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Lady
Snowblood, or Shurayukihime in Japanese, was born with
one sole purpose: Bloody Vengeance. When her father was
brutally murdered, her mother was taken away, beaten,
raped and put to work as a prostitute. This lead her to
jail for life, where she did all she could to have an
offspring to avenge her husband and herself. The day
she gave birth to her baby girl was also the day of her
last breath. Her child, Yuki Kashima, is raised by
Otora, a fellow inmate who gets out, and Priest Dôkai
who train her from infancy to be a merciless killer.
Once an adult, Yuki finds and kills the surviving
members of the group responsible for killing her father
and hurting her mother. Along the way, she meets few
people ready to help her until she meets Ryűrei Ashio
who writes and draws her story and publishes it, making
the last member(s) of the murderous group come looking
for them.
The
screenplay of Lady Snowblood , by Norio Osada (Japan
Organized Crime Boss and Gunki hatameku motohi), is
based on a story by Kazuo Kamimura (The Princess Blade
comic/manga) and Kazuo Koike (Shogun Assassin, Lone
Wolf & Cub, and Crying Freeman comic/manga). The story
of Lady Snowblood is a fairly simple story of revenge.
Its simplicity allows it to be effective without being
bogged down by overly complicated schemes or extra
unneeded characters. Every character in this movie is
there for a reason, no one is just filler or a time
waster. Very little time is spent on background stories
for the bad guys, besides to show their involvement in
the crime for which Yuki is seeking vengeance. Only one
character is really followed and that is Yuki, from
birth through her training and then through her
vengeance.
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The writing
of the story gets the movie going at a good
pace without too many scenes that feel too
long or unnecessary. The fight scenes are
well written and executed while keeping the
talking to a minimum so the viewer can enjoy
the fight for itself. As for when there is
text or “talk”, it is hard for me to judge
as my Japanese is pretty much limited to
politeness and food. The sub-titles do make
sense, but their connection to the words
spoken can unfortunately not be judged
either. The direction, by Toshiya Fujita (A
Young Man’s Stronghold, Kiken na kankei, and
Beyond the Shining Sea), is well matched to
the story. |
The
scenes are shot in a way where the writing can and does
shine. This is no small feat as often fight sequences
can get overly directed and become less involving for
the viewer by being over-stylized, which is not the case
here. Everything seems to be flowing towards the fight
and kill sequences, which is how a revenge movie of this
kind should be built. The score supports the story as it
should and seems very typical for Japanese martial arts
movies, enhancing the fight sequences and subtly
accompanying the rest of the movie.
The
theme song for this movie (Shura No Hana or The Flower
of Carnage) may be extremely familiar to fans of
grindhouse movie as it was reused recently by Quentin
Tarantino’s Kill Bill Volume 1, which is clearly very
influenced by Lady Snowblood, especially the fight scene
between The Bride and Oren Ishii, where everything from
the décor to the kimono Oren wears to the music to the
fight itself is inspired by a scene between Yuki and
another female character in this movie.
| As Lady
Snowblood is a period piece and I am quite
passionate about history, I have to note
that the costumes and décors are very good
and seem quite accurate. The colors and
styles of most of the costumes are
historically correct and proper for the
classes of each character in society. I say
most, as some colors were not achievable in
that time period, but the movie being based
on a story and not history, a little leeway
can be given for the purpose of what each
character’s costume and home stand for.
The special
effects are dated and show the age of the
movie. The blood being spilled is too red
for this reviewer’s taste but given that
this movie was released in 1973, the
quantity and the regularity of it
compensates for its color. Basically, the
effects are on par with what one would
expect of a Shaw Brothers movie from the
same era. It is worthy to note that those
same Shaw Brothers movies were also part of
the inspiration for parts of the Kill Bill
movies. There aren’t too many other
effects, besides the blood spill, the other
effects are not as visible, this they do not
seem as dated. |
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The
acting supports the story with the right amount of
emotions, especially from Meiko Kaji (Female Prisoner
#701 Scorpion, The Wicked, and The Tattooed Swordswoman)
as the lead Yuki Kashima/Lady Snowblood. Since she gets
most of the screen time as the lead, her performance had
to be, and is, on point. She shows the right amount of
emotional responses in every scenes, showing no mercy
and almost no emotion when exacting her revenge as a
trained from childhood killer is expected to. She does
also show emotions when no killing or exacting revenge
such as where she meets a young girl on the beach who
shows her kindness and she does not seem to know how to
return kindness and shows her fragile side with her
confusion, making the character more human than a simple
killing machine.
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The
supporting cast, mostly composed of
disposable baddies, is good at their given
roles.
Unfortunately, some of those baddies are
quite typical and played as so making them
fodder for revenge and not at all cared for
by the viewer. One of the few good guys who
gets enough screen time to make you care is
the character of Ryűrei Ashio who ends up
helping Yuki by letting the people know her
story by publishing it. He is one of the
few other characters with an arc to his
story and is portrayed with talent by Toshio
Kurosawa (Samurai Assassin, Seven Blows of
the Dragon, and Evil of Dracula).
Another pivotal character is the daughter of
one of the baddies, Kobue Takemura. Her
emotions go from fair happiness to extreme
sadness leading to wanting revenge. Actress
Yoshiko Nakada (Gray Sunset, The First
Timers, and Lost Crime) does well with it
all, keeping her own besides Meiko Kaji.
The whole cast does well, with the exception
of a few here and there, which does not
detract from the movie in general.
Lady Snowblood is a must-see for its story
of revenge and how well it is executed but
also as a martial arts movie and as a movie,
one of the first ones, that puts a woman in
the lead role of an action story which is
now a regular thing but was rarer back in
1973. |
Yuki is
one of the first important badass, kickass female
leads. She has inspired many since, including the
obvious Bride of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill
movies. Shurayukihime is an important character and
movie in cinema history and for this reviewer. If
those reasons are not enough, you should view it
just because it is a fun movie to watch revenge
martial arts movie.
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