The Blind Menace (1960) review

poster image: google images

THE BLIND MENACE aka SHIRANUI KENGYO aka SECRETS OF A COURT MASSEUR

Shintaro Katsu (Suginoichi), Tamao Nakamura (Lady Iwai), Meiko Kondo ("Severed Head" Kurakichi), Matasaburo Tanba (Sir Iwai), Tsurumi Joji, Mayumi Kurata, Toru Abe

Directed by Kazuo Mori

"As long as you're always rising in the world, all your previous misdeeds don't matter."

The Short Version: Two years before becoming world famous for his classic portrayal of the Blind Swordsman, Zatoichi in nearly 30+ films and a 100 episode television series, Shintaro Katsu played the flip side to that character. Katsu is devilishly evil and systematically sadistic as the title rapist, murderer, blackmailer and all around black-hearted scoundrel who just happens to be blind. The plot is simple and basically a string of tragic vignettes as this cunning and cruel yet sightless masseur destroys and eliminates a lot of lives along his selfish path to attain wealth and a powerful government position.


Little Shichinosuke, a blind, yet devious little boy comes from a poor family and is taught unscrupulous behavior by his greedy, domineering mother. Along with his sole childhood friend, Tome (pronounced Toe-may), he grows up to be the even more despicable Suginoichi, a blind masseur with designs on attaining great wealth and power through the pain, suffering and death of others. Aligning himself with a ragtag band of thieves and murderers, Suginoichi meticulously plots the death of his master in an effort to become head Kengyo (the highest rank given to blind masseurs, musicians and money lenders) garnering himself close ties with the Shogunate.


Anyone remotely familiar with Katsu's enormously successful and timeless interpretation of the blind swordsman Zatoichi will be stunned to see him playing virtually the same role only sans the dignity and fighting skills of the kindly low level yakuza gambler/protector of the common folk. Here, the character of Suginoichi (even as a small child) is the exact antithesis of the much loved wanderer in that he beguiles his way into people's lives before stomping on them or simply stamping them out. His cruelty is consistently pulled off without the slightest ounce of remorse or regard for the possible consequences. Incredibly cunning, Suginoichi goes from one vitriolic vignette to the next leaving shattered lives and dead bodies in his wake.


It's a testament to Katsu's acting ability that he effortlessly pulls off not only the mannerisms of a blind person, but that he can make such a handicapped individual so reprehensible. It's all the more jarring when comparing this dramatic feature with the blind masseur adventures Katsu would begin essaying two years later. If you ever wondered what an evil Zatoichi from an alternate universe would be like (without the sword fighting skills), this film will satisfy that curiosity.

Even as a little boy, the title Menace proves problematic such as intentionally flinging boogers into a sake bucket.

There's also a good deal of political subtext here, whether intended or not. Those who firmly believe that the rich got where they are by stepping on everyone else will find much here to reaffirm that notion. But then, Suginoichi started out poor. His family was poor. His mother put such thoughts into his head while his father was the dignified head of household who couldn't provide the sort of life she wanted. The fact that she perpetuated such mischievous behavior in her child is almost as criminal as the calculated and meticulously orchestrated acts Suginoichi manages to pull off.

Suginoichi dreams he can see while he plays the shamisen for a sought after courtesan named Ohan.

Regardless of what the many current Occup-arasites around the nation might believe, anybody can gain wealth, it all depends on the individual and what they're willing to do to get it; There's the hard way (work for it) and the easy way (just steal it). The latter carries with it the most dire of consequences and it's that path that our non-hero "blindingly", if confidently, decides to take while nonchalantly shrugging off the shattered lives and destruction he leaves in his wake.


With that said, the finale is the one area where the film fails to deliver. The film culminates with the required "justice is served" ending, only it isn't quite the satisfying denouement the viewer comes to expect considering the numerous murders, rapes and extortion Katsu's character has bequeathed to his many victims. One of the most outrageous involves Suginoichi's master sending him to answer a money lending request from a woman who's brother indulged in an embezzlement scheme. He is to decline the offer of lending 50 ryo to Nani'e Iwai, who asks for the funds in secret not wishing her husband to know. Suginoichi delivers the message, but casually states he himself can lend her the money which she need not pay back. Asking to stay the night by which to give lady Iwai a full body massage, our malevolent masseur ultimately rapes her. When her husband returns the following morning, Suginoichi asks if she will retrieve his money for him!


Mind you, Nani'e can't really say anything lest she dishonor both herself and her husband. She reluctantly gives this blind bastard his 50 ryo back only to have him tell her he did it because she was mean to him(?!?!?) and that should she need the money, to come to his home. This she does, only for the avaricious rapist to molest her once more then further demeaning her spirit by giving her a mere 5 ryo(!) proclaiming once she visits him a total of ten times she will then have her 50 ryo! It should also be mentioned that the actress playing Lady Iwai, Tamao Nakamura, was also Katsu's wife in real life--the two having met on the set of this movie and remained together till the actors death in 1997. In a strange twist of irony, despite Katsu being famous for his iconic portrayal of the kindly Zatoichi, offscreen the actor more closely resembled his Suginoichi persona in that the real Katsu was quite the wild card.

