Customer Reviews

Blind Beast

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

as an artist who has experienced the artist model dynamic first hand, i have to say this is an amazingly imagined film. the old cliched bondage premise -- if you chain and abuse a pretty woman long enough, she will thank you for it -- is given a startling and provocative twist. a diligent and lovely female model encounters a blind man groping a nude statue she posed for, and sneaks away in fear. days later she calls in a massage after a long day's work, only to realize the provider is the same blind groper! too late: she's drugged and hauled off to an old warehouse where she is held captive. the blind man is a sculptor, who wants to create an art of touch, and she is his perfect model. the hook? well, she has to consent to a lot of groping. the rest is an astonishing blend of hitchcock and radley metzger, with a completely audacious conclusion. the acting is passionate throughout -- the artist's speech to the girl disclosing his true intentions is rousing and creepy at the same time -- with many physical and psychological struggles punctuating the characters' gradual union of purpose. one of a kind.

if you like films like "the manchurian candidate", "blue velvet", "psycho", "sunset boulevard" or other films which feature overblown, hyperstylized psychological scenarios, this is a film you must see! the characters often talk as if they're psychoanalyzing each other, or themselves. however, the film resists facile readings because the neurotic obsessions of the characters change greatly over the course of the film. The film manages to touch on some very interesting issues about the unconscious motivation for art, some really strange issues of motherhood, and the desire for pain and pleasure, in a way that is frank, unpretentious and totally captivating. In the end, the film is almost a critique of normative psychology the way you could say that david lynch's films are. while less accomplished and more straightforward than lynch, this film does an absurd amount with a small budget, three actors and a great deal of imagination. the artist's warehouse must be the wildest set ever built. it must be seen to be believed. masumura uses light in this atmosphere like a master. the music is also top-notch, and while used sorta strangely, it really ends up adding a lot to the film. the actor who plays the blind sculptor is really convincing, i think, even though he plays very broadly. while the female lead is less impressive, by the time the film reaches its gut-wrenching, brilliant climax, both of the actors exhibit a frenzied relationship that is quite effective. they totally make you forget that they are running around naked, you're so focused on their expressions and their reactions. this film has been on my mind for days, it really makes you wonder what kind of world you live in. i recommend it to anyone who likes psychological horror films, japanese cult cinema, or directors who try to work off of the foundation of psychological suspense that hitchcock built.

I had heard a bit about this movie before picking it up, and I was quite pleasantly surprised! The basic premise has been covered already on this page so I'll spare that, but this thing starts off interestingly enough, gets stranger and more engrossing, then goes completely out into left field! Seriously, the story is a bit odd, the acting (though it takes some getting used to) works well for the feel of the film, the sets are amazing, and the ending is just an evisceration! I was ready to prepare myself for a boring ending, and even when I thought my intelligence couldn't take the insult that the final stretch could be considered to be, it was too fascinating not to be entertained by. I suppose my disbelief kept me glued to the screen. This is a movie that you really do need to just go along with and experience for the magic to take effect. If you're into getting a wildly creative slap in the face now and then, do yourself a favor and least see this.
Also, Fantoma should be commended for their taste, skill, and dedication to the lesser known, yet very interesting films they've chosen to resurface. One surefire way to tell that you've reached new lows in your DVD geekdom is that you start obsessing over DVD companies, and so far, Anchor Bay, Criterion (obviously), Fox Lorber, and Kino (damn! I'd better stop!) have done great things and brought us many treasures. With their track record so far of great, avant-garde features and the fact that they're working on putting out the works of Kenneth Anger, Fantoma could turn out to be a major force in subversive and obscure DVD cinema.

Blind Beast opens with a montage of black and white photos of the statuesque second rate model Shima Aki. Unable to find fame through its normal veins, Aki becomes a fetish model for a photographer named Yamana whose photos, mainly consisting of a nude Aki wrapped in chains, bring Aki the fame she desires and her name soon becomes popular amongst the young men of Tokyo. However, it seems that her popularity has brought some unwanted attention as well. One day, Aki goes to the exhibition of her photos, and notices that there is only one man there, a blind man. Of course ignoring her photos, the blind man is busy fondling a statue of Aki until it reaches the point that she can feel his hands on her own flesh.

That night, Aki calls for a masseur whose technique tends to be a bit too touchy on her curvy areas. It is soon revealed that the masseur is the same blind man whom felt up her statue and he and his mom knock her out with a chemical and kidnap Aki. Aki wakes up in a dark room that turns out to be the studio of the blind man. However, instead of normal art, the man has created grotesque, enormous works of sensory organs, eyes, ears, noses, and mouths, and breasts of various sizes and two gigantic figures of women, one supine and one prone. The blind man, Michio, wants to make a statue of Aki: the perfect statue, his life's work. She, of course, rejects him and plans her escape through manipulating him. However, as time goes on, affection grows like a mushroom in the dark, and deep, hidden desires burst loose encompassing all.

