Shiranui kengyô (1960)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Kazuo Mori

Writers:

Minoru Inuzuka (screenplay)
Nobuo Uno (novel)

Release Date:

1 September 1960 (Japan)

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel

Cast

Toru Abe		(as Tooru Abe)
Shintarô Katsu
Mieko Kondo		(as Mieko Kondô)
Mayumi Kurata
Tamao Nakamura
Jôji Tsurumi
Yôko Wakasugi

Also Known As:

Agent Shiranui (USA)
Secrets of a Court Masseur (International: English title)

Runtime:

Japan:91 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Black and White

Company:

Daiei Motion Picture Company

Trivia:

"Kengyô" was the highest of the four official ranks (kan'i) within the Tôdô-za - the Kyôto-based guild for the blind established early in the Muromachi Period (1392-1573), and abolished in 1871 (the fourth year of the Meiji Restoration). The three other ranks, in descending order, were "bettô", "kôtô", and "zatô" - as in Zatôichi (2003). The head of the Tôdô-za was the sô-kengyô (a.k.a. shoku-kengyô); the guild's headquarters was the Shoku-yashiki in Kyôto.

Evil blind masseur cheats, rapes and kills - No, it's not Zatoichi!

Quite surprised to find out that Shintaro Katsu had already played a blind masseur before he started the Zatoichi series, I was eager to see this film. Yikes, what I got was very unexpected.

The film starts out with a few scenes of the main character, Suga-no-ichi, as a blind child. The sightless scamp is already concocting schemes to swindle people out of money. Cut forward to Suga as an adult, now a priest working under the also blind head priest who is Secretary of Religious Affairs for the Shogun. Curiously all the other priests in this temple are blind, it's not explained in the film why this is. Suga gets sent out on errands by the head priest and he uses this as a chance to rob, swindle, rape and murder while wandering around Japan. Suga joins a band of thieves while running his own schemes independently. But foremost in Suga's mind is the position of Secretary of Religious Affairs and he hatches a plan to get it.

Shintaro Katsu is excellent in the role. A number of Zatoichi mannerisms are already present in his portrayal of the blind masseur. The film is well directed and photographed in black and white. Unfortunately, the character of Suga is so despicable that the film is tough to follow, only Katsu's performance makes it tolerable. There is nothing of the noble Zatoichi here. Also there's no sword work, this is not a chambara film at all. The film might have worked better if it was played with more humor and less rape, but it's rather serious about the whole story. The ending is a cop-out. Interestingly, Katsu's brother, Tomisaburo Wakayama, played a similar, though much less despicable, character in the "Wicked Priest" series a few years later.

Recommended for Katsu fans, others might want to rent a Zatoichi film instead.