in. Just as the aforementioned two are afforded a mutually assured existence, so too are surrealism and horror. The visual playfulness is at its most pointed through two characters, a blind female samurai and her hunchback companion. Their magnum opus’ of throwing around countless ideas and contrasting styles comes in a stage-show of grotesque shapes and colours with a fine addition to the tradition of creepy basements in horror. There’s so much going on, it’s almost impossible to take in all of this sensory overload, this sandbox, on first viewing.

With movies being a visual medium there’s a great joy to be had in Blind Woman’s Curse’ and if Ishii was directing a piece of visual art this would be a stone-cold classic – unfortunately, that isn’t the case. That visual experimentation becomes over-zealousness when one approaches the cast, which is to say the cast is too big by half. Upon first seeing the work of Seijun Suzuki one remarked that there was no context, it was like watching a sequel to a film that doesn’t exist. Ishii’s film suffers from the same issues. There are simply too many characters onboard. There’s a role that is clearly intended as a male lead opposite to Meiko Kaji in Ryohei Uchida’s Aozora. There are suggestions of sexual tension between the two and he plays a huge role in resolving the film, but at the same time, it’s never revealed who he is or why he knows a former Tachibana clan patriarch. There are simply too many characters & questions and not enough time.

For a world as male-dominated as Feudal Japan to be occupied by female power figures and a female parallel to Zatoichi show this to be the work of a director having fun at the expense of history. Yakuza or Samurai films simply don’t have female bosses; it’s not the done thing. Maybe, you’ll find women bosses pulling the strings, at most. Having Meiko Kaji is inspired casting, even with this being her first lead film role. While nowhere near the later Lady Snowblood quality, the Stray Cat Rock leading lady has a similar brand of innate charisma as Blaxploitation icon Pam Grier. Few icons of the 70s had the magnetism of these two ladies. Kaiji could carry a film with her eyes alone.

Despite its busy structure and cast, Terou Ishii’s montage of colour and wild creative left turns gets great mileage from it being so fun. From some of the most inventive sets of the time, matte painted backgrounds that no one did as well as Japan and an arterial spray that would go on to be world-famous, this is exploitation as art cinema. While lacking in the script department, Blind Woman’s curse became iconic by being both fun and unclassifiable. Say what you will about many of the components of Ishii’s film in isolation, but together, there is nothing in cinema that comes even remotely close to matching this. Whether that is good or bad news is up to you to decide.

Thanks for reading our review of Blind Woman’s Curse

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