Being that Blind Beast is based on a work by the mystery/horror writer Edogawa Ranpo, and being that it is a film by the controversial director Masumura Yasuzo, I knew that I was going to be in for something twisted and dark, and I was definitely right on that account. However, there is much more to the film than that. It delves into psychology, the mother's control of her son, and the manifestations of twisted perversities that can be found in most human beings, but remains hidden. Blind Beast brings there perversities to the fore in graphic detail until it is almost painful to watch. While no for the squeamish, Blind Beast makes for a great psychological brain scrambler.

A wildly fetishistic, claustrophobic Japanese production made in 1969, Blind Beast is truly bizarre. It's hard to know how to respond to its excesses. Some moments are genuinely unsettling, others merely provoke laughter, an effect director Yasuzo Masumara may not have intended. At any rate, this is one of the few films I can unhesitatingly recommend with the old cliche: You've never seen anything like it.

PLOT (spoilers): Playing on themes of male dominance and objectification of the female body, the story concerns a young model, Aki, who is kidnapped by Michio, a blind, demented sculptor determined to create the perfect statue. He takes her to a secluded farmhouse where he lives with his mother. The house contains a bizarre room, the sculptor's masterpiece. In one of the most unusual settings in film history, each wall contains large reproductions of the female anatomy: One wall shows nothing but eyes, another noses, etc. In the center of the room, two giant nude bodies recline, one male, one female.

At first, Aki is understandably distraught, but she comes to respect and even love her captor, eventually going blind herself due to lack of sunlight (the room's only illumination is a ghostly ceiling light). The film's remaining moments are a series of increasingly violent sado-masochistic sex scenes as the two attempt to come together atop the giant nude sculptures. The film climaxes with Michio chopping off Aki's arms and legs and then committing suicide.

Due to Yasuzo Masumara's direction, a simple plot summary cannot do justice to the psychotic, near-otherworldly tone this film achieves. Nothing like this has been done before, or since.

Masumura's work is the cinematic equivalent of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories.His universe is populated with characters who live on the brink of despair and psychological breakdown.The dramatic intensity and visual panache of his movies makes him an undervaluated master of the new wave movement.
MANJI and THE BLIND BEAST are masterpieces of underground cinema whose surreal intensity reminds me such masters as Ken Russel and David Lynch and should not be missed.

Blind sculptor Michio, helped by his mother, abducts beautiful Japanese model Aki, imprisoning her against her will in his studio. After a period of desperation, Aki then tries to escape by seducing and manipulating Michio against his mother. The relationship between Aki and Michio, which Masumura wants to be the heart of the movie, will over time develop in a weird and sick fashion. The movie is not explicitly violent or sexually graphic, but it is an oppressive and generally unpleasant movie to see anyway. You can say that this S&M tale was way ahead of its time (there were very few movies of this kind in 1969), the other question could be whether it is a pleasant movie to watch.

This film deserves a better box cover, and a better translated title. From the first glance, it looks like some cheap exploitation flick with a gimmick involving a blind man, good for some nudity and thrills and little else. But this is a film directed by Yasuzo Masumura, and while it may be low-budget there is nothing cheap about "Blind Beast". Ah, but that title...the original Japanese title, "Moju", is a brilliant use of the language and can be translated either as "blind obedience" or "wild animal" depending on the characters used. Based on a story by Edogawa Rampo, Masumura took the basic core of the tale and built a claustrophobic fantasy of obsession and sensation that attracts and repulses at the same time, using the pure artistry of the camera.

The story is exceedingly simple, with a blind man, bitter at the world and at his parents for his lack of sight, turns to touch as his only source of pleasure. A psychopath and a megalomaniac, he decides it his his mission in life to create a new art form based on touch, using a woman's perfect sensual body as his muse. After locating the woman who suits his ideal, he kidnaps her with the help of his mother, and together they begin their descent into a dark world. Fairly typical of the Japanese Erotic-Grotesque genre, his model transforms from victim to willing participant, dragging the man even further into the world of pain and pleasure.

And while this can be seen as a typical genre film, those looking for exploitative sex and violence will find neither. In Masumura's shadow world, nothing happens on camera and all we see is the aftermath. There is very little nudity to speak of, and no blood or gore. Everything is implied, which of course makes it all the more terrible. The entire movie takes place on about two sets, with only three actors, and could be a stage play if not for the powerful camera work and effective soundtrack.

Great entertainment from Image, a good transfer of a good film ( this is not great artistry in anyway and it is not a great transfer) though not a masterpiece this is still a good example of the japanese pink era and a very acceptble transfer. Erotic horror with good camerawork is something of a rarity in today's cinema but in the pink era of japan this was expected and this is a very good example of what was available for my elders. It is a pity that they don't make movies like this anymore, teasing but never vulgar, this film will always stimulate. The transfer isn't restored but good enough to watch ( low contrast, low colours yet very acceptable) thank you IMAGE for making this available for a new generation.

By the time I finished watching this, I wondered "why"??? Maybe not the worst movie I've ever seen, but right down there near the bottom. It was really downright silly. Has there ever been anything in real life close to what this is? Not that I know. The acting was just o.k. The setting was preposterous, especially when you find out that the "blind beast" did most of it himself with a little help from his obsessed mother. Of course there was a long tradition of Japanese mothers spoiling their male children. Probably why they grew up exploiting women for the rest of their lives! This movie was not a good purchase.