Toshiya Fujita (1932–1997)

Product Details

* Actors: Meiko Kaji, Toshio Kurosawa, Masaaki Daimon, Miyoko Akaza, Shinichi Uchida, Takeo Chii, See more
* Directors: Toshiya Fujita
* Format: Anamorphic, Color, Subtitled, NTSC
* Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
* Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
* Rated: R (Restricted)
* Studio: ANIMEIGO
* DVD Release Date: May 11, 2004
* Run Time: 97 minutes
* Average Customer Review: based on 11 reviews. (Write a review.)
* DVD Features:
o Available Subtitles: English
o Available Audio Tracks: Japanese (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
o Interactive program notes
* From IMDb: Quotes & Trivia
* ASIN: B0001I54U2
* Amazon.com Sales Rank: #14,421 in DVD (See Top Sellers in DVD)
Yesterday: #22,655 in DVD

Theatrical Release Information

Production Company: Toho Film (Eiga) Co. Ltd.
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
A flamboyantly blood-spattered samurai revenge picture with a twist: the implacable seeker of retribution is a slender female (Meiko Kaji) with a flawless ivory complexion and a dead-center killer stare. Born in prison, Snowblood is raised by a martial priest and trained to fulfill a single purpose: tracking down, and dismembering (or bisecting), the four cackling fiends who killed her father and persecuted her mother to an early grave. Adapted from another manga comic book written by Kasuo Koike, whose most famous work became the legendary Lone Wolf and Cub film series, this 1973 programmer stays close to its pulp-paper roots: images from the comics are deployed in a couple of montage sequences, and the story is divided into four chapters drawn from the monthly manga installments. Stalwart leading man Toshio Kurasawa plays a crusading journalist who writes a series of Japanese dime novels based on Snowblood's exploits, and manages to flush out a couple of the evildoers in the process. --David Chute
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18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
Female avenger cuts a swath in film that inspired Tarantino, October 18, 2003
Reviewer: Brian Camp (Bronx, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
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."

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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Blood, Guts and Revenge, May 9, 2005
Reviewer: therosen "therosen" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
This movie is interesting on two levels. First is the obvious - Tarantino was inspired by it to create Kill Bill. The differences are many, but the inspiration is clear. The second is this an early 1970s transcription of Manga (comic book) killer to big screen. Given the emerging popularity of Manga and Anime (Japanese animation) in the West, we will be seeing a lot more of this.

To take the movie as a deep analysis of revenge is a little too much. It is much easier to view it as a slightly campy and thoroughly violent story of revenge, and ultimately justice. Somehow the more seriously the story of "this child from the netherworld" is told, the more darkly humorous it becomes. The more over the top the violence, the less sickening it becomes.

In the end, the movie is enjoyable and entertaining, if not high art.

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0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
the movie that inspired Kill Bill, August 25, 2005
Reviewer: "jamesfield10" (New Westminster, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews
Anyone who is a fan of Kill Bill must see this movie. Kill Bill is not a remake, but it was inspired by this movie, and seeing this movie gives a different perspective on Kill Bill (the significance of the fight in snow, for instance). It is also a great movie in its own right, with some quite different plot twists to Kill Bill and some insights into Japanese history to boot. Highly recommended.… (mais)