Cheap Lady Snowblood (Video) (Toshiya Fujita) Price

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Customer Reviews of Lady Snowblood

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I really must congratulate the producers of this DVD. The subtitles of most of the asian films that I've seen are definitely their weakest point. On this one, however, not only is the film transfer & sound amazingly good, but the subtitles are also nothing short of fabulous; with none of the usual gaffs, but more importantly with a genuine artistic sense of the use of language. Plus there are two 'levels' of subtitle available, one with additional context.

There are enough other reviews here I don't feel that it is necisary to go into to much depth about the story of the film, but I'll just close by noting that this film has the kind of silly blood special effect successfully mocked in Monty Python's "Salad Days". Apparently these victims of the sword have such enormous blood pressure that they spout great arcs of the stuff at the merest scratch. Don't let this aside deter you from checking out this excellent film. If you at all a fan of Japanese Action Movies, this one will not disappoint.

Female avenger cuts a swath in film that inspired Tarantino
LADY SNOWBLOOD (1973) is a starkly beautiful Japanese swordplay drama featuring a female fighter, Shurayuki Hime (Lady Snowblood), or Yuki for short, whose mission in life is to track down and slay three of the four villains who brutalized her mother and killed the mother's husband and son. It takes place in the 1890s, in Meiji-era Japan, and includes several helpful flashbacks to provide the context for Yuki's mission. Born in prison--her mother was there for killing the first of the villains and died after childbirth--Yuki is raised by a Buddhist reverend who calls her a "child of the netherworld" and trains her in the fighting arts. Tall and regal, beautiful and ghostly white, Lady S (played by Meiko Kaji) looks too pure to sully herself with bloodletting, a tack which gives her the element of surprise in her many swordfights.

The film is divided into four chapters and is based on a manga written by Kazuo Koike, who also wrote the "Lone Wolf and Cub" and "Crying Freeman" manga series. At one point in Chapter Three, Yuki meets a writer (Toshio Kurosawa) who publishes a newspaper ("a cheap little rag") and tells Yuki's story, accompanied by manga-like illustrations, making her a legend in her own time and causing her considerable dismay. There's a bit of stylization in the fighting as Yuki leaps up impossible heights and causes blood to gush out like a fountain whenever she slices or dismembers an opponent, but otherwise the film has a deceptive simplicity as Yuki moves like a wraith through small villages and the back alleys of Tokyo in her inexorable quest for vengeance. There is a lot of action and bloodshed, so fans of samurai and yakuza films should be satisfied. The tape is presented in a flawless letter-boxed transfer, in Japanese with English subtitles.

Meiko Kaji (who also starred in the FEMALE CONVICT SCORPION series) plays the title role and sings the theme song, "Flower of Carnage." Quentin Tarantino drew on this film as part of the inspiration for the Lucy Liu character, O-Ren Ishii, in KILL BILL VOL. 1 (2003) and also uses "Flower of Carnage" on his soundtrack. As impressive as KILL BILL is, fans who want to experience the formal beauty of the original form--seen here in a deftly-blended mix of samurai, ninja, yakuza, and manga motifs--need to go back to films like this. And judging from recent Japanese genre releases, e.g. RETURNER, ONMYOJI, and PRINCESS BLADE (itself a flashy contemporary reworking of LADY SNOWBOOD), to name a few, it's clear that, aside from KILL BILL, "they just don't make 'em like that anymore."