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Lady Snowblood (film)
Encyclopedia
is a 1973 Japanese film directed by Toshiya Fujita
and starring Meiko Kaji. It is based on the manga
of the same name
by writer Kazuo Koike
and artist Kazuo Kamimura and follows the story of the eponymous assassin seeking vengeance upon the bandits who raped her mother and murdered her father.
It produced a sequel
the following year and a remake
in 2001, re-imagined into a science fiction
setting.
's Meiji period
, the overthrow of government caused riots throughout Japan. A phrase in Japan's universal conscription law suggested that government officials would collect the blood of conscripts. Men wearing white were commonly believed to be government officials coming to collect this "blood tax", and were murdered for money.
A teacher (Kashima Gō, played by Masaaki Daimon), his wife Sayo (Miyoko Akaza), and their son Shiro (Shinichi Uchida) walk through a field in Kashima prefecture. Since the teacher is wearing white, a bell rings and a band of criminals attack the family. A woman named Kitahama Okono (Sanae Nakahara) holds Sayo while the three men, Takemura Banzō (Noboru Nakaya), Shokei Tokuichi (Takeo Chii), and Tsukamoto Gishirō (Eiji Okada) stab and murder the man. They also kill Shiro (off-screen) and take Sayo to be raped and beaten. After some time, Tokuichi secretly takes Sayo far away to work for him. Sayo takes this opportunity and stabs him with a knife, killing him. Sayo is taken to a women's prison. After realizing she will not be able to avenge the death of her husband and son, she seduces any prison guard she can in order to conceive a child. Hoping for a strong boy, she receives a girl, which she names Yuki. After telling her cellmates to raise the child for vengeance, Sayo dies from childbirth.
About six years later, one of the women takes the young Yuki (Mayumi Maemura) to a priest called Dōkai (Kō Nishimura) to be trained for her revenge. She learns how to fight with a sword and dodge attacks. When Yuki is twenty years old (now played by Meiko Kaji), she sets out to find the remaining fugitives.
. Banzō is caught cheating in a gambling house, but Yuki persuades the yakuza
owners to pardon him. Later, she confronts him on a beach and asks him if he remembers raping her mother. He remembers, and begs for forgiveness. She does not comply, and dumps his body into the ocean.
After learning that Tsukamoto Gishirō has died naturally, she visits and desecrates his grave. While walking through the town, she meets a reporter named Ryūrei Ashio (Toshio Kurasawa). He questions her past, and then writes about it in his paper as a supposed fiction. This is used as a lure to get Kitahama Okono to reveal herself. It works, and she sends some of her men armed as police officers to kidnap Ashio. They torture him for Yuki's location, but he refuses to tell them. At the same time, Yuki infiltrates the large estate and kills several of Okono's men. When she enters one of the buildings she is fired upon by Okono, who is holding Ashio at gunpoint on a balcony. Ashio escapes and knocks over a candle, setting the room alight and distracting Okono. Yuki leaps up and slashes Okono, and she falls from the balcony to the floor behind. More of Okono's men enter, and Yuki throws a "thunder-sand bomb" from a small decoration in her hair. She leaps down and eliminates them all. She realizes Okono has escaped the room and stalks through the house in search of her. In one room she finds Okono has hanged herself. In a rage, she slices Okono's hanging corpse in half.
, Gishirō shoots Ashio, in the lower chest. Badly wounded, Ashio manages to stop him from shooting Yuki as she swings on a lamp between the balconies. Gishirō gets off a couple of shots at Yuki as she charges him, but they miss and Yuki stabs through Ashio to kill Gishirō. She pulls out her sword and slashes Gishirō again in the face, but he shoots her in the chest. He falls over a railing and onto the ground floor full of guests.
Yuki realizes she has been shot by Gishirō. She stumbles outside into the snow and Kobue suddenly appears again, wielding a small tantō
sword. She runs up and stabs Yuki, avenging the death of her father, Banzō. Kobue runs out of sight as Yuki stumbles across the snow, then falls. She cries for losing Ashio and thinks of her family as the sun sets. The film ends with Yuki miraculously opening her eyes the next morning.
The English edition was collected in 4 volumes in 2005 to 2006.
Additional sub-stories where Oyuki is contracted to kill various people depicted in the manga were not translated to the film.
Unlike the tragic ending of the film, the manga ends with Oyuki tossing her umbrella which houses her hidden sword into the sea after completing her task of vengeance.
