Blind Beast (1969)

3 out of 4 people found the following review helpful:

over rated nonsense

dom bradley from lancs, 19th June, 2006

the strong suit of this wildly over rated would be art film is the set design,it must have taken an age to construct,but for all its strangeness it is used crudely,compared to another japanese film released recently with similarly odd set design ('Face Of Another') it seems unsubtle and looks cheap.This is a very minor and unintelligent film,it's also very coy,giving its supposedly shocking content an almost childish quality.It pre dates the similarly over rated 'Ai No Corrida' in its themes of sex and death,but unlike that film its 80 min length cannot sustain any kind of depth of exploration of such weighty ideas,so it ends up being simultaneously laughable and pretentious.The acting and direction is fine,not great but certainly good,but the story is so thin and shallow it matters not.It's short length and banal script fail to sustain any mood or suspense,the blind sculptor and unwilling captor relationship too rushed and totally unconvincing.A thoroughly average film.

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2 out of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Enjoyably nasty and silly little film

A Customer from London, 9th April, 2008

This film is seriously twisted, by the time the two insane lovers are torturing each other in the dark, going blinder and madder as they go you wonder how it actually got to this stage - then you remember that unfortunately it's via a number of stupid evets that have removed most of the credibility from the film. At times it feels that the film strives so hard to be nasty that it's almost laughable but at the same time it does almost achieve its aims and if you half close your eyes (appropriately enough) then you can see an interestingly dark psychological thriller. One thing that struck me was the way that no matter how pervy the sex gets the main characters never actually remove their underwear.

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2 out of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Public Health Warning

A Customer from Stoke on Trent, England, 8th August, 2006

I found this film extremely boring. If there are any insomniacs out there then get this film because it would send anyone to sleep.

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*** May contain spoilers ***

In the realm of the senses meets the Collector

A Customer from London, 8th September, 2008

Blind Beast (also known as Moju) is an initially creepy tale, where an amateur blind sculptor kidnaps a photographic model in order to sculpt her body. What begins as a kidnapping becomes a tale of muder, rape and obsessive love. It all gets a bit over the top towards the end but its worth watching despite this.

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One of Masumura's best

drew steele from chester,england, 2nd October, 2007

I very much enjoy Japanese language films and I have seen this at the cinema as well as DVD. It gives at times a quite shocking view of the realities of war. The romantic side of the story is OK but perhaps a bit corny. This director, Masumura , is not afraid ofthe risk taking in trying to show things as he sees them. If you like it there's plenty more

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2 out of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Outstanding acting and a bizarre story

TristanWhite from , 30th December, 2006

I first heard of this film though 'Bizarre Magazine' (now there's a surprise) and I can see why. Quite a weird film about a blind man who kidnaps a model he is obsessed with. Don't watch the trailer first (it gives the entire story away), just sit back and enjoy one of the strangest films to come out of Japan. And my, do Japan produce a lot of strange films. The main actress in it, Mako Midori, is absolutely stunning, but it is Eiji Funakoshi who really stands out as Michio, playing the most convincing study of a blind person that I have ever seen from a visually unhindered actor.

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