Blind Woman's Curse (1970) User Reviews

Nonsensical, but an experience like no other

[tomgillespie2002 · 6/10 · 5 July 2015]

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.

Colorful, lurid compendium of cinematic delights

[fertilecelluloid · 8/10 · 25 May 2007]

Like France's Jean Rollin, Japan's Teruo Ishii stands for something. His films have a blazing signature. His obsessions are up there on the screen. The plots are coat hangers to hang his fetishes on. "Blind Woman's Curse" is a mixed genre extravaganza that is one part yakuza melodrama, one part sword opera, and one part horror film. Although it doesn't hold together dramatically, it is still a fantastic piece of fantasy cinema. Meiko "Scorpion" Kaji, one of the sexiest women ever to have graced the silver screen, is the head honcho of a gang who have been marked for extinction by a strange, blind swordwoman (Hoki Tokuda) and her hunchback servant (is there any other?) At the same time, another clan has it in for Meiko and her feisty, fighting girls. Ishii slathers on the macabre and bizarre in this wonderful, malformed romp. A grotesque night carnival is one of the film's highlights, as is a flesh-carrying, blood-drinking black cat that makes a strong impression. The activities of the hunchback are always fun to watch, as are the scenes of human skinning, tattoo removal, and sexual coercion. Like every Ishii film, except the execrable "Blind Beast Versus Killer Dwarf", this is a colorful, lurid compendium of cinematic delights.

Weird mix

[mmushrm · 6/10 · 15 May 2011]

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.

Blind Woman's Curse (1970)

[mevmijaumau · 24 November 2015]

Teruo Ishii's film The Blind Woman's Curse (aka The Tattooed Swordswoman) is a strange mix of elements from yakuza films, bakeneko ghost films, ero-guro, fun Asiansploitation trashiness and it even has a visual style reminiscent of Dario Argento at turns. The gorgeous Meiko Kaji (this is the first film she acted in under that name) is obviously the main selling point here, although she doesn't have as much runtime as in her later films.

The plot of this film is almost an inconsistent mess, mixing yakuza turf wars, a ghastly black cat able to fly at low altitudes, expressionistic set design, circus elements (with a performance by Butoh dancer Tatsumi Hijikata, who also appeared in Ishii's Horrors of Malformed Men), some boobage and copious amounts of blood (especially for a film from 1970). The villains' headquarters are pretty wild, with plenty of slide screens and mirrors, booby traps and so on.

While this film is very entertaining, it suffers from bad editing and sometimes unconvincing special effects, especially if we're talking about the aforementioned cat. The dialogues could be better and there are some really lousy performances, not to mention the bad ending (even though it was cool how the two fighters just produce the swirling-cloud backdrop out of nowhere and decide to fight on that location as if it were a Mortal Kombat game). There are a few songs sung by Meiko Kaji, but they're not as memorable as the ones in Lady Snowblood. Overall it's a fun film, but there's not much to it besides that. Really cool poster, though.

And now for something completely different.

[BA_Harrison · 6/10 · 10 September 2020]

For me, nothing illustrates the yawning chasm between Eastern and Western culture as effectively as a film like Blind Woman's Curse. What might seem perfectly reasonable to a Japanese audience can be totally perplexing to an Englishman like myself. Of course, a film like Blind Woman's Curse, which features some truly 'unique' (for want of a better word) scenes, might seem just as baffling to the average Japanese person; it's hard to be sure. Suffice to say that the film, written and directed by Teruo Ishii (so you know there'll be some torture there somewhere), doesn't play out in predictable fashion. Or perhaps it does, if you're Japanese.

Gorgeous Meiko Kaji plays sword-swinging Akemi, leader of the Tachibana gang, who avenges her father's death by attacking the Goda gang. While dealing several deadly blows to the Goda boss, Akemi accidentally blinds his sister Aiko (Hoki Tokuda), who stupidly gets in the way. Akemi sees a black cat slurping up the girl's blood and believes herself to be cursed.

Three years later, Akemi is released from jail, and resumes leadership of her gang, but other organised criminals have their eyes on the Tachibana territory. Up and coming gang boss Dobashi (Tôru Abe) uses Tachibana traitor Tatsu to help him seize control, but is also assisted by a mysterious blind woman who is deadly with a blade.

