Plot by Imdb: "Akemi and the man of her clan confront their opponents; Akemi delivers a sword thrust to kill the opponents' leader, and Aiko, his daughter, tries to interpose herself, suffering a glancing blow to her eyes, thus cutting her badly, and blinding her. Amid the ensuing fight, no one notices that a black cat laps the young woman's wound. Years later, revenge between the two clans continue, plus added dissension amongst Akemi's people, leading to more deaths. A new member comes to help them, but she is a strange woman - and blind. The curse of the blind woman is about to fell on the dragon-lady."
One fine Pinky violence movie, extremely well made and absolutely nonsensical. Several elements have nothing to do here, like the Gothic horrors sequences with the hunchback and the scenes at the Theater, or the black cat curse (and black cat flying attacks ! Hilarious !) but they add to the weirdness of this mildly bloody Yakuza clans war tale. As often, the main characters have some kind of iconic elements to them: a huge dragon head tattoo for Meiko kaji, blindness for Aiko. One of the Yakuza gang leaders is wearing a bowler hat and goes around without pants (!!), etc... The "bizarre" elements pile up until you let it all go and just enjoy the mix. Extremely well directed by a Teruo Ishii ("Inferno of Torture") in great shape, using his technical skills to create beautiful images. Some sequences are mesmerizing: the first fighting scene, during the opening credits is amazing and so iconic that it became an instant classic for me. The ultimate bloody fighting sequence is also nicely done.
Meiko Kaji ("Female Convict Scorpion, jailhouse 41", "Lady Snowblood" and many others) is stunning as always but strangely disappears during the middle of the picture, as the story concentrates on other supporting characters. Hopefully, she returns at the end for a grand finale: a saber duel with her enemy.
Half Chambara, half Pinky violence, half Yakuza Eiga, half Gothic Horror, this movie is not the best of Ishii but needs to be seen as another demonstration of the incredible vitality of exploitation Japanese cinema in the 70's.
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