Some background information is necessary to understand the plot. In Japan, traditionally masseurs were blind men--it gave them work and patrons didn't need to feel embarrassed around them. In the Zatoichi series, the leading man (Ichi) makes a living by giving massages...and gambling on the side. Here in THE MASSEURS AND A WOMAN, the film begins with two blind men on their way to a resort town in the north. It seems that these blind masseurs move from resort to resort depending on the season--to the north in the summer and to the south when winter arrives.

This film has nice cinematography and technically is a nice film, but the plot is a bit thin. Here it is in a nutshell: The film shows the two masseurs during the course of their work days. The younger masseur meets a nice young lady from Tokyo and he's smitten with her. However, over the course of several days he thinks he's discovered her dark secret. While she is hiding something, it's nothing like this normally perceptive blind man imagines. That's really all there is to it. Even compared to a Ozu film, this Hiroshi Shimizu film seems very, very, very simple. Well made, but very simple...and not all that exciting to watch. Is it worth seeing? Perhaps, but it does not fall in the category of "must see".

Director Shimizu's film is fairly unique, about a group of blind masseurs who go to work at a retreat in the mountains to ply their trade. Once there, one particular one named Toku massages a young woman from Tokyo (her name is never mentioned) who seems to be escaping or hiding something. He is very interested in her, as is a young man who brought his nephew to the retreat. a few things happen, but this film is not about action its about infatuation, trust and loneliness. What I find fascinating about this film is the emphasis on the characters, specifically the blind men. You see how aware they are of their surroundings, how they react to things and how they make their choices. The film is meant to play at a slow pace, so don't expect action. The film is about 66 minutes long, but I was waiting for the next scene to see what happens. Through use of multiple fade outs, you see how the scenes become a new situation in which to focus on. I have seen this director's "Ornamental Hairpin", which is also on the Janus films collection released domestically. I highly recommend it, because this is a director forgotten in the brilliance of Kurasawa, Ozu, Naruse, Mizoguchi, Kinoshita etc. If you like Japanese films from the past, you owe it to yourself to watch Shimizu. I really liked this slow moving but compelling film.

This film reminds me a lot of Jacques Tati's M. Hulot's Holiday. It's an ensemble piece taking place at a spa. The main characters are a group of blind masseurs and, as the title says, a woman, but there are several other characters wandering around the resort. It has a certain gentleness to it that's really quite wonderful, and it's beautifully made. There are a couple of standout sequences, most notably the one where one blind masseuse encounters the woman and notices her by her perfume. But she stays completely silent and watches him while he searches for her. The tone of the film is slightly comic, but in this area it doesn't succeed very well. There are a lot of jokes at the expense of the blind men, which just seems tasteless, even for 1938.