Now this might sound like the makings of a rather routine tale of revenge, but trust me, the film is far from straightforward. For starters, one of the gangs is led by a man in a loincloth, who suffers from terrible body odour. Then there's the little matter of the weird hunchback (Tatsumi Hijikata) who lives in a theatre full of realistic looking wax heads and who cackles maniacally like Salacious Crumb; did I mention that he has the power to reanimate the dead by licking them? As for the black cat that haunts Akemi's dreams... it shows up from time to time, flying across the screen on clearly visible wires, occasionally making off with tattooed skin flayed from the backs of members of the Tachibana gang.

Throw in opium addict sex slaves, a zombie who loses his head, and lots of bright-red blood (including that Japanese favourite, excessive arterial spray), and what you have is a film that is definitely different, but not one that I can wholeheartedly recommend because it is so uneven, awkwardly lurching from yakuza gang drama, to supernatural thriller, to avant-garde arthouse flick.

5.5/10, rounded up to 6 for the spiral cloud backdrop during the final fight between Akemi and Aiko. Very cool!

So many genres all rolled into one

[Jeremy_Urquhart · 7/10 · 30 March 2022]

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.

Intriguing Supernatural Horror Featuring The Dragon Force: A Squad Of Swordstresses.

[meddlecore · 6/10 · 31 October 2014]

This action-horror-thriller from Japan begins with the main character, Akemi, leading an imperialist attack against the rival Goudan clan.

Akemi is a master swordstress; the enforcer for a Yakuza-like clan known as the Tachibanas- of which she is second in line to inherit leadership of. One element of a five person team: all of whom are marked with a segment of dragon tattooed across their backs. Their collective technique and style, renders them best described as the Dragon Force. And, seeing as Akemi is their leader...she sports the head.

While engaged in this opening battle, Akemi is about to strike down the Goudan leader...when his younger sister- Aiko- suddenly rushes to his side, in an attempt to beg for his life to be spared. But Akemi strikes without flinching. And when she does, she accidentally grazes the face of Aiko, as well. Blinding her in the process.

At this moment a strange black cat appears, lapping up the blood oozing from Aoki's eyes...before leaping at Akemi.

Whereas the Tachibana clan emerge from the battle largely victorious, most of their men are killed, or imprisoned- lncluding Akemi. While locked up, she suffers from recurring nightmares that haunt her with images of Aoki and the cat. Though, she still manages to use this oppourtunity to rebuild her fighting force in Orange-Is-The-New-Black fashion.

Once Akemi is released from prison, the Tachibana clan confront a rival gang called the Azoras- who had taken control of their territory in her absence. The rival gang leader is a hilariously, bizarre character who walks around in assless chaps. If anyone has caught Guy Moshe's Bunraku, it's quite evident that Kevin McKidd's Killer #2 character (and his gang of redcoats) are based off this guy (and his gang).

A local, social justice oriented, lone wolf-type, named Tatsu, intervenes in the confrontation on behalf of Akemi and the Tachibanas- though he does not represent any particular clan, himself. Either way, it is his intervention that helps run the Azoras off...and Akemi won't forget it- as she's become enamoured by him.

Everything seems to be going well for the Tachibanas after this. That is, until a traitor named Aniki, aligns himself with the Dobashi clan- who are planning to rid themselves of the Tachibana's, once and for all. The Dobashi leader has been hatching a plot to manufacture a conflict between the Tachibanas and Azoras, with the hope they will severely weaken each other in a war- allowing their clan to move in and seize control in the aftermath.

A mysterious blind woman suddenly shows up and presents herself to the Dobashis- seeking employment and wishing to join their cause. After testing her skills, their leader accepts her proposition- allowing her to join the ranks. Though, it quickly becomes clear that she is the one manipulating the Dobashi leader into acting on her suggestions.

This mysterious woman is Aoki. She has become a witch, who uses a black cat- and madman that acts like a cat- to plague Akemi and the Tachibanas with her curse.

This is where stuff starts to get a bit confusing and weird... After going to what has got to be one of the oddest stage-show attractions ever seen, some Tachibana members are found murdered...only to reanimate into what seems like a zombie-type state. While others are killed and left with the tattoos skinned from their backs.

Only Akemi knows what is going on. As, in each instance, she witnessed the presence of a black cat and/or the madman. She is well aware that it is Aoki, out to reap vengeance on her and those she is close to- mainly, Tatsu and her clan. Hence why Aoki and the Dobashis use them against her.

