Above is a promo in tatekan dimensions, as well as a four-fold text promo at bottom, for the 1969 jidaigeki (period drama) Mekura no Oichi monogatari: Makkana nagaradori, known in English as Crimson Bat: The Blind Swordswoman. It was the first film in a series of four. We shared another poster for it way back, but that was during the period when we didn’t bother to review movies that had already been extensively covered on other websites. Now we bother, because the other way was less fun.
Many of these sword operas involve vengeance and this is a prime example, as Yôko Matsuyama seeks the men who murdered her grandfather. They had nothing to do with her blinding. That happened during a lightning storm when she was a child. But after losing her sight, being cruelly abandoned by her mother, and left alone in the world, she’s taken in by a guardian-cum-sensei and becomes a deadly swordfighter, lethal even in sandals that would trip an ordinary person right onto their nose. Her revenge quest eventually takes her into the lion’s den, where she’ll need to confront her past before fulfilling her mission.
Though we’d seen the film previously, it’s a beautifully mounted production well worth a rewatch, which is about as good of an endorsement as we can give. In addition to Matsuyama in the lead, as a bonus Chizuko Arai co-stars as a character named Top Swinging Obun, and the deadly top she swings isn’t anything like the children’s toy, we can tell you that. But it’s mainly thanks to Matsuyama that Mekura no Oichi monogatari: Makkana nagaradori is an entertaining flick. It premiered today in 1969.