Sir Iwai learns of his wife's infidelity

Katsu really is quite polarizing here sporting a seemingly bumpkin style innocence one minute then unleashing a bolt of brazen callousness the next. The women receive the worst treatment; being raped, humiliated or blackmailed and sometimes all three. Unable to cope with the disgrace, one of Suginoichi's female victims kills herself to which the sightless scumbag cold-heartedly laughs off the suicide. It's virtually impossible to not be mesmerized by Katsu in this movie. For those more familiar with the man's work among the Chambara style of Jidageki, the absence of swordplay will possibly go unnoticed as the actor owns every second of the film. His shameless proclivity for obtaining money by any means necessary as well as his uncanny ability to emerge one step ahead of everybody else will keep you glued to the screen eagerly awaiting the end when the now wealthy Kengyo reaps all that he has sewn.


It's also worthy of mention the group of yakuza Suginoichi makes friends with. Led by "Severed Head" Kurakichi, the masseur effortlessly frames him for a murder he didn't commit virtually moments after their first meeting! Later on, Kurakichi happens upon the blind man during a house raid. The blind menace talks his way out of death by promising them all money for jobs which he will set up should they release him. Everyone indeed makes money off of others misery, but once the devious masseur plots the death of his own master, Kurakichi and company begin to wonder whether they should keep this partnership. The group come to fear the blind man over time and even ponder killing him noting they would be doing a great public service!


According to the excellent liner notes on AnimEgo's DVD, Katsu was not a well liked leading man in Japan at the time so this tale was fashioned with him in mind as it suited his looks and only stoked the audience perception of him. The film was a huge success which ironically paved the way for the classic and well loved ZATOICHI film and television series that followed. Those films were tailor made for Katsu, too, with the enduring Zatoichi character seemingly ripped from an alternate universe to his previous Suginoichi persona. Katsu strikes an intriguing parallel between this early evil role and his later, and much loved anti heroic, yet lovable bringer of justice.


Aside from the moderately tepid ending, director Mori keeps things interesting throughout in his depiction of societal domination and decay through the propagation of evil and greed. Mori also helmed some of the equally enthralling SHINOBI NO MONO films (a series about ninjitsu), a few entries in the ZATOICHI series and also the last installment of the popular DAIMAJIN trilogy. If you're a fan of the Blind Swordsman series, than seeking out THE BLIND MENACE is a no-brainer. Casual fans may find this of interest, too.

This review is representative of the AnimEgo DVD

Intruder (1989) review

INTRUDER 1989

Elizabeth Cox (Jennifer Ross), Danny Hicks (Bill Roberts), Renee Estevez (Linda), David Byrnes (Craig), Sam Raimi (Randy)

Directed by Scott Spiegel

"Don't you see? I'm just crazy about this store!!"

The Short Version: Many rabid slasher fans love it, but this mostly average, wafer thin plotted, late blooming slice and dicer has expensive gore offered at a drastically reduced price. Horror's Heroes at KNB let the blood flow in what is easily the most eye-opening, head crushing aspect of this picture outside of some inventive and impressive camera work. If you enjoyed THE EVIL DEAD (1981), this bargain bin budgeted slasherama has some of that films ingenuity as well as roles taken up by Sam and Ted Raimi and even an all too brief appearance by Bruce Campbell. Saddled with a reputation bigger than the film itself, the sheer love that has went into this recent DVD package is reason enough to shop at the Synapse store--just make sure it isn't after hours.


With news of its impending sale and layoffs, the third shift crew at the Walnut Creek grocery store receive an uninvited guest after hours. Stocking turns to stalking as the employees and managerial staff are gruesomely killed off one by one by an unseen maniac who has somehow gotten inside the locked establishment.


The writer of the classic 80s necronomical classic EVIL DEAD 2 (1987) and the exploitation throwback THOU SHALT NOT KILL...EXCEPT (aka STRYKER'S WAR [1985]) took the reigns of this blood-gushing, modestly budgeted cult item. It's a late bloomer in the slasher cycle and one of the best of an asylum packed number of similar pictures during the dying days of the 1980s. These decade closer slashers were mostly lifeless, forgettable, or minor footnotes in the cycle, but INTRUDER benefits from primo photography by Fernando Arguelles and one or two other points of interest that separates it from the splat pack making up these mostly malignant maniac movies.

I didn't listen to the commentary tracks yet to see if this was an homage, but this scene reminded me a great deal of Fulci's CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD (1980).

Unlike the uniquely fresh Italian 'Slice & Dicer' STAGEFRIGHT (1987), INTRUDER brings nothing new to the table aside from an original setting and a killer who "slashes prices" in a variety of spectacularly visceral ways. That's not to say Spiegel's love letter to a by then worn out concept isn't without merits of its own. While it took an Italian to (briefly) make the slasher fresh again (the slasher itself being the bastard child of the Italian Giallo), Spiegel's movie definitely comes alive in its cinematography (indicative of the Raimi style of the hyperactive camera) and a few of its performances most notably that of its killer. The motive and reasoning for the massacre to follow is pretty ridiculous and a bit hard to swallow, but the splashy effects from the rising grue crew KNB are ambitiously accomplished on what was a beyond meager budget.

