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Suganoichi (Shintaro Katsu) has been blind for all of his life, but
that hasn't kept him from cheating seeing people out of their money, using
techniques he has perfected at an early age. Now a grown-up, he works as a
masseur and has the idea of becoming the leader of the blind man, the
Kengyu, in his town - but to achieve that he needs money. So when he
passes a wandering salesman with a bag full of money in need of a massage,
he promptly kills him using his accupuncture needles. Unfortunately he was
seen doing so, but fortunately by the crook Kurakichi, who is easily
bribed, and also naive enough to leave Suganoichi a token of their
friendship - which Suganoichi promptly places in the dead man's hand. Weeks
later, while Suganoichi is massaging a client, a gang of outlaws breaks in
to rob the house, killing both the client and his wife - but when they
prepare to kill Suganoichi as well, he recognizes Kurakichi to be one of
them, and in the end the hoodlums not only spare his life, they also agree
to share the loot with him (mainly because he's the only one who knows
where the money is hidden) and accept him into their gang as a sort of
undercover agent. As an added bonus, Suganoichi takes the maid of the
household, whom he has long longed for, back home with him to help her
come over the shock (she doesn't know he was in with the outlaws of
course), but when she rejects his advances, he just rapes her, and when
she kills herself the next day, he has already lost interest. Sugaichi
learns about the wife of a high official who is in need of money which her
husband is not to know about ... so Suganoichi, who has made more money
from his illegal enterprises that he can ever spend, agrees to help her
out - but in return makes her his sex slave. When her hubby finds out, he
wants to kill Suganoichi, but by that time, Suganoichi has already faked
his own death ... Suganoichi knows the only way to become the new Kengyo
is to kill the present Kengyo, who's his master, and his wife, so he hires
his gang of hoodlums to do just that, and when they also want to kill him
in the process, he makes sure the plan backfires, and he still comes out
on top. 5 years later: Suganoichi has now become Kengyo, and has made
the most beautiful woman of the town his wife - but she doesn't love him
and has an affair with a carpenter - so he hires the carpenter to make him
a treasure chest, thenm kills both and uses the chest to bury them in. Eventually,
Kurakichi, who is still in Suganoichi's employ is arrested and accused of
the murder of the man he has witnessed Suganoichi kill, and when Kurakichi
realizes he has been tricked, he spills the beans about Suganoichi, which
also brings the official whose wife Suganoichi has made his sex slave back
on the scene, and in the finale, Suganoichi is stoned to death by the
police and an angry crowd just when he's on the way to give a massage to
the Shogun's daughter, which should have been the crowning achievement of
his career. Many sources cite this film as either the dry run
or even the inspiration for the Zatoichi-series,
just because Shintaro Katsu plays a blind masseur in both of them - but
being blind and being a masseur is pretty much all Katsu's role in this
film and in the more popular swordsman-series have in common. The point is
while the Zatoichi-series
focuses on swordsplay featuring a almost superhuman blind swordsman who's
also a bit of a rascal, Suganoichi is basically a down-and-dirty bastard,
a bad guy if there ever was one. This all, of course, doesn't say
anything about The Blind Menace's own qualities. Fact is, the film
is very entertaining in a dark sort of way, with Shintaro Katsu giving a
fine performance as a bad guy. That said, the film is certainly no
masterpiece and is terribly episodic in parts, but it's enjoyable enough
nevertheless.
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Flix.com
Flix.com
amazon.co.uk
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find The Blind Menace at adultvideouniverse.com