Lady Snowblood (1973)

There have been a lot of distractions coming my way lately, but I'm determined to keep this blog current as best as I can.

The latest film that I have watched is Lady Snowblood, a Japanese film directed by Toshiya Fujita and starring Meiko Kaji. It is also based on manga of the same name. After watching this film, I can see now how it inspired "Kill Bill". This film is FUCKING fantastic! Not to mention they played a song that I'm quite fond of during the opening credits, "Flower Of Carnage" (Shura No Hana), that was also in Kill Bill. There's something about that song that transports me to some other plane. The song was used very well here. It fit the opening sequence of the film like a glove and the cinematography, WOW. Films like this have inspired past and present filmmakers and will inspire future filmmakers.

The film is about revenge. Clear and simple. A woman's husband and son are killed and she is raped and beaten. She ends up murdering one of the attackers a few years later and ends up going to prison for murder. Now that she is serving a life sentence she knows she'll never be able to exact her revenge. She starts sleeping with every prison guard and priest to purposely get pregnant so she can have a child to get her revenge for her. Fucking insane!! She is successful in this attempt and ends up birthing a baby girl despite wanting a son. As she looks into the baby's eyes she utters that the child is a child of revenge and has pity for her baby because of it. So intense and dooming. The motivation behind the protagonist is intense yet sad at the same time. After the mother dies, the young girl is sent to be raised and trained and ultimately becomes an assassin. Now it's twenty years later and the young woman goes on a killing spree. You know, the main thing that I kept thinking throughout this film is that I feel so sorry for her. I felt so sorry for her because she only knows one way of life. She doesn't know what love is, all she knows is compassion for those who are lost and anger for those she is after. She exists in this film for one purpose and one purpose only to exact her late mother's revenge at all costs. At the same time, I knew she was going to kill all their asses and especially couldn't wait for her to get the leader of the bunch Goshiro. Now, with Kill Bill, I almost didn't want her to kill Bill because after all that Beatrix had been through to get to him only to find out the real reason he did what he did, I sort of felt that maybe she should have forgiven him. He showed some sort of remorse and was only reacting the way he knew how. At the same time, I wanted her to get what she wanted. In this film, I wanted her to kill his ass and I even found myself saying that out loud as I was watching the final moments. I said, "she's going to kill his ass". I wanted her to kill him because he didn't have any remorse for what he did, he was just evil and greedy.

As far as the performances go, they were all great and handled the source material very well. Some of the performances may have been to over the top for my taste but it is an older film so I'll let it slide. Meiko did an amazing job as Lady Snowblood, carrying the film in fine fashion with a performance that was slightly camp, which totally worked for this story. I was mostly surprised with the cinematography. There were so many beautiful shots of the sea and the wave crashing on the shore. Also there were shots that were a little shaky that I think went well with the whole overall concept. This film seemed almost epic in it's approach and there were a couple of twists in there that I didn't see coming. For a film that was made in the early 70's, it was very well made and the special effects were seamless for that time. The blood was the brightest red ever and it spewed out of people when they were stabbed. I LOVED that!!

If you're a fan of Kill Bill, I suggest you take a look at the film that inspired it all.