I got out my copy of GZ#6 and noticed that the actual bandsaw death scene in the film differs from what's on the cover.

The film became the talk of horror film circles back in the day when photos of its carnage were judiciously splattered both inside and onto the cover of Fangoria's sister mag, Gorezone magazine. While the film lost nearly all its money shots to the scissors of the MPAA, horror magazines would become a hot button issue as well with a number of folks becoming seriously offended by covers and contents of these magazines. At this time, horror movies and cinematic ultra violence in general was a massive concern resulting in a serious backlash against the genre itself. News programs like 20/20 and even late night tabloid crapola like THE MORTON DOWNEY JR. SHOW were viciously pelting horror cinema with a constant stream of verbal assaults.


Brutal crimes had been on the rise (or at least had become hot media topics) and movies were blamed for the despicable displays of human monsters who were allegedly "commanded" to kill by what they saw in a motion picture. The MPAA was pressured to take a more responsible stance towards violence in movies, but a double standard was in practice. If you were a big studio, you could get by, or if your film was something other than horror, than the violence was generally passed with barely a slap on the wrist. But if you were a low budget horror flick, your wrist wasn't slapped, it was slashed. Such was the case with INTRUDER.

There's lots and lots of product placement in this movie. That Frosted Flakes box art is different from I am used to.

Paramount, arguably the single most loathed major studio in Hollywood where the release of horror films were concerned, haphazardly handled Spiegel and crew's movie as opposed to simply releasing it uncut, or in two separate versions--R and unrated. With the picture stripped of its "guts", it's baffling why they would have shown any distributional interest to begin with considering their contemptible treatment of the pinnacle of slasherdom, the FRIDAY THE 13TH series and one of the decades goriest examples of the form, MY BLOODY VALENTINE (1980).


From there, a fan uproar ensued when it was discovered that the recently released to video film was--to put it mildly--severely truncated. For the rabids gorehounds, it was the splatter that mattered and INTRUDER, a film that wore its gore like a bloody badge of honor was now stripped of its rank. The film did manage to sneak out in bad quality bootleg editions and said quality remained that way till this most recent Synapse DVD/Blu Ray combo. Also of note is that the INTRUDER workprint is included with the first 500 copies among an already loaded grocery cart of goodies. Those who have been used to the grainy imagery of past releases will be shocked by the bloody vibrancy of this new Synapse edition who have given the presentation a 'Mr. Clean' sheen.

Sam Raimi gets a hand in the meat department

Going back to the film itself, the plot is nothing new and some viewers may find their patience wearing thin as it's nearly 40 minutes before the first victim falls prey to the numerous devices of death under the killers employ (similarly, the opening credits seem to take forever to get on with it). This extra time spent with an already kooky clutch of characters does little to make you feel sorry for them when they begin to kick the proverbial bloody bucket. A far too obvious red herring complete with an angry, murderous backstory is thrown into the mix early on. Once the night crew is established, the fright is on as each individual gets their own designer death sequence. The die hard slasher fans don't watch these movies for exposition anyway, but for the gore, and in that respect, INTRUDER satisfies.

Blood & Beer make a dangerous combination. Please, don't Drink and Die.

There's a ghoulishly black comical air to the whole thing, but some of the extended death sequences will no doubt make some viewers wince in disgust. Still, by comparison, Joseph Zito's equally overlooked and similarly titled THE PROWLER (1981) featured gut wrenching scenes of human destruction made all the more sadistic by a voyeuristically lingering camera. INTRUDER adopts this "gore the merrier" approach, but the quirky semi comical touches lessen the impact overall.

Bruce Campbell (cop at front) makes an arrest

During the last 20 minutes when the scenery chewing killer reveals himself, the movie kicks into overdrive culminating in a fast and furious finale that features the funniest beatdown by a decapitated noggin, a would be hero who takes a laughably punishing amount of blows to the Cabeza (this movie is full of head trauma), and a late appearance by Bruce Campbell as a police officer. The music is good and some of the stock cues used here will be familiar sounds to the ears of some viewers. The final shot isn't very satisfying (it's kind of up in the air as to what happens next), but in total, this lovingly choice cut of meat is an essential purchase for serious indy horror fans not only for its historical significance, but for the wealth of background information and plethora of extras heaped onto this Deli Deluxe package. In terms of entertainment value, INTRUDER delivers the groceries, even if a few things are left out of the bag.

This review is representative of the Synapse DVD/Blu-Ray combo special edition #227 with work print. This particular release can only be bought at the Synapse website. Click HERE for more information.

The direct link to the page with the INTRUDER combo release (while supplies last) can be found by clicking HERE.