Blood Reign: Curse of the Yoma (1989)

Director: Takashi Anno

Screenplay: Shou Aikawa

Based on the manga by Kei Kusunoki

(Voice) Cast: Kenyuu Horiuchi as Hikage; Hiromi Tsuru as Aya #1; Kaneto Shiozawa as Marou; Miina Tominaga as Aya #2; Banjou Ginga as Brawny Koga; Eiji Maruyama as Old Bonze; Hideyuki Tanaka as Kazami; Jūrōta Kosugi as Majuumi no Miko / Shiranui; Kazumi Tanaka as Chain-Wielding Koga; Kōzō Shioya as Shiratsuyu

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies) / An 1000 Anime Crossover

Digging into obscurer anime horror, this is a samurai horror tale adapted from a female author, one which is moody yet is appropriately macabre. For the full review, follow the blog link HERE.

Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales (2006)

 

Studio: Toei Animation

Directors: Hidehiko Kadota and Kouzou Nagayama (Tenshu Monogatari); Tetsuo Imazawa (Yotsuya Kaidan); Kenji Nakamura (Bakeneko)

Screenplays: Yuuji Sakamoto (Tenshu Monogatari); Chiaki J. Konaka (Yotsuya Kaidan); Michiko Yokote (Bakeneko)

Tenshu Monogatari adapted from the drama by Kyōka Izumi; Yotsuya Kaidan adapted from the play by Nanboku Tsuruya IV

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Shows) / An 1000 Anime Crossover

 

"Commissioned for Fuji TV's Noitamina block, highly regarded for its artistically and narratively different anime shows - where Masaaki Yuasa's The Tatami Galaxy (2010) or Princess Jellyfish (2010) came from - Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales befits the slot early in its existence, as it is three different horror tales between three to four episodes, of period set folktales and yōkai I am fascinated by. Two of the three are adapting classic authors for their tales too, adding to this an air of artistry, and even when the Noitamina started over the decades, from their 2005 inception to step away from a stereotypical young male target audience, to have more action and pulpier productions, this was not a bad thing either. This has led to shows like Samurai Flamenco (2013-14), and  with well regarded productions like The Promised Neverland (2019-2020) getting popular, the block can still claim respect for producing some of the best and most interesting in animated television series. My interest in Samurai Horror Tales beyond just horror anime would have been cemented by its connection to Mononoke (2007), another Noitamina block member and one of the most unique looking series of any genre, having been a spin-off from of the Ayakashi stories itself not based on a classic tale...."

For the full review, follow the link below to my 1000 Anime blog, though alongside a spoiler warning, I must include a trigger warning as well as. Whilst the best of the three stories, one of them by the name of Bakeneko, if anyone wishes to track down this animated series, does tackle incredibly bleak and uncomfortable subject matter which I may not recommend to everyone. Those who are prepared however will find in just that story a great production, whilst I will also argue the other two have their virtues as well.

Blog Link

Puppet Princess (2000)

 

Director: Hirotoshi Takaya

Screenplay: Junichi Miyashita

Based on a manga short story by Kazuhiro Fujita

(Voice) Cast: Akiko Yajima as Rangiku Fumiwatari; Norio Wakamoto as Yasaburo Manajiri; Kouji Nakata as Sadayoshi Karimata; Takeshi Aono as Head of the Deathless Ninjas

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies) #183/ A 1000 Anime Crossover

 

The following review is to be found on my other blog 1000 Anime as well. If this is of interest to you the reader, follow the link HERE for many more reviews.

If there was ever a premise in desperate need for a television series, or a theatrical length adaptation, it would be Puppet Princess. There is however a reason against this. Created by Kazuhiro Fujita, famous for a manga series called Ushio and Tora (1990-6), Puppet Princess was only a short story, part of a group created by him between 1988-1994 that were compiled together into a work called Yoru no Uta (1995). So only if you had license to write more material, which could be a risk that does not pay off, or if Fujita ever decided to retell this narrative in a longer form, a forty minute straight-to-video anime OVA is all we have here.

It is surprisingly late for Puppet Princess to exist as an OVA, as even if there were titles into the mid to late 2000s created for the market, that format dwindled down into bonus episodes for other work rather than the rich format of the decades before. This one saddles the transitional era between the hand drawn and digital assisted animation too - I suspect some computer animation was used for assistance, but it does feel like an old school OVA in its style.