Inevitably, the whole story wraps up with an epically, atmospheric showdown where Akemi and Aoki go head-to-head with one another. However, --SPOILER-- it doesn't end in bloodshed. As, when Akemi slays the cat- who tries to blindside her at one point- Aoki snaps out of the demonic trance that had beholden her, and which was responsible for diving her toward rage and revenge.

Seems Aoki wasn't doing the cursing after all. Rather, she had been the one who was cursed all along.

This is a beautifully stylish film, with a great blend of action, mystery, horror and comedy. The characters are particularly excellent. Especially Kantoro, and the Azora leader- who is just wild. My biggest beef with this film would be the editing, which I found to be quite choppy and amateurish at parts (but that is really nitpicking). It's particularly worth watching for it's female-oriented cast- all of whom do a great job, other than at a few weak sword fighting scenes (though this is the fault of both the male and female actors). I did feel the ending was a bit abrupt, but I liked how Ishii wraps things up. Thoroughly enjoyed the film, overall.

6.5 out of 10.

Blind woman's cat curse.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 7/10 · 27 November 2021]

Swept up by her dazzling fighting skills when recently watching Lady Snowblood (1973-also reviewed) again, I decided to do a Meiko Kaji double bill. Owning this disc for years but never getting round to watching it,I decided it was time to finally meet this blind woman.

View on the film:

Whilst the print does feature some noticeable lines and dots, Arrow overall present a very good transfer,with the soundtrack and the subtitles being crisp and clean,along with the colours on the print being shiny.

Later claiming in an interview that the studio had requested supernatural elements be put into the film, when it was in the middle of production, the screenplay by co-writer (with Chusei Sone) / director Teruo Ishii gleefully take advantage of the studio demand, and slide the flick into off the wall Pop-Art.

Ishii cheerfully jumps the flick from one moment having a The Ghost Cat of Otama Pond (1960-also reviewed)-style J-Horror cat licking its lips waiting to dig the claws in for revenge, to the next having a blind avenging fighter collect the skinned tattoo backs (body torture and tattoos being major recurring motifs of Ishii's work in this era) of gang members.

Keeping perfectly in time to each sword move of the screenplay, director Ishii & cinematographer Sei Kitaizumi dip burning red blood-spray from eye- gouging, skinned backs and strikingly elegant slow-motion panning shots across the fighting set-pieces, over a delightfully odd atmosphere of twirling camera moves over the groovy lair of the baddies, green mist round the evil furball whilst it licks off dry blood, and a cackling supernatural hunchback gangster.

Introduced in a sparkling fashion with a zoom-in landing on her lifting a hat off to reveal her face, Meiko Kaji gives a sparkling turn in the middle of the gangster and Horror chaos as Tachibana,thanks to Kaji giving her a icy glamour which shines with each take down she performs,as Tachibana confronts the blind woman's curse.

Intriguing mix of styles and moods

[simon_booth · 9/10 · 13 August 2006]

Meiko Kaji spends 3 years in jail for avenging her Yakuza father, and on her release she inherits the leadership of the Tachibana gang. They're quite a nice bunch, for Yakuza, but a nasty rival gang are bent on taking over their territory. As if that wasn't bad enough, she appears to be under the curse of a black cat that got a taste of her victim's blood...

The film takes a broadly familiar period-Yakuza story and mixes it up with elements of horror and... strangeness, making for an intriguing cocktail of styles, moods and ideas. Teruo Ishii was one of the premier visual stylists of the Japanese exploitation wave, and this film shares the style even though it's relatively light on the exploitation. The plot is straightforward but the details make it interesting, and having Meiko Kaji as the lead actress certainly helps there too.

Good stuff!

A bloody strange Japanese movie.

[frankblack-79961 · 6/10 · 12 May 2021]

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.

