Lady Snowblood (1973) + Lady Snowblood 2 (1974)
2xDVD9 (VIDEO_TS) Custom + DVDRips (See below) | NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | 01:36:50 + 01:28:56 | Total 15,11 Gb
Audio: Japanese AC3 1.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subs: English, Russian (Custom added)
Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller | Japan
2xDVD9 (VIDEO_TS) Custom + DVDRips (See below) | NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | 01:36:50 + 01:28:56 | Total 15,11 Gb
Audio: Japanese AC3 1.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subs: English, Russian (Custom added)
Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller | Japan
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.
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Lady Snowblood: Blizzard from the Netherworld (1973)
DVD9 (VIDEO_TS) Custom | NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | 01:36:50 | 7,71 Gb
Audio: Japanese AC3 1.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subs: English, Russian (Custom added)
Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller | Japan
DVD9 (VIDEO_TS) Custom | NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | 01:36:50 | 7,71 Gb
Audio: Japanese AC3 1.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subs: English, Russian (Custom added)
Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller | Japan
Yuki (Kaji Meiko) was born for one reason "bloody revenge", the last words spoken by her mother. Her father a school teacher and her brother were brutally murdered and her mother was raped and forced into a life of prostitution. Her mother would be sent to prison for killing a client and through all of her pain and suffering she would stay alive long enough to to ensure vengeance would be handed down through her daughter. Yuki would be trained in the art of death by the priests who adopted her. Once Yuki has developed her skills she is now ready to seek out those responsible for the death of her family. Cold hearted Lady Snowblood exacts her vengeance upon those that have destroyed her life.
“Lady Snowblood” was, until the recent “Kill Bill” by Tarantino, a relatively obscure 1973 female samurai revenge film. However, since the inclusion of the songs “Flower of Carnage” and “Urami-Bushi” (both sung by lead actress Meiko Kaji) on the soundtracks to both of Tarantino’s films, and his citing of it as one of his main influences, both the classic original and the slightly inferior sequel (“Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance”) have earned new releases and retrospectives.
Fans of modern Japanese cinema will be quite used to seeing sword-slinging female killers in films such as “Azumi” and “The Princess Blade”, though “Lady Snowblood” as both a film and a character is still very much the standard by which all others must be measured. Beautifully directed, action packed and very violent, it contains more memorable scenes and characters than most of its imitators put together. Hopefully, the success of “Kill Bill” will inspire viewers not only to watch “Lady Snowblood”, but to appreciate it not simply as a curio piece, but as an excellent, and indeed superior, film in its own right.
The plot, set during a historical period of political unrest in Japan, is revenge, pure and simple. After her husband is murdered, a woman is accused of being a spy and thrown into jail. Consumed by rage, she sleeps with every man she can, with the bloody-minded aim of producing a child who will enact her revenge. Dying in childbirth, the woman gives life to Yuki Kashima (Meiko Kaji), who becomes Lady Snowblood, the living embodiment of vengeance. Twenty years later, having dedicated her life to deadly martial arts training, Yuki sets forth on her quest, swearing that she will not rest until she has slaughtered the villains who wronged her mother.
Apart from the use of the theme song, the influence of “Lady Snowblood” on Tarantino’s revenge films is blatantly obvious, with similar training sequences, set pieces and even a voiceover-heavy narrative that is divided into chapters. This is fair enough. I have nothing at all against Tarantino or his films, and this is the only mention I’ll make on the subject of homage, inspiration, rip offs, or whatever.
Lady Snowblood herself is a fascinating character. Although purportedly an instrument of death and violence, the film gives her a welcome injection of personality and emotion, both of which serves to make her bloody quest more interesting. Though her background is tragic and traumatic, the film makes clear that it’s her dead mother’s revenge she is carrying out, and not her own, allowing for moments of self-doubt and uncertainty. Similarly, although she is a highly skilled killer, she is far from invincible, and this allows the viewer to sympathize with her, if not identify. It helps that Meiko Kaji is excellent, making the role her own with an intense performance that at times conveys a tangible sense of barely contained violence through the smallest of actions.
“Lady Snowblood” benefits from its historical setting and the attention paid to the political nuances of the time period. The film has a voiceover by a journalist named Ashio (Toshio Kurosawa, from the classic “Water Margin”), who is investigating Yuki, and he provides plenty of social commentary on the great changes that swept the country at the time. As well as giving the film an interesting and realistic grounding, this allows for a few moments of sly humor that lighten the mood somewhat. Since the film has a fairly slow pace between the fight scenes, this is very welcome and keeps things moving along nicely.
The direction by Toshiya Fujita (relatively unknown in the West apart from the “Lady Snowblood” films) is excellent and at times beautiful. The film boasts a rich color scheme, predominantly using deep red and cold white, usually in the form of the film’s common motifs of blood and snow. The cinematography is gorgeous, and although the film does at times look low budget, it provides an evocative and atmospheric look at ancient Japan.
