into an extremely talented family, is perhaps best known for his outstanding supporting roles—usually as villains—in such films as Kihachi Okamoto’ s ZAT OICHI M EETS YOJIMBO ( Zat oi chi to Yojinbo, 1970) and Kenji
backburner for nearly three years, while Kishida’s obligations to appear in several films and two television series kept him from participating. Ultimately, THE BLOODTHRISTY ROSES was produced, but ended up as the supporting feature for Tom Kotani’s forgotten youth film HURRY, YOUNG ONES: TOMORROW NEVER WAITS! (Isoge! Wakamono-tachi Tomorrow Never Waits!). Regardless, while the plot is the most straightforward of the trilogy, THE BLOODTHRISTY ROSES ups the ante in flesh and blood, following Hammer’s TWINS OF EVIL (1971). Also unlike the previous films, screenwriters Ogawa and Takesue jump right into the action. This time around, Kishida plays the recently widowed headmaster of a secluded boarding school for girls who engages a new psychology teacher , Shiraki (T os hio
Misumi’s LONE WOLF & CUB: BABY CART IN PERIL (Kozure Okami Oya-no Kokoro Ko-no Kokoro, 1972). Without speaking a single line of dialogue until deep into the picture (similar to Lee in Fisher’s DRACULA: PRINCE OF DARKNESS), Kishida owns the role, thus establishing himself as a major cinematic sanguinarian. While many western critics have cited correctly that THE BLOODTHIRSTY EYES’ influences are to be counted among the Hammer Horrors—the demise of the Kishida’s vampire is a reprise of the uncut denouncement from Fisher’s HORROR OF DRACULA (1958)—other influences they cite are off the mark. Neither Bob Kelljan’s COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE (1970) or Jimmy Sangster’s LUST FOR A VAMPIRE (1971) were released in Japan at the time. There is a strong influence from French New Wave. The proposed third film of the trilogy,
THE BLOODTHIRSTY ROSES (Chi-o Suu Bara, 1974), was put on the
FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND • MAR/APR 2012 21
Kurosawa), and suggests that he succeed him. But after a series of supernatural incidents, Shiraki soon learns that something is very evil at the heart of the academy: the headmaster and his wife are 200 year-old vampires preparing to take on new identities, including his. While the boarding school setting might recall LUST FOR A VAMPIRE, Yamamoto also pays homage to Roger Vadim’s BLOOD AND ROSES (Et Mourir de Plaisir, 1960)— including a similar image of a white rose turning blood red. Marketed by
Toho’s foreign sales
department as THE EVIL OF DRACULA, THE BLOODTHIRSTY ROSES was eventually picked up (along with THE BLOODTHIRSTY EYES) by United Productions of America, who dumped both titles straight to television in poorly transferred, edited, cropped, and dubbed versions. Despite positive reviews of the films from both Kevin Thomas of the LA Times and Howard Thompson of the New York Times when the subtitled versions played in their respective cities, the Bloodthirsty Trilogy has never been given its proper due in North America. While some may find the concept of the classic, western-styled vampire in Japan to be a strange juxtaposition to swallow, the narratives of each film set up almost lyrical hows and whys these creatures have risen from the grave in the land of the rising sun— which I personally feel are less convoluted than those offering none, as in Ray Danton’s DEATHMASTER (1972), or those too crass, as in John Hayes’ GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE (1974). While Yamamoto’s Bloodthirsty Trilogy does not stand on the shoulders of giants, these are still well-produced and effective gothic horrors with a twist, and deserving of a better appreciation.
Take a closer
look—if you dare. They aren’t going to bite you…
August Ragone is the author
of Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters (Chronicle Books) and maintains “The Good, The Bad, and Godzilla” at
http://augustragone.blogspot.com
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