“I’ve been cursed by a cat!”
Blind Woman’s Curse (1970) is a convoluted yakuza tale peppered with moments of visual brilliance. The film stars Meiko Kaji as an honorable yakuza boss who has been cursed by a blind swordswoman and is caught in the midst of a gang war with rival boss Toru Abe. The film balances pulpy yakuza action with eerie supernatural elements.
Blind Woman’s Curse was directed by Teruo Ishii who seems more at ease with kinetic sequences than with dialogue heavy scenes of exposition. Whenever the film steers away from sword fights and hunchbacks the pacing teeters off and the film loses its momentum. When Ishii has something with movement and energy to photograph Blind Woman’s Curse becomes exceptional picture making.
There’s an easily accessible queer reading of Blind Woman’s Curse that presages the Meiko Kaji vehicle Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41(1972). The women Kaji meets in prison that join her gang are often framed in intimate proximity to Kaji. In addition, the women all share a tattoo on their backs that interconnects when they line up. The film doesn’t overtly embrace this reading, but it is present in every scene between these women.
The mutilation of these tattoos also reenforces such a reading. This grotesque mutilation could be interpreted as an act of envy; envy for intimacy with Kaji. This sexual connection is echoed in the use of close-ups during the climax of the film where two women, while sparring, appear to be occupying the same physical spaces at the same time.
The climactic showdown is, without exception, the strongest sequence in the film. The set design is a thing of ethereal beauty that Ishii lights with expressionistic shadows. Here a battle is waged in a flurry of jump-cuts that condense the space as the women tangle in a ballet of death. It’s a cathartic ending that, unfortunately, the film never really builds to.
The unevenness of the script undermines any narrative momentum. Ishii himself always considered Blind Woman’s Curse a flawed film. It’s an apt description. Even so there are parts of the film that show the promise of what could or should have been. And, as always, Meiko Kaji shines in her part; elevating every close-up she gets to the level of high art.