In period Japan, the narrator deliberately saying that this is an obscure tale forgotten of, a young woman carrying a giant box on her back, twice or more her height, wanders the countryside. Acting like the protagonist of a comedy, as she goes on her way with her pure hearted nature, she encounters a ninja whose team has been eliminated by "death-less" puppets, i.e. automatronic puppets that can move by themselves. The ninja Yasaburo and the young woman Rangiku realise they had the same goals, she actually the princess of a kingdom destroyed by Lord Karimata, wishing to hire Yasaburo to help her in revenge against Karimata, who killed her father, murdered her family, but with a greater concern for her the puppet he stole and created others from. Her father become so obsessed with puppetry he invested in them and created giant puppets that could fight, which she carries in the box and can control, alongside one that was entirely autonomous.

This premise is dispensed with quickly in forty minutes. A shame, but only because, from a short story which is in this form completes itself entirely, Fujita created a premise you could make a longer narrative from even if it could be in danger of padding. It is set up almost so, with Rangiku having four puppets, only for them to be barely used, again a shame as alongside their distinctions, the most prominent one used is a hulking samurai, the premise in terms of anime which have distinct logics common to them has one of note. That, having to control the puppets with her hands and feet, she is vulnerable to any attacks, hence why she wanted to hire Yasaburo.  It may seem a base thing to consider, especially as someone in live action who hates a lot of action scenes, as someone who likes comic book logic and martial arts films, these types of details actually become part of the character of anime stories, especially as they can be depicted with some creativity in the storytelling and art style.

It may have helped with the tonal shifts if this had been a longer work. This OVA juggles, even stumbles, over tone considerably. A lot is comedic. Sadly this does include a scene of bathing where implied ravishing is made a joke, even if thankfully the joke turns to Yasaburo being freaked out that Rangiku, somewhat cluelessly, is game in her optimism to try what he was trying to imply. It also stands out as, unsure why Puppet Princess is tagged as a horror anime when it is mostly an action period piece, it fully acquires it when it is revealed the puppet strings are made from the flayed skin of young children, even Rangiku's own as her mission is a conflicted one, arguably revenge but with knowledge her father was also a monster and that she wants to rid his creations from existence.

This material, again, would be a great longer premise, even if it would require new material to let it breathe. That complex little detail in itself adds a lot to this title as it is, but more could be taken from it in a longer story. As much of it is, to be even naive, that puppets are fascinating objects in themselves, and that knowing how in Japanese culture they have their own rich history, this world could have easily grown out the material with its idiosyncratic premise. Especially as it does have horror and comedy and action crammed together, particularly the horror aspects would have grown in weight if this material was allowed to breathe.

It did evoke for me Osamu Tezuka's Dororo (1967-9). Among the countless manga created by the proclaimed God of Manga, one of manga's (and anime's) most important figures, one such title he did not actually finish was also a period action work with a distinct premise and horror leanings, where a son who is sacrificed by his father to demons, leading them to steal as much of his body and organs as possible. Yet the boy in this world survives as a literal worm, going after his body parts as an adult with a mostly artificial form which, with arm swords and even knee missiles, is a literal weapon. Why Tezuka never actually finished that premise is unknown, but it was still enticing enough to have animated adaptations, a 2004 videogame version which had an ending, and even an acclaimed 2019 animated series which also completed the series and took new directions. Puppet Princess in this little shed of an idea, and that abrupt full formed turn to horror, could expand with similar richness.

But Puppet Princess as it is was a rewarding piece nonetheless. It is so slight it is difficult to either elaborate on the material, or to its advantage really criticise it as, in the spectrum of anime OVAs, this is a much more accomplished and rewarding one when, for every good one, there have been plenty of bad ones. The art style is worth bringing up though, idiosyncratic to the point some may find it ugly, at times with characters like Rangiku very supple and lithe, but with shots especially where the eyes are drawn with a weird shape even in the pupils, the teeth becoming sharper like fangs, becoming a style that here can switch easily from light hearted comedy to even the horror with ease in its artistic flairs. Again, it would have been fascinating to see this as a series or a long single narrative just to see how these character designs could develop.

Kazuhiro Fujita himself now also becomes a figure of interest for me. Adapted twice to animation, in the early nineties (as an OVA series) and the 2010s (as a television series), his Ushio and Tora is a well regarded title and, just from Puppet Princess, as an introduction it is a good one to Fujita himself. It says a bit in itself that, whilst known as a distributor nowadays who have been as elusive in releases like yeti sightings, and refuses to die, the American distributor Media Blasters first released soon after its 2000s release, and planned to release this on Blu-Ray in 2020 even as a forty minute only title, OVAS unless multiple episodes tragically maligned in the streaming and high definition era of anime. It was good on them, as this was with flaws but a surprise I was glad to see.

