Search - Blind Beast vs. Killer Dwarf on DVD

Terrible

Hans Visser | Seattle, WA | 06/13/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"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."

1 ½ Stars: Sexy...Bizarre...Cult! Not for Everybody

Woopak | Where Dark Asian Knights Dwell | 01/06/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Cult director Teruo Ishii has been dubbed as the "Godfather of Pink violence", with such a title, one may expect the most disturbing, highly erotic films from this Japanese director. "BLIND BEAST vs. KILLER DWARF" (aka. Moju tai Issunboshi) is an odd title. Those very adulterated to Ishii's style may be in familiar territory (this is my second only such experience, the first being "Screwed"). Based on the classic tale with the same name by Edogawa Rampo, the film seems to have evolved its own rules by being shot in DV camera. The film may look little cheap-looking but I've read that Ishii was experimenting on this film and the timetable of the film is rather unspecified but I assume it takes place shortly after the decline of the code of Bushido.

The tale is about two competing serial killers, hence, the title "Blind Beast vs. Killer Dwarf". The blind beast (Hisayoshi Hirayama) is a sightless masseuse, who seduces, stalks, abducts, sexes and cuts up beautiful women for his twisted plaster sculptures. On another part of the town, a dwarf was seen with a severed arm--during which the disappearances of a stage performer named Ranko Mizuki (played by Mutsumi Fujita) and a step daughter of a beautiful Yurie Yamano (Reika Hashimoto) made the news. It is up to Monzo Kobayashi (Lily Franky) and a famed detective named Akechi Kogoro (Shinya Tsukamoto) to put together the puzzle of the severed arm and the missing step-daughter.

This film was Ishii's first digital effort so the cinematography itself has a lot to be desired, but it does have its good side. The movie seems mostly shot in a studio while some on location, but Ishii manages to execute some colors and does exercise a decent use of shadows. The film almost looks like a Kabuki play at times, and it is cheap looking. The Beast's lair is freaky--the hidden room where he has plastered human limbs and female body parts have the potential to be really creepy but the low budget may have hampered its effectiveness.

The term "erotic" is used to describe this film and it does deserve in a twisted and unsettling manner. The scenes with Mutsumi Fujita (plays Ranko Mizuki) is disturbing as well as arousing. At first, she fights back as the Blind masseuse forces himself into her, but after a time, she began enjoying his advances and even pours wine upon her naked body onto the waiting blind kidnapper. I suppose this exhibits a psychological reaction as some abductees begin to like their predicament and begins to be fond of the abductor. The film is disturbingly sexy, as the blind man abuses and massages. There is some full frontal nudity in the bathhouse scene and that wine scene I mentioned is just alluring. The Dwarf's advances upon Yurie Yamano mostly happens off camera so Reiko Hashimoto doesn't make "whoopee" sequences with the villainous dwarf.

The problems with the film begin when the investigation actually happens. Rampo was a fan of Sherlock Holmes so it comes as no surprise that the character of Kogoro Akechi does his own brand of deductive reasoning. The detective work is decent but honestly it lacked credibility and was a little unconvincing. The acting was below par and I thought Shinya Tsukamoto was the only one who carried the film's burden aside from Mutsumi Fujita. The film relies mostly on the sex, violence and the bucket loads of blood to make its case. Hey, it also helps when you have cannibalism, hints of S & M, decapitated limbs and the low-budget atmosphere does scream "cult classic". It isn't exactly as brutal as I would've preferred.

The film is definitely not for everybody--the tepid acting and the film's measly budget did hamper the film's entirety. It does feel a little dull and boring when there's no nudity or violence onscreen; such a shame since the film had very strong potential as a violent, disturbingly freaky, erotically sexy film feature. The film is rather pretentious as an art film and fails as a detective movie that supposedly offers the best in disturbing ideas with the fondness for an alienated style for the esoteric few.

Rental for Ishii fans but skip it for everybody else [1 ½ Stars]
Can't comment on Panik House's Dvd quality since I only viewed the HK release.

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