The Tattooed Swordswoman (1970)
"Kaidan nobori ryu" (original title)

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... See full summary »

Director:

Teruo Ishii

Writers:

Teruo Ishii, Chûsei Sone

Stars:

Meiko Kaji, Hoki Tokuda, Makoto Satô

Cast

Credited cast:
Meiko Kaji	...	Akemi Tachibana
Hoki Tokuda	...	Aiko Gouda
Makoto Satô	...	Tani Shouichi
Yoshi Katô	...	Jutaro Mitsui
Yûzô Harumi
Tôru Abe	...	Dobashi
Shirô Ôtsuji	...	Senba-tatsu
Hideo Sunazuka	...	Kantaro
Yôko Takagi	...	Chie-chan
Ryôhei Uchida	...	Aozora
Akira Takahashi
Tatsumi Hijikata	...	Hunchback dancer
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Nobuko Aoki
Chieko Harada
Kokan Katsura

Storyline

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.

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Plot Keywords:

clan | revenge | fight | black cat | cat | 

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Horror | Thriller

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

6 August 1971 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Blind Woman's Curse

Company Credits

Production Co:

Nikkatsu

Technical Specs

Runtime:

85 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Fujicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

Akemi Tachibana: Tatsu, You're too filthy even for the Yakuza.
Senba-tatsu: Thanks and you're too pretty. Go home and scrub the floor.

User Reviews

Weird mix

I found this movie to be a weird mix and to be totally honest, I am not sure if I like this movie. This movie seems to have a weird mix of visuals from gore, psychedelia,Jidai Geki and yakuza elements. I personally found it a little off putting and there were parts of the movie, the psychedelic gore parts with the visuals and colouring, that I did not enjoy. Meiko Kaji stars as tachibana doing her soon to be trademark stoic, unspeaking character. Like her later characters Scorpion and Lady Snowblood, she does not say much nor shows much emotion. While it worked (very successfully) with these characters it does not work in this movie. Instead of driven she looked uncertain. Not the best movie but an interesting movie and a look at the development of meiko kaji as an actress.