Illusion of Blood (1965)

From http://image14.m1905.cn/uploadfile
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Director: Shirô Toyoda

Screenplay: Toshio Yasumi

Cast: Tatsuya Nakadai (as Iyemon Tamiya); Mariko Okada (as Oiwa); Junko Ikeuchi (as Osode); Mayumi Ohzora (as Oume); Keiko Awaji (as Omaki); Eitarô Ozawa (as Oume's Father)

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies) #106

One of the best things about Japanese genre cinema is that no matter how excessive and even sleazy they can be, many explicitly deal with social issues like class and politics as much as such subjects would be in films by the likes of Kenji Mizoguchi. Inherently with the period films set in Japan's past, the films end up even tripping over themes such as these, the historical periods and social mores especially of the Edo period of Japan giving enough material still for ripe storylines. Illusion of Blood is no exception to this - where samurai are masterless and destitute, even considering trading in their swords for money, one such figure Iyemon Tamiya (Tatsuya Nakadai) is willing to remarry into a rich family with prospects of a new master even if it means publically disgracing his wife Oiwa (Mariko Okada) by either a fake adultery accusation or even disfigurement, maybe even worse to get his way. Like Les Diaboliques (1955), it's a drama of backstabbing and betrayal, its worldview awash with as much a cynical tone as the more famous film. Like that film, the perpetrators of certain crimes may even be haunted by the dead.

It's very much a bleak worldview on display, samurai without honour, a friend of Iyemon's in his own scheme to claim Oiwa's sister for himself even if it means bloodshed and lying. There are a lot of Japanese films about the dead coming back to haunt the living transgressors especially in period settings - even in films not necessarily horror themed like The Sword of Doom (1966) - and it's understandable why, especially in a country still with deeply held spiritual beliefs, as it can reflect both a literal supernatural tale and a metaphorical moral drama at the same time. There's never a need to try to downplay the supernatural content in these films or even try to rationalise them as a lot of modern Western films do, and it's a breath of fresh air as a result to view this film where it's part of a brazenly bleak narrative with a deeply detestable main protagonist to follow. Stories themes which would still be pertinent to the modern day but without the context of a time period that is entirely different from the modern day and allows for different perspectives. An emphasis more on deliberate drama is helped when the acting is top notch. In this case you have Tatsuya Nakadai as the lead of Illusion of Blood, an actor who carried Masaki Kobayashi's The Human Condition trilogy (1959-1961) on his shoulders, alongside roles in the likes of Akira Kurosawa films, and is just as good here, as an utterly loathful figure here who is yet compelling here due to Nakadai's performance¹.

From http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hXLQfVzt2Hk/T8cMiBWW1jI/
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Even when these films are conventional ghost stories as this one becomes, Japanese tales like Illusion of Blood are significantly more interesting than from other countries due to how seriously the tropes are depicted and played with. At nearly two hours long, it doesn't feel like its dragging its feet but building up a period drama which ebbs and flows with interest side characters, moments of broad humour that work and a slow burn intensity. The quality of the set design for many of these films, even when one if forced to watch an old grotty DVD copy like I had to, also shows an era of Japan so drastically different, aesthetically and literally, to Western medievalism. While there's themes that are universal here to other countries across any time period, I openly admit a lot of my love of Japanese cinema's period stories is that it's also a depiction of an entirely alien world to mine of hierarchies and behaviour that's different, even the dress of characters drastically separate from many modern Japanese genre films. That even the genre films from Japan could have the best technical crews and production designers on them, rather than a couple of coins to rub together only, really makes these obscurer horror films shine even more.

The horror itself is lingering. Even for the one or two fake rats that appear, they come off as amusing and not detract from the ghoulish macabre tone. This does show, even if more sedate than films like Jigoku (1960) that went even further, the more morbid side of Japanese horror that yet depicts the gruesome - a couple of corpses pinned on opposite sides of a door - with an air of sinister beauty that's rarely found in Western cinema barring the European output. When it's also willing to be openly lurid - from the facial disfigurement subplot to a corpse's face melting off with effects still surprisingly efficient - it doesn't detract from the Japanese Gothic tone that won me over on this viewing. It even has an air of melancholy, the ending of Illusion of Blood with Iyemon being plagued by ghosts that may or not be real in a white snowbound landscape, a type of poetic and lyrical moment you don't normally picture with horror films nowadays but capped the end of this hidden gem off perfectly.

