BLIND WOMAN'S CURSE (1970) 怪談昇り竜 directed by Teruo Ishii Production: Nikkatsu Distribution = Dainichi Utsuhai June 20, 1970 85 minutes Fujicolor Cinemascope Meiko Kaji as Akemi Tachibana Hoki Tokuda as Aiko Gouda Makoto Sato as Tani Shouichi Toru Abe as Dobashi Shiro Otsuji as Senba-tatsu Before Lady Snowblood and before Female Prisoner Scorpion movies - in fact, around the time she was first getting noticed in the Stray Cat Rock series, SOMEONE had already figured out that the soft spoken, demure Meiko Kaji had an onscreen intensity about her that was suited for the oncoming stylistic shift in Japanese cinema. (Meiko Kaji) Blind Woman's Curse is the story of Akemi (Meiko Kaji) who has assumed the role of her father's crime organization in pre-modern Japan. While fighting a rival clan, she accidently blind's the leader's sister. She notices a stray black cat lapping up the blood from it - cursing her... (Meiko Kaji ) After getting out of prison, she tries to tak...
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BATTLES WITHOUT HONOR AND HUMANITY: POLICE TACTICS (1974)
仁義なき戦い 頂上作戦
directed by Kinji Fukasaku
Production: Toei (Kyoto Studio)
January 15, 1974
101 minutes Fujicolor Cinemascope
January 15, 1974
101 minutes Fujicolor Cinemascope
Bunta Sugawara as Hirono Shozo
Akira Kobayashi as Takeda Akira
Tatsuo Umemiya as Shinichi Iwai
Mayumi Nagisa as Meiko
Nobuo Kaneko as Yamamori Yoshio
The cops start to take more notice to the yakuza activity, and even though everyone higher up in the families want to remain cool, Shozo (Bunta Sugawara) is itching to go after Yamamori (Nobuo Kaneko) and finish him off for good, even if it means sacrificing himself. Meanwhile Takeda (Akira Kobayashi) is trying to keep Yamamori and everyone on their side cool, in hopes of driving Shozo’s alliances apart. But the hot headed actions of the lower level goons accidentally get a civilian killed and the public outcry intensifies the police action.
(Akira Kobayashi as Takeda Akira)
Japanese actress/singer Mayumi Nagisa has a small part as Mieko, the girlfriend of a dying boss Matsui, but ex-girlfriend of low level lieutenant Fukuda, who she sleeps with again, and unwittingly gets him killed, causing the real violence to erupt between the two sides.
(Mayumi Nagisa as Meiko)
When Shozo puts together a plan to kill Yamamori, his own men abandon him in the wilderness to keep him from doing it. Meanwhile the cowardly Uchimoto (Takeshi Katō has already betrayed the plan. The police arrest Shozo for breaking parole from an assault the previous year (that only Yamamori could’ve tipped them off to). No longer a part of the fight, the families begin to politizise and even start thinking of going legit - while the lower level fighting continues, and the police make more arrests.
(Bunta Sugawara as Hirono Shozo)
Tatsuo Umemiya as Shinichi Iwai of the Akashi family, who has played it cooler than anyone, visits Shozo in prison and offers him a place in Kobe when he gets out.
The always menacing looking Hiroki Matsukata as Shoichi Fujita is really dark skinned in this movie. Very noticeably strange looking at times, though I guess it’s because of his characters illness. His somewhat sad ending, brings on a final outpouring of violence, and most of the bosses are rounded up and imprisoned, including Yamamori, though he only gets a year and a half.
The always menacing looking Hiroki Matsukata as Shoichi Fujita is really dark skinned in this movie. Very noticeably strange looking at times, though I guess it’s because of his characters illness. His somewhat sad ending, brings on a final outpouring of violence, and most of the bosses are rounded up and imprisoned, including Yamamori, though he only gets a year and a half.
(Hiroki Matsukata as Shoichi Fujita)
In the end, as both Shozo and Takeda await to be booked into prison (Shozo is getting 7 years), they make peace and lament that their time may be past.
(Bunta Sugawara as Hirono Shozo and
Akira Kobayashi as Takeda Akira)
Even though I'd rate it about the same as the first movie, I enjoyed this much more - knowing the characters and empathizing with what happens to some of them. Also, I think director Kinji Fukasaku does his best job with the smaller parts (and characters) that he incorporates into the big picture here, and it certainly doesn't hurt that it's the bloodiest and most violent of the stories either.
(Kunie Tanaka as Masakichi Makihara)
(Mayumi Nagisa as Mieko)
(Asao Koike as Tomoji Okajima with Mitsue Horikoshi as Aiko Hikarigawa)
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