Blind Love (2005) – Daisuke Goto.

The acclaimed director of Pink classic 'A Lonely Cow weeps at Dawn' presents the enjoyably tweaked Rom-com Blind Love that follows the amorous misadventures of the blind, dazzlingly beautiful acupuncturist Hikari (Konatsu), who falls deeply for the entirely wrong ventriloquist! While one often hears the phrase love is blind, but only rarely do we see it dramatised so succinctly than in maestro Daisuke Goto's often whimsical, compellingly dark eroto-drama 'Blind Love'. For reasons I have never quite fully understood, I have always been able to identify more fully with the weird-beard antagonists in Japanese pink cinema, than with the fatuous archetypes in routinely recycled US product. I've long been fascinated by the seemingly effortless way some Japanese Film-makers are able to put so much more depth, intrigue, and inventive playfulness into an hour, whereas their American counterparts waffle inanely on-and-on through film after film without ever once truly hitting the sweet spot. Blind Love is undeniably erotic, yet the emotive dramatic content, and winning strangeness proved entirely complimentary. It goes without saying, Hikari is an absolute doll, and I must confess, the final scene unexpectedly choked me up a bit.