After coming to the attention of the Japanese movie going public of the early seventies through a few entries in the Stray Cat Rock series, Meiko Kaji went on to star in Teruo Ishii’s bizarre genre hybrid, Blind Woman’s Curse proving once and for all that she was more than just another pretty face. While the actress will always be best known for the two Lady Snowblood features and the four Female Convict Scorpion films, Ishii’s film had to have helped her land those roles as her impressive performance here would certainly seem to be a precursor for what would come later in her career. 

Akemi Tachibana (Meiko Kaji) gets into a scrap with an opposing clan and blinds Aiko Gouda (Hoki Tokuda) by slashing her across the face. A black cat shows up, licks up the arterial spray, and Akemi interprets this as a curse – it is kind of weird after all. Fast forward into the future a couple of years and a strange blind woman shows up in Akemi’s town. After her arrival, Akemi’s companions start getting killed off leading her to wonder if all of this ties in to her past with Aiko. 

A genuinely weird mix of the Yakuza and horror genres with a dose of ‘pinky violence’ exploitation thrown in for good measure, Blind Woman’s Curse is a lot of fun even if it isn’t the pinnacle of Kaji’s output or even close to Ishii’s best work. The two things that really work in the film’s favor are the visuals and Kaji’s intoxicating screen presence. The film is shot in such a way that at times it almost feels like it’s borrowing from the painterly visuals of Italian stylists like Mario Bava or Dario Argento, with its swirling primary colors and distinct attention to morbid detail. At times the film almost looks like it’s taking place on another planet, things feel very alien and intentionally cold in spots.  

Add to this the fact that Meiko Kaji has the seemingly magical ability to be simultaneously cold as ice and hotter than Hell and essentially what you’re left with is a dangerous hot chick running around Weirdsville with a sword avoiding random bursts of strangeness. It might not have won Ishii and co-writer Chusei Sone a Best Screenplay award, but it works well in the context of what the director and cinematographer were obviously going for in this production.