From http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j153/
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¹ In fact, looking into the films Tatsuya Nakadai has starred in for this review, he's now become one of my favourite actors now upon reflection of all the incredible films he's been in I've seen. Ran (1985) and countless Kurosawa films he's appeared in, Kwaidan (1964), The Human Condition trilogy, Belladonna of Sadness (1973) (voicing the Devil), The Sword of Doom (1966), When a Woman Ascends the Strairs (1960), enough films there to make him stand out both for the quality of his career path but that he's always incredible in all of them regardless of language barriers. And the best thing is he is so prolific, still alive as of 2017 and working, there's major films in Japanese cinema he's starred in I've still to see.

Videotape Swapshop Review: Shogun Assassin (1980)

From http://bestmoviesyouveneverseen.com/wp-content/
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Dirs. Robert Houston & Kenji Misumi

Strangely, a film like Shogun Assassin is as famous for being a Video Nasty despite, as recent documentary releases on the Video Nasty debacle prove, it wasn't even a candidate for the prosecution lists. Its of course a film as famous as the original Lone Wolf and Cub films it was built from, one of the few re-cut and re-edited versions of an original, foreign work that is still loved, not looked down upon like a dubbed Hong Kong martial art film, and in some ways is loved more than the originals and not necessarily for nostalgia reasons. Seen in its remastered form, literally rebuilt and probably better looking than the original release of it was, Shogun Assassin shows itself up to be an impressive work by itself.

From http://www.highdefdiscnews.com/screenshots/shogun_assassin_24.png

Abstract Rating (High/Medium/Low/None): Medium

Its a conventional manga based samurai story, though because its adapted from a manga from Koike Kazuo, it has some pretty insane content that would increase as the original Lone Wolf and Cub films went on. What really stands out for the film, why it has a Medium rating, is its composition, how the film was made, which makes it far and away more alien, existing in its own universe. With its dubbed voices, comic book violence and brilliant cinematography, I could have dreamt the film up rather than have seen it. The music is incredible, its dated synthesizers ominous and adding a cathartic power to the visual content. As much as I liked the Lone Wolf and Cub films that made this one, Shogun Assassin is the more atmospheric interpretation.

From http://images.static-bluray.com/reviews/3276_5.jpg

Personal Opinion:

For a full review, read my Videotape Swapshop review here. Also take a look at the Video Nasty reviews by my fellow authors if you are interested.

Blind Woman's Curse (1970)

From http://38.media.tumblr.com/1e2abc6d8bce2ca52f98ab0bca98f665
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Dir. Teruo Ishii

It was fateful when the producers requested directed Teruo Ishii and co-screenwriter Chûsei Sone add a ghost cat subplot to their samurai film, as it was already being shot, drastically effecting full narrative cohesiveness. It's a testament though that the film it's director himself called 'nonsensical' still wraps together as a great genre film. In a gang-on-gang battle, leader of the Tachibana gang Akemi Tachibana (Meiko Kaji) blinds the sister of the other gang's leader mid-duel, a black cat appearing to lick up the victim's blood thus cursing Akemi. Along with this curse, a rival gang, through a traitor, intend to take over her territory, leading to desired revenge, murders and a carnival freak show. Blind Woman's Curse is one of the weaker Japanese cult films I've seen from the seventies or so, if only because I have to compare it to the best from Japan that I've seen. It's second or third tier, but it's still unbelievably well crafted and superior in comparison to others. This can be said with confidence considering that, barring the fact that the ghost cat subplot doesn't really make sense, the 'nonsensical' film is far more rationally explainable than you'd think. Certainly nightmarish and peculiar, with its house of horror moments and gore, but it's paradoxically awesome that Ishii viewed this as the nonsensical when his own, and superior, film Horrors of Malformed Men (1969), is utterly bizarre.

