NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Arrow Blu-ray (August 2021): Arrow have transferred Yasuzô Masumura's Blind Beast to Blu-ray. It is on a dual-layered disc with a high bitrate. It's not as crisp as many of the other Japanese films to 1080P that we have seen from Arrow. It's a shade 'clunky' but looks consistent in-motion. The minor blocky-ness is not intrusive and most will appreciate this thick HD presentation.

NOTE: We have added 50 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Arrow use a DTS-HD Master 1.0 channel mono track (24-bit) in the original Japanese language. Blind Beast has few aggressive effects (kidnapping, restraint, a fight, mostly grunting or a few screams) but the violence is heightened by the, often-dramatic, score by composer Hikaru Hayashi (Irezumi, Death By Hanging, Voice Without a Shadow, Onibaba, Kuroneko, The Naked Island) sounding authentically flat but clear and audible. Arrow offer optional English subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The Arrow Blu-ray offers a new commentary by Asian cinema scholar Earl Jackson, the author of Strategies of Deviance: Studies in Gay Male Representation as well as numerous articles on Japanese and Korean Cinema. He's full prepared and gives a strong analysis of the film's agendas, themes and less-obvious intents of the filmmaker. He provides valuable information on Mako Midori's career and her roles in a few Kurosawa films, and many other less-discussed details on Blind Beast. It's worth the indulgence to expose further layers of this fascinating film. Arrow also add a new, 8-minute, introduction by Japanese cinema expert Tony Rayns and a wonderful new 10-minute visual essay by Japanese literature and visual studies scholar Seth Jacobowitz entitled Blind Beast: Masumura the Supersensualist reflecting on the rebellious counter-cultural, and art house pretensions associated with Japan's new-wave cinema including touching upon 'Toei pinky violence' and Nagisa Oshima's In the Realm of the Senses. There is also an original trailer and image gallery. The package has a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella (see below) and included, for the first pressing, is an illustrated booklet featuring new writing by Virginie Sélavy.

Arrow's Blu-ray of Yasuzô Masumura's Blind Beast follows their releases of similar (if there can be) Japanese cinema; Irezumi, Inferno of Torture, Orgies of Edo, Giants and Toys, Shogun's Joy of Torture and Horrors of Malformed Men exploring the darker edges of sexuality, fetishism plus obsessions with the female form and art with the oversized sculptures of breasts, buttocks, eyes, ears, mouths, arms etc. (somewhat reminiscent of Pasolini's The Canterbury Tales.) You could find comparisons to Wyler's The Collector but Blind Beast has more perverse, darker, psychological layers. The film is fascinating, to say the least, and the Arrow Blu-ray has their high a/v standards plus a commentary, Tony Rayns intro, a valuable visual essay and a booklet! Fans of this highly unique genre will consider this bizarre, horror-esque art film, and curious guilty pleasure for cinephiles - a must own.

Gary Tooze