Now this a 1977 adaption of a story from the Osamu Tezuka Manga 'Black Jack' directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi.
Now I'm very unfamiliar with the Manga, the most that I know is it follows a surgeon called Black Jack who has miracle healing hands.
Here the focus isn't on him though, instead it follows a tennis student who accidentally gets hit in one eye causing it go blind. With seemingly no hope of recovery she gets taken to the surgeon Black Jack who gives her a cornea trnasplant that successfully restores her sight. However despite the surgery's success she soon begins to randomly see images of a mysterious stranger that she becomes drawn to.
This initial setup kinda makes it sound like a horror movie but it is in fact a mystery romantic drama and it is the mystery to be solved that serves as the main focus of the story, it's a pretty simple one that easy enough to unravel apart from the actual specifics, so it manages to keep a good sense of intrigue throughout as it reveals to us more and more details.
Tonally and stylistically it share similarities to Obayashi's previous film 'Hausu' with Obayashi continuing to bring elements from his earlier days of directing commercials. This film is obviously a lot more striaghtforward than House but is still quite melodramatic and romanticised which may be off-putting for some but works with this material particulalrly the romantic elements.
It also brings in big camera movements, matte paintings and strong mood lighting to it's visuals making for a very nicely shot and executed film that is very visually interesting.
There's also a recurring piano theme used throughout that links in with the story and characters which is quite nice.
the acting isn't bad either, as I mentioned it is quite melodramatic but it works and they have a couple of interesting people playing certain roles. Black Jack is actually played by Jo Shishido who is fun to see in the full character get-up and makes a change of pace form his usual Yakuza roles.
Etusko Shimoi also plays a small role that is the opposite of the usual badass she is known to be in martial arts movies.
Plus Sonny Chiba has a small cameo which I didn't even realise til later on.
Now the film is pretty shallow and doesn't have much depth to it, but it manages to keep your interest through it's mystery and the way that it is filmed/
It may not offer more beyond that and I'm not sure what fan of the manga think or if this is even a successful adaptation, but as a simple mystery film with a dash of romance it's pretty solid overall. ***
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