With his devoted mother's assistance, a blind sculptor kidnaps a celebrated model in order to create his masterpiece. Combining a woman-in-peril story with an art/fashion backdrop, like many an Italian giallo before it and after, this weird but not particularly wonderful Japanese exploitation movie begins very creepily
indeed: across an otherwise deserted gallery, a model surreptitiously observes a blind man exploring a nude statue of herself; unnerved by the delusional sensation of his hands touching her, she flees. Unfortunately, it's all downhill from there. The kidnapped model's attempts to turn mother and son against one another are reasonably entertaining but, I confess, my attention had wandered by the time Stockholm Syndrome and sadomasochism kicked in; notwithstanding the eye-popping art direction of the blind sculptor's studio, by the end of the movie I also felt I'd been held captive there, against my will, for an interminably long time. The narrative voiceover does not play fair and the subtitles on the version I watched contained some very awkward turns of phrase. Expect some twisted violence, mostly implied, and a lot of coy nudity.
November 15, 2008
