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Lady Snowblood (1973)

Dir: Toshiya Fujita

A little known in the West Samurai tale set (for a nice change of style) in the late 1800's when Japan was coming out of it's feudal isolation and letting in the outside World.

When a Woman's Husband and child are killed and she herself raped, she swears vengeance.
She kills one of her attackers, after he takes her away with her and makes her his property, but is captured and thrown into jail, under a life sentence, before the other 3 (one a woman) can be traced.

In the prison she proceeds to have sex with as many men as she can in the hope she will get pregnant. She has a terrible plan for revenge.
She gives birth to a baby girl and pledges, before she dies after the strain of the birth, that her child shall be vengeance made flesh, that she will be a vessel for her Mother's hate and hunt down and kill the last remaining attackers.
So 'Lady Snowblood' (Meiko Kaji) is born, cursed to dedicate her life to the killing of the guilty....

 

Those fans of the famous 'Lon Wolf and Cub' films will be happy to see the same style of blood drenched swordplay as those classic tales.
In the title role the lovely Meiko Kaji is a revelation.
She seems a gentle beauty but, just like her sword hidden in a pretty umbrella, underneath she is a merciless killer.
But she also shows the tragedy of her life, how she really has NO LIFE in the way other people do...just bloodthirsty revenge.

The story is also given historical context with Manga storyboards and a voice over (later we discover who this voice belongs to) telling the background events to the tale.
The slightly more modern setting adds a strange feel to the film as well. We still have the typical clothes and Samurai swords and rural settings, but we also have the introduction of technology (like the more wide spread use of firearms) and the growth of towns. Indeed the finale is set in a very Western masked ball in a big, fancy house.

The cinematography is wonderful with the sequence where Lady is born and red lit snow starts to fall, being particularly memorable.
And the fights are staged to perfection.
And as stated, the gore is wonderfully over the top.
Lady, with balletic grace, slices off arms, hands and through bodies.
Blood sprays out in great hissing fountains (once again "Lone Wolf" fans will love this comic book approach to extreme bloodletting) and pours out of wounds like crimson waterfalls.
One scene has Lady slice a hanging body in half from the waist down, the legs falling to the floor in a downpour of blood.

The whole film is a lot darker than even the tragedy coated "Lone Wolf" films, with Lady being a truly haunted and tragic figure.
Her end scenes are amazingly bleak, as all her years of pain are wrenched from her via a chilling, soul shredding, scream.

Excellent Samurai film making that deserves a much wider following.