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Blind Beast - Blind Beast(Blu Ray) [Arrow Video - 2021]

From the late 1960s, Blind Beast is a Japanese film that shifts from light thriller/ exotic edged Kidnap drama, to psychosexual horror in its last quarter. It’s certainly a film that will generally wrong-foot the watcher- pulling the rug from under you- dropping one into a darkly sexualized abyss when you’re least expecting it. Here from Arrow Video- both in the UK & the US- is a Blu Ray release of the film, bringing together a nice new clear ‘n’ crisp scan of the picture, as well a new commentary track, and a few other extras.

Blind Beast (aka Môjû, Warehouse) appeared in the year 1969, and for a film of the 60’s it looks oddly timeless/ out-of-time. It was directed by Yamanashi, Japan-born Yasuzô Masumura-he had fifty-six feature-length credits to his name, with these going the 50’s remising comedy-drama The Blue Sky Maiden (1957), capitalism satire Giants & Toys(1958), disturbingly edged gangster film Afraid To Die(1960),  and tragic romantic crime drama Double Suicide of Sonezak(1978)- so he’s certainly a versatile filmmaker. Blind Beast features a small cast of just three, set largely in one location- and is both skilful filmed and well-acted throughout.

The films open with kinky-yet-arty black and white photos of a naked woman wrapped in thick chains. Over the top of this we get a voice-over from one of the films lead characters young and up-coming model Aki (Mako Midori), who has recently done a photo session for a renowned photographic artist/ sculptor. One morning she goes to the exhibition of her work and encounters a strange man touching and creasing a sculpture of her naked body- this very much freaks her out, and she admits she can almost feel the creepy man's hands really on her body. Some days pass, and she has just got home from another busy day shooting- she rings up for a house calling masseur (is that a thing)?. And when he turns up it’s not her normal man, instead, he's dark glassed wearing a white smock, this creepy man starts crudely caressing her, not in your normal masseur way. Soon she realizes it’s the man from the galley and all of a sudden, he drugs her, with the man’s mother coming into the model's bedroom, helping to take her to their isolated tin warehouse.
 
When Aki comes around she finds herself in the huge sculpture workshop of the man, who we find out he is called Michio(Eiji Funakoshi). In the middle of the workshop is a huge reclining nude sculpture of a woman, and around the edge of the workshop on each wall are sculptures of female body parts- on one wall they are breasts, on another noses, on another mouths, and another legs- so this gives the films early unfolding kidnap drama/ light thriller a decided surreal edge.

For the first hour or so the film follows a predictable kidnap drama route- first Aki is scared and frightened, then she’s aggressive and uncooperative, then she tries to be tricky. The whole thing is acted well enough with some light tension and relatively compel dramatic interactions. Then in the last quarter, we get a sudden dramatic turn (I won’t give this away), and from then on we deep dive into sexualized darkness, which gets more unsettling as it goes along, all riding towards a uber grim-yet-odd poetic ending. This sudden switch in tone will really throw even the most jaded on genre fans- making the whole thing very much a step above your standard kidnap drama. On the whole Bind Beast was quite a surprise- after reading the film's plot I was expecting something more in the pink genre, and there is really little or no flesh/ sexual suggesting in much of the films run time, and even when it does switch tone it never really goes to even softcore, but instead is best described as a drama with a very jarring transgressive twist in its tail. I’d maybe wished it had got to the more unsettling side of things quicker, and it certainly does sag in some of the more cliched drama moments, but as a whole, it’s certainly a most disturbing/ impactful film- you just have to be patient with it.
 
The new Blu Ray takes in a great new high-definition print of the film- which is both clear, crisp, and wonderfully defined in its colour pallet, making the whole thing have a rather timeless quality. Moving onto the extras side of things- and first up we get a commentary track from asian cinema scholar Earl Jackson- and this is certainly in-depth, well researched and thought out. He moves between discussing the films on-screen action and dissecting/ analysing it, he talks about the career of director Yasuzô Masumura, and the three actors that appear in the film. He quotes/ discusses different texts, tying them into the film's themes, and much more. Sadly, I found this track very dry, academic, and humourless- there’s no doubt Mr Jackson knows his subject, but he delivers in the manner of a stuffy and bland lesson- so sadly, this was not for me. Next, we get an eighteen-minute introduction to the film by Japanese cinema expert Tony Rayns- and this much better/ more interesting, he moves from talking about Yasuzô Masumura career as a director- discussing in worthy depth his body of work. He later moves on to discussing the film to hand, giving a good insight into its production and his brief thoughts on the film. Lastly, we get Blind Beast: Masumura the Supersensualist- this is a ten-minute visual essay by Japanese literature and visual studies scholar Seth Jacobowitz. With the disc been topped off with trailer and image gallery.

In conclusion, Blind Beast may not be as kinky or fleshy as its plot write-up suggests. But if you are looking for slightly surreal and lightly thriller touched drama, that has a grimly depraved sting in its tale I think you’ll get something from Blind Beast, and we, of course, get another stellar presentation/ print from the guys at Arrow Video.

Rating: 2 out of 5Rating: 2 out of 5Rating: 2 out of 5Rating: 2 out of 5Rating: 2 out of 5

Roger Batty
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