Thursday, January 3, 2013

Obscure Beauty: Blind Beast (Moju) (1969)





I was led to this bizarre classic by my last bizarre classic, Femina Ridens (The Frightened Woman). Both are from 1969 (one Italian, one Japanese), both share stories of life or death powerplays between the sexes, and both take place on audacious sets of a massive naked female form sprawled across a gigantic warehouse. A sorta niche genre, you'd think, and yet they follow different themes and fulfill entirely different extremes. One sexy. One scarring. Both pretty stellar. Sensuous and scary surrealist kink with sharp twists. Only Blind Beast twists like a knife, deeper and more painful... and it really likes it, too.

I won't dare spoil its surprises. Before viewing, my only knowledge extended to a careful scan of review after review spouting - "Sick!" - Disgusting!" - "Why are Japanese films so fucked?" -- It took a surprising bit of the runtime before I understood why such reviews were totally valid. Yet it's a smart film, artfully capturing even its most cutting moments.

It's one of THOSE movies... You can't exactly recommend it to the people you expect to still hang out with you. But to the sick, disgusting beasts who read this site, I say go in blind and feast your eyes.

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