The action scenes are excellent and well shot, relying on short bursts of swordplay rather than extended martial arts battles. The action is tense and exciting, and usually drenched in geysers of spraying red. “Lady Snowblood” is a very violent film, and there is a great deal of hacking, slashing and dismemberment, which is bound to please fans of the genre.
“Lady Snowblood” is a classic, and deserves to be recognized far beyond its value as an inspiration to the films of Tarantino. It offers fans of martial arts and samurai films plenty of action, a beautiful, tragic heroine, and a gripping tale of revenge, all set against a fascinating historical backdrop. Though I’m sure we will see countless more ‘female samurai’ films, I’m equally sure that “Lady Snowblood” will stand the test of time far better than any of them.
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Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance (1974)
DVD9 (VIDEO_TS) Custom | NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | 01:28:56 | 7,40 Gb
Audio: Japanese AC3 1.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subs: English, Russian (Custom added)
Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller | Japan
DVD9 (VIDEO_TS) Custom | NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | 01:28:56 | 7,40 Gb
Audio: Japanese AC3 1.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subs: English, Russian (Custom added)
Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller | Japan
Shurayuki-Hime Yuki (Lady Snowblood), Samurai blood flows through her assassin veins. Love Song of Vengeance picks up where the first Lady Snowblood left off. Yuki is now wanted by the police after taking revenge on those who had murdered her family. Armed with a Tanto short-sword, Yuki cuts through a group of thugs who try to attack her. When the police surround her she throws her sword away and surrenders. While in prison she is offered a deal by the secret police. She must infiltrate the home of Urami Renga an anarchist revolutionary leader as she poses as his maid. She must secure an incriminating document from his possession and kill him to receive a pardon. Yuki refuses to kill him when she becomes sympathetic to his cause. The police surround them and capture Urami as she escapes with the document which she is to now give to Urami’s brother who is working as a doctor in one of Japan’s largest slums. In a final blackmail attempt Yuki takes the document to the police in exchange if the will help the people who live in the slums with food and medical aide. Only the police have other ideas that lead to a final bloody face off.
IMDB –|||– DVDRip is here.
Made one year after the first "Lady Snowblood" film, this sequel features the return of actress Meiko Kaji and director Toshiya Fujita, making it no surprise that it is very much of the same spirit as its predecessor. "Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance" chronicles the continuing adventures of its famed heroine in predictable but reliable pulp serial fashion: by bringing back many of the original’s winning elements and presenting them through a new yet familiar storyline.
The film catches up to Kaji’s Yuki a few years after her initial quest for revenge ended. In keeping with the first film’s historical situation, Yuki is still an embodiment of a more traditional time who finds herself even more at odds with the new, Meiji-era Japan of capitalism and modernity (and in this film, the fresh victor of the Russo-Japanese war) than ever before. She is captured by the police and sentenced to death for her crimes before being rescued by Kikui, a devious government agent who sends her to obtain an important document from an anarchist leader named Ransui. However, the anarchist threat turns out to be a fabrication constructed by the government to justify their unjust, oppressive rule, leading Yuki to switch sides and confront Kikui.
As the above synopsis illustrates, the central subject of the plot is not revenge, as one would originally expect, but politics. "Love Song" maintains the high level of attention to history seen in the first film, taking advantage of the rich story material provided by the period to create a well written, well thought-out Lady Snowblood tale. Yet amid the admirably built plotline, the film remains true to its exploitation roots and gives plenty of what the audience came for. Gore is offered up through plenty of creative methods and topped off with gallons of red paint that doesn’t look too much like real blood but turns up bright and vibrant onscreen – which was most likely the filmmakers’ main objective anyways.
Smoothly reprising her classic role, Meiko Kaji is easily one of the film’s key delights. She is constantly fascinating to watch, whether she is calmly disposing of several enemies at once (viewers are treated to not one, but two "Oldboy"-esque sequences in which Yuki hacks through a small army in a single shot) or regarding her prey with her unforgettable fierce glare. The performance she gives isn’t of the virtuoso, Oscar-snatching variety, but instead of the kind that happens when a part fits an actor like a glove. There’s no denying that she is to Yuki as Toshirô Mifune is to his own badass warrior Sanjuro. She owns her character so completely and thoroughly that it would be simply impossible to imagine anyone else in the same part.
The best phrase to compare "Love Song" with the first "Lady Snowblood" would probably be “more of the same.” For those who can’t get enough of Kaji’s iconic character or her stealthy, swordplay-laden, artery-severing adventures, this is right up your alley and will certainly deliver the goods. But for those looking for a radically different approach or style to these blood-spattered antics, I wouldn’t set my expectations too high if I were you. Often, as in this case, it’s best to enjoy a good thing simply for what it is.
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No More Mirrors.