Lady Snowblood (1973)

Lady Snowblood (Shurayukihime)
Directed by Toshiya Fujita
Written by Norio Osada; story by Kazuo Kamimura and Kazua Koike
Japan/1973
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

Yuki Kashima: Look at me closely. Do I look like someone you raped?

This is a well-made vengeance film with plenty of action.  But it has more blood than a Herschell Gordon Lewis film and was not for me.

It is Meiji Era Japan, when the Japan began opening to the west.  But the story could have taken place in any era.  The story begins with the difficult birth of Yuki and the subsequent death of her mother.  The mother had been gang raped and the family robbed.  Yuki was conceived with the specific purpose of exacting vengeance for the wrongs done to her family.  She is trained to be a strong highly skilled warrior.

When she attains adulthood, Yuki (Meiko Kaji) is a killing machine.  We watch as she slays bad guys left and right.  She has an unerring ability to hit several major arteries with a single stroke of her mighty steel, causing bright red blood to flow in geysers.  You can only imagine what ensues when she slices the body of an enemy in half.

This movie was taken from a manga comic and everything is greatly heightened from reality.  The fights are flamboyant and contain some wirework.  The blood is clearly faked and not realistic.  Still I had to fight the urge to just stop watching several times.

This film and its sequel (which I won’t be watching) were a major influence on Quentin Tarrantino’s Kill Bill, Vol 1 and Vol 2.  The film has a 7.7/10 IMDb user rating so your mileage could definitely vary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxBvPgzpoH8