Blind Monk Swordsman

Aku bozu kyokakuden (悪坊主侠客伝) (1964)

Toei’s ninkyo yakuza shot at milking the Zatoichi craze with a blind yakuza monk character. Too bad it isn’s any good. Famed jidai geki veteran Jushiro Konoe (the father of Hiroki Matsukata) plays the role as if he was a loudmouth Osaka punk – quite the contrast to the lovable blind masseur or even the pervert monk played by Tomisaburo Wakayama in the later Wicked Priest series. It simply does not work as the character is irritating and the storyline an incoherently told mess. In brief, it’s about a bad man re-discovering humanity via woman and child while clashing with the yakuza and being hunted by a man called “Death” who has his own dark past, all set against the backdrop of industrialization. I was at the verge of falling asleep when an unexpected sight of a woman running with her boobs out, and the following comment about how it suck to be blind at a time like that, woke me up halfway into the film. Another highlight comes in form of a powerful ending shot accompanied by Toshiaki Tsushima’s (The Street Fighter, Battles Without Honor and Humanity) score. The rest isn’t worth it.