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...
DOBERMAN COP (1977)
ドーベルマン刑事
directed by Kinji Fukasaku
Production: Toei (Kyoto studio)
July 02, 1977
90 minutes color
July 02, 1977
90 minutes color
Shinichi Chiba as Joji Kano
Janet Hatta as Miki Harukaze
Eiko Matsuda as Kosode Murasaki
Hiroki Matsukata as Kaji Hidemori
Shinichi 'Sonny' Chiba plays a country bumpkin cop who shuffles into town (complete with straw hat and live pig!) to investigate the death of a girl he grew up next door to that had moved to the big city and was apparently murdered. Of course, the city cops think he's a goofball, and directly laugh at his methods, convinced the murder was committed by a serial killer who is on the loose.
(Shinichi 'Sonny' Chiba)
Chiba makes a friend early on though, when he takes his pig to a strip club and the stripper (Eiko Matsuda - In the Realm of the Senses) isn't offended by the filthy animal, but rather lets her manager deal with it, while she pulls Chiba on stage and has sex with him! That's not what makes him famous though, he repels off the side of a building to crash through a high rise window and save a hostage (it's on TV and the newspapers the next day) - but it turns out the hostage is the girl he's looking for!
(Eiko Matsuda)
Having taken on a new name, she is under the management of a yakuza, who is trying to make her famous as a singer. She has a big televised talent show coming up, but her nervousness (as well as her drug problem) threaten to get in the way.
(Janet Hatta)
And who does director Kenji Fukasaku get to play the yakuza, but the always reliable Hiroki Matsukata (Cops vs Thugs) who struts and snarls his way through the role as if it's the only one he was born to play. He plots, and orders killings and even blackmails one of the other managers - a true yakuza role.
(Hatta, Matsukate and Chiba)
But there are other colorful characters in it... the police chief, the renegade cop, the pot head biker gang, the strip club manager... always something going on to keep you entertained in this movie. It's not art, but it is a lot of fun! Chiba may be a country bumpkin here, but he's not afraid to kill whoever gets in his way. And the action fighting has just enough of a dose of Chiba's angry fists to make it all worth seeing!
(Chiba)
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