Blind Woman's Curse

[Scarecrow-88 · 8/10 · 6 May 2009]

Akemi Tachibana(Meiko Kaji)attempts to the keep the wishes of her slain father by not allowing her clan to continue the blood shed that is known to occur when rival Yakuza families desire total control. That becomes impossible when rival godfather Dobashi(Toru Abe)uses a traitor amongst the Tachibana clan, Tatsu(Shirô Otsuji), and his thugs to kill off certain of their members while also planting narcotics within their village shops using the police to imprison many of the workers. What Akemi doesn't expect is another rival joining forces with Dobashi, a blind female master swords-woman, Aiko(Hoki Tokuda)seeking revenge for the murder of her brother(..Akemi also blinded her accidentally at the beginning of the film when Aiko attempted to save her brother during a sword battle between the Yakuza clans out of retribution for the slain leader of Tachibana's family). Another less intimidating Yakuza clan(..which is still a powerful, influential clan)operated by the Aozora(Ryohei Uchida; a source of comedy relief, wearing a bowler hat and loin cloth whose body odor is used as an object of scorn)also make occasional appearances in the village which works as an epicenter right in the middle of the various Yakuza clans. With Aiko assisting Dobashi and Tatsu in eliminating members of the Tachibana clan, Akemi, having withstood much strife due to the attacks against her people, vows revenge while also disbanding her Yakuza family so that they can live without harm. But, Dobashi soon realizes that Aiko is much more honorable than she first appears and he will also have to contend with another emerging adversary, Tani Shouichi(Makoto Satô), a wandering loner who has disdain for injustice, whose rage is fueled by Tatsu's violence towards a kind restaurant owner, Ojiki(Yoshi Kato) and his daughter Chie(Yôko Takagi).

Director Teruo Ishii fuses the Samurai and Yakuza genres into a blood-soaked tale of violence, betrayal, and revenge with lots of animated characters. Kaji is the beautiful Yakuza leader who attempts to attain the peace in a ruthless society vying for more and more power. She's haunted by the image of the black cat, how such a feline was licking the blood from the slashed eyes of Aiko. Hoki Tokuda holds a blank expression yet equally impresses due to her masterful skill at realistically presenting a blind woman with intense concentration who defends herself well against opposing forces. What's really interesting is how you sympathize with both females, understanding Aiko's desire for revenge yet, thanks to Kaji's charm and likability, wish for her no harm. Satô is a welcome presence as an honorable sojourner who moves from village to village, town to town, fighting corruption and standing against wrong-doing, falling in love with the sweet/stunning beauty Takagi. Takagi is the virginal innocent who works dutifully for her soft-spoken and courteous father, Kato who stands against Abe's sadistic Dobashi and treacherous slimeball Otsuiji paying the price when doesn't serve or recognize them as respectable customers despite the obvious results for not doing so. Ishii brings back Tatsumi Hijikata as another lunatic, this time a hunchbacked performer who slaves lovingly(..and obsessively)for his master, blind Tokuda. After several Tachibana clan members fall to her sword, Hijikata skins the dragon snake tattoos from their backs!Abe perfectly embodies the diabolical crime-lord, a loathsome piece of work with a den of opium-addicted forced prostitutes and a gambling trade that swindles customers. Otsuji is just as contemptible and malicious as he is, seizing upon elder Kato with extra thugs..many against one old man, and that was through a blind attack with Kato unable to properly defend himself. There's no need to worry because the finale allows Kaji, Satô and her fellow sword-fighters a showdown with Abe, Otsuji, and their army of hoods, in a grisly climax where lots of slicing leads to blood spray. I especially enjoy how the dual between Kaji and Tokuda ends, a proper close to a much anticipated sword-fight.

Busy plot, plenty of unique characterizations, some of the usual Ishii depravity(..how he uses a black cat and Hijikata, in regards to the tattooed flesh skinned from victims has to be seen to be believed), interesting sword-fights, beautiful Asian women, some nasty villains to cheer against, and the expected blood shed all make BLIND WOMAN'S CURSE a must-see for fans of the Samurai/Yakuza genres.

The gang with the dragon tattoo.

[Pjtaylor-96-138044 · 6/10 · 14 December 2023]

'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.

Plot summary and review

[turvy · 26 July 1999]

It's been a long time since I've seen this movie but I remember the plot as follows;

A woman in a cell in jail is being assaulted by other women inmates who draw back in fright when they rip her kimona off to reveal a tattoo of the head of a dragon, recognised by the inmates as having extraordinary significance.

She is the "Head" of an infamous group of swordfighters.All the other inmates want to know how she ended up imprisoned. The remainder of the movie recounts the exploits of a band of brigands who fight together against overwelming odds always starting and regrouping by standing together shoulder to shoulder, kimonos down, wriggling shoulders to make the full dragon tattoo (of which they each have a portion thereof) wriggle. The story is interspersed with various sexual exploits and goofy slapstick comedy, yet maintains a tense action-packed roller coster ride right to the end.

I only saw it the one time and yearn to see it again.