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Lady Snowblood 1 [JP] |
Lady Snowblood 2 [JP] |
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Lady Snowblood (Japan
1973)
aka Blizzard From The Netherworld /
Shurayuki Hime
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Director: Fujita Toshiya
Cast: Kaji Meiko, Kurosawa Toshio, Masaaki Daimon
Synopsis :
A woman gives birth to a baby girl while in prison. She tells her
fellow inmates that her daughter must take revenge for an attack on
herself and
her husband by a gang of five which resulted in her husband’s death
and her own unhappy life. The baby girl, Yuki, grows up and is
trained in sword-fighting techniques . Her aim in life is
single-minded - she must track down the four people who destroyed
her mother’s life - and
gave her the only reason for her own: to kill. |
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Review
by Martin Cleary
Whatever you think of Tarantino’s recent Kill Bill, its success has
meant that some of the little known (in the west at least) films
that ‘inspired’ that film have had some dvd releases, and Lady
Snowblood is among the best of them. The films plot is fairly simple
– a woman gives birth in prison and dies. Before she passes away she
tells the other locked-up women that her daughter has only one
reason in life: revenge. We then find out what has happened to cause
this situation – the woman’s husband was murdered and she was beaten
and raped by a group of five. After managing to kill one of this
gang herself, she was sent to prison. In the prison she whores
herself out to any man available so that eventually ends up pregnant
– with the aim that he child will revenge her dead husband and her
own sad demise. The film follows this daughters training and
eventual attempt to revenge her parents.Of course, it all gets a bit
messy.
For such an old film Lady Snowblood doesn’t seem very old fashioned.
It’s a tale of revenge which is very bloody – chopped limbs and
gushes of blood – and if the story seems tired, it’s actually told
in a fairly original way. Told in chapters (like Kill Bill) these
story moves at a slow pace but you know each small part will have
it’s own climax – so there’s never to long to
wait before a new development. The film also incorporates an
extended scene where the story is told via illustrations (the story
is based on a bestselling manga, and this is a technique which is
also ‘borrowed’ by Kill Bill, albeit in an animated style) and it’s
with this mixture of
storytelling techniques that the film seems quicker and more lively
than it actually is. Which is of course a good thing. The lovely
Kaji Meiko plays Yuki, otherwise known as Lady Snowblood, otherwise
known as the crazy bitch out for revenge. For the most part Yuki’s
un-expressive face manages to reflect all kinds of anger as well as
a real sadness. Watching her facial expressions really translates
this sense of untrust. The film looks amazing, contrasting all sorts
of wide camera shots with close-ups, incorporating the landscape as
well as close-ups of faces and with the added use of the weather
(she isn’t called Snowblood for nothing), Lady Snowblood pulls you
into it’s narrative.
Again, Tarantino nicked some of the framing ideas and compositions
of shots, and you can hardly blame him because they’re so effective.
For an example of this, simply see the scene
where the group are looking down on Yuki’s mother - laughing and
smirking at her - and you get a sense of the way this film works on
a ‘back to basics’ level. Lady Snowblood seems to reduce themes,
character and camera shots to a primitive level, it’s only
flourishes are the way the story is told. The action is also handled
very well – swords swing leaving gushing blood and all sorts of
detached limbs – while maintaining an ironic beauty. Blood on snow
(like her name) is quite beautiful, but disturbing. Despite it’s
b-movie plot, this is a film which is full of style.
Lady Snowblood – Blizzard From The Netherworld is an excellent
revenge-flick and all-too an obvious influence on some contemporary
cinema. It’s not the most subtle film, but it has a huge amount of
character and is still a step above the average hack-and-slash
revenge story. It’s one of those films that surprises you at how
good it is and almost begs for a repeat viewing. If this review
seems to compare the film to Kill Bill too much, then watch this
film and you’ll see why – Lady Snowblood is superior in many ways.
| Plot : |
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| Acting : |
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| Entertainment : |
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| Notable Scenes : |
- The opening encounter (and great
theme tune)
- Training by rolling down a hill in a barrel (?!)
- Yuki corners one of the gang on the beach
- The bloody conclusion |
DVD Review : Save The Green Planet (2 Disc Ed)
(Tartan Extreme)
by Martin Cleary
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The Disc:
This is a decent disc from Artmagic’s ‘Warrior’ label. The
picture isn’t the best quality, but the film is a few years
old and that may be the reason why there’s a slight softness
to the image. The subtitles are very good, clear and
grammatically correct, and they also explain the meaning of
some Japanese words in a separate subtitle above the
picture. This is a little overwhelming at first if you have
a subtitle below and above what you are watching, but is
excellent when watching the film for a second or a third
time. Unfortunately the subtitles are non-removable. The
special features compromise of trailers for other Warrior
releases: Red Lion, Ambush at Blood Pass, Zatoichi The
Outlaw and Hiroshi Ingakis’ Samurai Trilogy. |
DVD Info
Warrior Release
Content : One Disc
Format : Letterbox
Languages: Japanese
Audio: Stereo
Subtitles: English
Region: All Region (PAL)
Presentation (Cover / Menus): 7/10
Picture: 7/10
Subtitles: 8/10
Special Features: 3/10
Extras for the film itself are pretty poor:
Movie Stills: freeze frames from the film)
Director Filmography / Biography: very brief
Kaji Meiko Filmography / Biography: again, very brief
Promotional Pics: one page of tiny pictures = crap
The Russo-Japanese War – History/Ships/Cartoon: simple single
page texts / illustrations
Artwork: Dvd covers for Warrior’s releases of the ‘Babycart’
films – nothing to do with Lady Snowblood!
Sadly there’s no documentary, interviews, etc on the film itself
which is a shame, so the extra features really do let the disc down.
Disc Overall: 7/10
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