From http://www.rockshockpop.com/screencaps/BlindWomansCurse/01-1.jpg

What stands out the most with the film is that it's various pieces, whilst able to connect together, do also stand out individually. Everything is beautifully shot, like the opening sword battle, an eye for rich colour and setting, an air of artifice, bold throughout. The sword battles have considerable weight, added to by the traditional water hose pressure levels of bloodletting in the practical effects. The gang against gang ploy is interesting, of scuzzy villains and scuzzier goings-on with opium drugged, half naked women laying around outside the main villain boss's bedroom, another room just designed as an elaborate death trap and almost everything being shot in gel colour psychedelic lighting. The really memorable things are those that, ironically, were introduced as a result of the ghost cat having to be added to the narrative or fit together with it in the plot. Not only do you get to see an obviously fake cat being pulled along in a graveyard at one point because of this, but whilst a samurai film at heart, it leans greatly into horror cinema. It edges closely to the ero guro, erotic grotesque as critic Tom Mes believes the film does 1. The inspired motif of the dragon tattoo Akemi's gang has, she with the head and others with the fragments of one larger work, is given an added nastiness involving skinning of certain victims. The carnival that the blinded woman of the title getting revenge (Hoki Tokuda) and her hunchback assistant (Tatsumi Hijikata) are part of invokes Horrors of Malformed Men completely, bringing you images of a old man cooking fake limbs and dolls in a giant pan, bandaged and half naked "mutants", a woman as an improvised roof decoration and a severed head gag that strangely evokes Scooby Doo. Yes, it feels abrupt and along with the ghost cat plot feels bolted on, but it certainly adds an edge to the material, especially as the desire for revenge Tokuda 's character Aiko Goda  has against Akemi, ending the film with a sword duel under incredible twilight, vortex-like clouds in a night sky, does fit into the narrative very well.

From http://www.dvdactive.com/images/reviews/screenshot/2014/
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Surprisingly Meiko Kaji is off-screen for a large amount of the film, her first main role, but that doesn't stop her from being a charismatic lead who has made her reputation in cult cinema for justifiable reasons, able to emote with immense passion for dramatic scenes, to show sadness, to show joy, and as with the Female Prisoner Scorpion movies, show a death stare that looks like she can rip a man's throat out in a way that would make Sonny Chiba cower from her, let alone slash them up with a blade.  She's backed up by actors into the heroic leads that are just as charismatic. Makoto Satô as the main heroic lead so laidback that he can casually block a person without breaking a sweat or change his expression. A comedy male sidekick who lusts after the women and openly makes comments about his giant set of front teeth in a sword battle, looking like he could bite someone's head off with them whilst using a blade with skill at the same time, interacting with Akemi's fanclub of women who will gladly die for her like a lustful teenager they are apathetic to. Butoh dance founder Tatsumi Hijikata gets another role here, while significantly smaller than his main role in Ishii's Horrors of Malformed Men, as a hunchback ally to the vengeful blind woman, bringing the clear influence of his own dance ideology to his character's movements and behaviour whilst contributing to the more ghoulish aspects of the narrative strands narratively. Even a character who has no point for said narrative, like the one played by Ryôhei Uchida, is memorable, both for the fact that a man in a bowler hat, gold buttoned vest and wearing only a red thong under the waist is incredibly memorable, but also because the actor makes the character a suitably amusing comedic character everyone can smell from a distance and is not as able to back up his threats as physically as he says verbally. No one in this film, nonsense or not, can be said to not be interesting at all.

From http://37.media.tumblr.com/ac7f7fc7cf58c15073daf12646ab127c/
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Blind Woman's Curse is still pretty unconventional for a samurai film from what I've viewed. It's narrative is awkwardly put together on paper, but it viewing it this is not the case, the moments that don't add a spice that adds to its qualities. As literally happens, you go from a scene of two people being sent back to Akemi's gang in caskets, everyone saddened, followed by one of their members suddenly jumping into shot claiming to be possessed by a ghost cat and smashing his head into a window, with suitably green, eerie lighting for effect. It makes no rational sense, but the great thing about Ishii's film is that the samurai content is sane enough to balanced out the unrational material like this perfectly, thus giving you your good pulp narrative and the purely lurid at the same time. The entire film is put together perfectly, looking like a lurid coloured, horror film, set in its own world.

From http://stigmatophiliablog.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/
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Abstract Rating (High/Medium/Low/None): None

It is a strikingly unconventional film, but it's surprising that Blind Woman's Curse, which has its moments of lurid content, does fit together it's various pieces snugly enough to not really feel abstract enough for the list. It is not Horrors of Malformed Men - as perverse, strange or liable to still be suppressed from being seen in its home country - and won't be added to the list for this reason. It creeps towards it at points, especially with moments as a character coming back from the grave in a very macabre way, but not enough.

Personal Opinion:

The film itself is utterly entertaining. In a moment where a song plays over images of contemplation, I thought "Yeah, I really like this film". Just because it doesn't reach the madness of the other film I've seen by Teruo Ishii doesn't mean it's not a great film itself. Together with it, it does make Ishii's other films very enticing for me to see. And it's more enticing as, while not that nonsensical, Ishii could make a film that was forced to abruptly add a supernatural plot line during the production of it and still make something that wraps it all neatly together. That the moments that don't nonetheless add a delirious edge to the proceeding content makes it more memorable.

¹From the accompanying booklet for the Arrow Blu-Ray/DVD Release