Blind Woman's Curse

Rarely would a true cineaste ever listen to a commentary track before watching the film itself. But that’s something to consider when it comes to Blind Woman’s Curse, a Yakuza / samurai / ghost story that is so unconventional is helps to actually have someone describe what you’re watching!

Director Teruo Ishii was one of the premiere film stylists of Japanese exploitation, often focusing on the macabre, grotesque and flat-out bizarre aspects of otherwise predictable genres. Case in point, this period yakuza release from 1970 which goes off the narrative deep end compared to similar action releases from the era, but does give star Meiko Kagi a dry-run as a tight-lipped professional killer, a role she would perfect in the Lady Snowblood and Female Convict Scorpion series a few short years later.

Here she plays Akemi Tachibana, respected head of the Tachibana gang, fending off a pair of rivals encroaching on her family’s traditional turf. But even more troubling than that is her fear of a long-standing curse, represented by a ghostly black cat that seems to be stalking members of her extended gang family, leaving only the stripped skin of their signature dragon tattoo.

It’s from this narrative backbone that Ishii drapes a baffling variety of characters and consequences. There’s the titular Blind Woman and her psychotic hunchback manservant. The unwashed and mostly unclothed rival gang leader (whose butt-cheeks get more face-time than he does). A nightmarish circus full of babies stuffed in baskets and decapitated heads. And, for the ladies, a love triangle.

It’s not that Blind Woman’s Curse doesn’t make sense; there’s a pretty typical revenge plot structure at work underneath all the stylistic flair. It’s that Ishii is working overtime to emphasize the nonsensical. That’s where the commentary track comes in, courtesy of Japanese cinema expert Jasper Sharp, whose comforting British accent seems to ensure that we’ll sort all this out eventually.

And sort it out he does in fine fashion, emphasizing how the film fits in quite well with the traditional “ghost cat” genre that dates back to 1914. Sharp gives us some good background on Ishii’s intentions and obsessions while covering just what kind of auteurist product the Japanese exploitation genre allowed for. Even he’s not quite sure what Blind Woman’s Curse is all about…but he makes it a lot more fun trying to guess.

Arrow Video’s new high-def presentation on Blu-ray is a bright, colorful and clean, despite the fact that most of the film takes place in dark corners of the Yakuza underworld (or worse!). There are a few noticeable splice-edits early on, but only the odd reel-change mark from there on out. Newly translated English subtitles go along with an original trailer (plus four more films in the Meiko Kaji Stray Cat Rock series).