Blind Beast

Starring:Noriko Sengoku, Eiji Funakoshi, Mako Midori
Director: Yasuzo Masumura
Studio: Fantoma
Product Type: DVD

Customer Reviews:

A beautiful, albeit twisted, film........2007-06-15

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.

Ahead of its time, though not terribly pleasant.......2007-01-11

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.

Masumura is an original.......2005-10-13

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.

unique, creepy and astonishing.......2003-03-20

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.

palpable suspense.......2002-08-01

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.

Average customer rating:

Terrible

Blind Beast vs. Killer Dwarf
Starring: Lily Franky , Shinya Tsukamoto , Hisayoshi Hirayama , Little Frankie , and Mutsumi Fujita
Director: Teruo Ishii
Manufacturer: Panik House
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000G1QU8E
Release Date: 2006-08-22

Description

"Teruo Ishii is a fantastic director, a great director! I love Teruo Ishii." - QUENTIN TARANTINO

BANNED FOR TWO YEARS! LEGENDARY DIRECTOR TERUO ISHII'S FINAL DISTURBING MASTERPIECE!

When prolific Japanese Cult Director Teruo Ishii passed away in 2005, BLIND BEAST VS. KILER DWARF became his epitaph. This film stands as the culmination of his life's work and includes the bizarre and shocking excesses that one can come to expect from the director of FEMALE YAKUZA TALE: naked Japanese girls and lots of blood! Throw into the mix the deranged, depraved and deformed and you're starting to get the picture. Borne of a lifelong obsession with the writings of Edogawa Rampo, Teruo Ishii `s swan song is a veritable circus of the insane.

PANIK HOUSE is proud to present BLIND BEAST VS. KILLER DWARF in the director's final, approved edition -sparing none of its macabre sex or over-the-top violence!

• Behind-The-Scenes: The Making of Blind Beast Vs. Killer Dwarf documentary featurette

• Bilingual Menus with Optional English and Spanish Subtitles

• Trailers

• Poster and Still Galleries

• Production Notes

• Filmmaker and Star Bios

• Special Numbered Insert Cards featuring the personal stamp of Little Frankie aka The Killer Dwarf, now deceased

• Sticker

Customer Reviews:

Terrible.......2007-06-13

I don't have particularly high standards, but this was worse than shot-on-video; it had soap opera production values. It wasn't scary or atmospheric or even a guilty pleasure. Nothing was interesting or compelling; you just sit there, wondering why you're watching it, and then eventually turn it off. A chore to watch.

Average customer rating:

A beautiful, albeit twisted, film.
Ahead of its time, though not terribly pleasant
Masumura is an original
unique, creepy and astonishing
palpable suspense

Blind Beast
Starring: Noriko Sengoku , Eiji Funakoshi , and Mako Midori
Director: Yasuzo Masumura
Manufacturer: Fantoma
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Horror | Genres | DVD | Video

( B ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

General | Indie & Art House | Stores | DVD | Video

Manji
Giants & Toys
Afraid to Die
Red Angel
Under the Flag of the Rising Sun

ASIN: B00005R1NZ
Release Date: 2001-12-04

Description

A blind sculptor kidnaps an artists' model and imprisons her in his warehouse studio--a shadowland of perverse monuments to the female form. Here a deranged passion play of sensual and sexual obsession is acted out in a world where sight is replaced by touch. Japanese New Wave master Yasuzo Masumura's beautiful and terrifying tale of erotic horror, from a short story by Edogawa Rampo, is one of the most dazzlingly stylistic tour de forces in the history of cinema. Fantoma is very proud to present "Blind Beast" uncut and in its original DaieiScope aspect ratio for the first time in the U.S.

Customer Reviews:

A beautiful, albeit twisted, film........2007-06-15

Ahead of its time, though not terribly pleasant.......2007-01-11

Masumura is an original.......2005-10-13

unique, creepy and astonishing.......2003-03-20

palpable suspense.......2002-08-01

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