Lady Snowblood

In 1874 Japan, a woman gives birth in a prison. Almost a year before, the woman, Sayo (Miyoko Akaza), her husband and son are attacked in a village by four criminals - Okono (Sanae Nakahara), Banzo (Noboru Nakaya), Tokuichi (Takeo Chii) and Gishiro (Eiji Okada). The husband and son are murdered in cold bold, and Sayo is taken by Tokuichi to work for him. After Sayo murders him, she is sent to prison, where she has sex with many guards in the hope of becoming pregnant, to give birth to a child that can avenge her. That child is Yuki (Meiko Kaji), who after receiving years of training from a priest, becomes Lady Snowblood, a lethal assassin whose only thirst is for revenge.

While this may sound similar to countless martial arts or samurai films to come out of Japan and China during the 1970's, there's something profoundly different to Lady Snowblood. While it certainly offers scenes of outlandish violence (the blood spurts from the body like a gushing fountain), director Toshiya Fujita, taking inspiration from the manga Shurayukihime, seems more interested in building the foundation to the sweeping story than having scene after scene of flying limbs. Separated by title-carded chapters, the film makes a point of giving us a decent story to each target, subtly interlinking the stories to make sure they flow, rather than simply jumping from one person to the next.

What also separates this from others of similar ilk on the grindhouse circuit is the cinematography by Masaki Tamura, which is nothing short of beautiful. I promised myself I would try and get through this entire review without mentioning Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill (2003-2004), but it's not hard to see why he chose to steal (sorry, it's 'homage' when its Tarantino doing it) the same setting and colour palette. Every scene is wide and lovingly crafted, and when the violence ensues, it turns out that red on white is truly stunning. It may not have the outlandish violence of, say, the Lone Wolf and Cub series (1972-1974), but this has a calm yet quick slash of a sword, rather than an extended sword fight, and the film is clinical in that aspect to say the least. While the pace may be often too slow, this is still a satisfying revenge drama featuring one of the most iconic character of its genre.

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This is one of those movies that have an all Japanese motivation. A girl is trained from childhood to avenge the death of her father and the brutal rape of her mother. Then she does it. Lots of blood and lots of sword fighting. Well, she does most of it, everybody else pretty much dies.

The movie is well done, although I think it is hard to watch for most of the people nowadays, since it has that 60's-70's feel to it. I can see how this could have been an inspiration for Kill Bill. If you liked Kill Bill for other reasons than that it had Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu in it, then you will love this film.

If you watch the movie, you will probably have fun, but if you look at the whole picture (pun intended) there isn't much to it other than the actual revenge and death of everyone. The girl is very nice, the acting is OK, the atmosphere, settings and soundtrack are good, but that's all. No strange twists of the story, nothing unexpected.

Lady Snowblood isn't the most widely known Samurai Film in the International movie market, but it is certainly worth a viewing, particularly for those into Samurai/swordsplay pictures. I just checked it out randomly because I thought the female swordsperson angle might be interesting, but I had no real expectations. I was surprised to find a stylish film with a solid story (which can actually be unpredictable at times), adequate action sequences (spruced up by heavily stylized blood spurts) and good acting (particularly from the female lead). The film balances the sadness of Lady Snowblood's story and some campy humor to great affect. Some may be turned off by the latter part, particularly if they fail to see it as intentional. I loved the bit, for example, when a villain explains to a radical left-wing writer his business of the last few years, exactly in the exaggerated fashion that a radical left-wing reporter would be inclined to write about a tyrannical bureaucrat. This movie would be well viewed by Samurai film aficionados and people interested in gender roles in cinema.

It was the 1962 Kurosawa movie "Sanjuro," I believe, that first introduced the "geyser blood" special effect to the world, but 11 years later, Toshiya Fujita's "Lady Snowblood" developed this image to a fine art. In this latter film, we meet Yuki Kashima, "born for vengeance" in a Japanese woman's prison in 1874. Trained from childhood to avenge the deaths of her mother, father and brother, by 1894, armed only with a sword hidden in her parasol handle, she is ready to exact retribution from the three killers still living. All three of these confrontations between Yuki and her enemies are, uh, executed marvelously; all are suspenseful, action packed and surprising, and all feature those geysers, jets, gouts, streams and sprays of the red stuff mentioned above. Yes, this IS a very gory movie (let's just say that Yuki's kimonos never seem to stay lily white for very long!), but it is also a very beautiful one. Exquisitely filmed, and often featuring gorgeous seaside or garden backdrops, the picture is actually very artful and poetic, as reflected in some of its chapter titles (such as "Crying Bamboo Dolls of the Netherworlds" and "Umbrella of Blood, Heart of Strewn Flowers"). Meiko Kaji plays the part of Yuki with great intensity; she makes Yuki a gorgeous instrument of vengeance whose skill with the blade really is something to behold, and her final moments on screen are quite moving. Thus, "Lady Snowblood" gives us a compelling story, strong action and great visual beauty; it would be a perfect picture, I'd say, if only the anachronistic jazz in the background didn't occasionally pop up. An obvious inspiration for Tarantino's "Kill Bill," the film is certainly deserving of a wider audience, and thanks to the widescreen DVD from AnimEigo that I just watched, with excellent subtitling, crisp images and many fine extras, that audience now has a chance to discover this winning entertainment in a perfect form....

This film has obviously gained a lot of attention since Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Volume One and Volume 2 came out. I am not ashamed to admit I got interested in it after it being linked to Kill Bill, but then again, I hadn't heard of it until a while after the Kill Bill movies came out, and I thought it sounded like something I'd be interested in, my kind of movie. And it definitely is.

Let's get it out there in the open: this film is really silly. It has those great seventies Kung Fu noises when someone jumps up in the air unlike any human could, as well as noises when someone shoves a sword into the enemy. But because it's silly don't jump to the conclusion that there isn't a point to watching it. Sure it's just entertainment. But the story is one of the best I've ever witnessed, and not because of the blood and guts.

The story is of course about revenge, but the revenge spawns from a woman who gives birth to a daughter and swears that the daughter must be an instrument of revenge on those that messed with her mother. (A silly premise, but here's where it becomes cool). Meiko Kaji who plays Lady Snowblood, also known as Yuki, doesn't spend the movie wrapped in evil and revenge with anger on her face. There's genuine hurt in her performance. It is actually extremely sad that all she is is an instrument of revenge and death, but that's what weighs the film down into some sort of believability.

The sets are standard Japanese action sort of sets but they have that certain charm about them that's easy on the eyes, it locks the film into this particular recognizable genre but still stands on its own two feet as a film. Also another standard in this genre is freeze frames. Usually I like to comment on shots that continue movement but a certain frame, frozen or still moving, is my favourite of a film. Now, one freeze frame (if memory serves me correctly, the only one), of the baddie coming up some stairs, that may be the second Shurayukihime (apologies if it is) and one side of her face is visible in the freeze frame to alert the audience of this woman's arrival. It is laughable in this but laughable for the right reasons: it isn't corny or annoying, but it's a genuine charm of this genre.

Many standards of this genre may stop you from watching this but watch it for the genuine heart-wrenching story of Yuki Kashima, also known as Shurayukihime, Lady Snowblood.

A genuine piece of cinematic gold that is also entertaining and worth a watch.