Waisetsu sutêji: Nando mo tsukkonde

Right, well the 2005 Japanese movie "Waisetsu Sutêji: Nando Mo Tsukkonde" (aka "Blind Love") would have been such more enjoyable and entertaining movie if director and writer Daisuke Gotô had opted not to put in all the sleazy and lewd nudity and sex scenes.

The storyline in the movie was actually rather good and interesting, but it was befuddled by an obscene amount of pointless nudity and sex scenes. Of course there is an audience out there for a movie such as this, but personally I think it was just too much, and I don't really sit down to watch a movie and want to see excessive amounts of nudity and sex scenes.

The acting performances in the movie were good. I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, but then again I am not overly familiar with the "Pink cinema" of the Japanese cinema.

I managed to endure the lewdness of the movie and sat through all 64 minutes. However, it felt longer than 64 minutes, as those scenes just dragged on and added a monotonous element to the movie.

My rating of "Waisetsu Sutêji: Nando Mo Tsukkonde" lands on a five out of ten stars. Had writer and director Daisuke Gotô gone for a regular movie and left out all the lewdness and nudity, then I would have rated the movie a six out of ten stars.

I watched this aware that it had won a number of awards and this possibly lead me to expect too much but I certainly did not think it as good as the same director's, 'A Lonely Cow Weeps At Dawn'. It does, undoubtedly have much of the quirkiness of that film and much of the charm. Unfortunately it is not quite as easy to follow and would appear to have a couple of elements seemingly lost in translation. The concept of a blind girl and a ventriloquist has appeal but this does not go in the expected direction and rather a lot seems to be made of height. The nakedness and sexual activity is refreshingly naturalistic and there is some humour that a western audience can share, I just feel I may be missing something here. Tokyo location shooting was a welcome bonus.