(Shurayukihime: Urami Renga, 1974). In it Yuki is in prison for the crimes she committed in the first movie. The Japanese government offers to free her if she will kill an enemy of the state.
A 2001 science fiction
remake
, released in the US
as The Princess Blade
, stars Yumiko Shaku
and features fight choreography by Donnie Yen
.
It was a major inspiration for Quentin Tarantino
's Kill Bill
films, which borrows plot, characters (specifically the character of O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu
)), visual motifs and settings. In fact, Kill Bill plays like an extended remake of Lady Snowblood. The scene in which The Bride fights O-Ren Ishii uses a snowy landscape that echoes scenes in Lady Snowblood, and the theme song sung by Meiko Kaji (translated by Tarantino as "The Flower of Carnage") is also used in Kill Bill, Vol. 1.
Toshiya Fujita (director)
, also known as Shigeya Fujita, was a Japanese filmmaker, film actor, and screenwriter. He was born in Pyongyang, Korea. After graduating from Tokyo University, he entered the Nikkatsu studio in 1955 and made his debut as a director in 1967. He won the Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award...
and starring Meiko Kaji. It is based on the manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
of the same name
Lady Snowblood
is a manga written by Kazuo Koike and illustrated by Kazuo Kamimura, and serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Playboy. It was translated into English and published in four volumes by Dark Horse Comics between 2005 and 2006....
by writer Kazuo Koike
Kazuo Koike
is a prolific Japanese manga writer, novelist and entrepreneur.-Biography:Early in Koike's career, he studied under Golgo 13 creator Takao Saito and served as a writer on the series....
and artist Kazuo Kamimura and follows the story of the eponymous assassin seeking vengeance upon the bandits who raped her mother and murdered her father.
It produced a sequel
Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance
Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance is a 1974 Japanese film directed by Toshiya Fujita and starring Meiko Kaji. It is based on the manga of the same name by writer Kazuo Koike and artist Kazuo.-Story:...
the following year and a remake
The Princess Blade
The Princess Blade is a 2001 Japanese action film directed by Shinsuke Sato. It is a reimagining of the manga Lady Snowblood by Kazuo Koike.- Cast :*Yumiko Shaku as Yuki*Hideaki Ito as Takashi*Shiro Sano as Kidokoro...
in 2001, re-imagined into a science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
setting.
Plot
Note: The following events are written in their chronological form, which differs from the order shown in the film.Story of Vengeance
During JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
's Meiji period
Meiji period
The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...
, the overthrow of government caused riots throughout Japan. A phrase in Japan's universal conscription law suggested that government officials would collect the blood of conscripts. Men wearing white were commonly believed to be government officials coming to collect this "blood tax", and were murdered for money.
A teacher (Kashima Gō, played by Masaaki Daimon), his wife Sayo (Miyoko Akaza), and their son Shiro (Shinichi Uchida) walk through a field in Kashima prefecture. Since the teacher is wearing white, a bell rings and a band of criminals attack the family. A woman named Kitahama Okono (Sanae Nakahara) holds Sayo while the three men, Takemura Banzō (Noboru Nakaya), Shokei Tokuichi (Takeo Chii), and Tsukamoto Gishirō (Eiji Okada) stab and murder the man. They also kill Shiro (off-screen) and take Sayo to be raped and beaten. After some time, Tokuichi secretly takes Sayo far away to work for him. Sayo takes this opportunity and stabs him with a knife, killing him. Sayo is taken to a women's prison. After realizing she will not be able to avenge the death of her husband and son, she seduces any prison guard she can in order to conceive a child. Hoping for a strong boy, she receives a girl, which she names Yuki. After telling her cellmates to raise the child for vengeance, Sayo dies from childbirth.
About six years later, one of the women takes the young Yuki (Mayumi Maemura) to a priest called Dōkai (Kō Nishimura) to be trained for her revenge. She learns how to fight with a sword and dodge attacks. When Yuki is twenty years old (now played by Meiko Kaji), she sets out to find the remaining fugitives.
Oyuki's Retribution
Searching first for Takemura Banzō, Yuki encounters Banzō's daughter Kobue (Yoshiko Nakada), posing as a maker of chikufujin in order to hide her true role as a prostitute from her father. Yuki finds Banzō while working as dealer for Cho-han bakuchiCho-han bakuchi
Chō-Han Bakuchi or simply ) is a traditional Japanese gambling game using dice.The game uses two standard six-sided dice, which are shaken in a bamboo cup or bowl by a dealer. The cup is then overturned onto the floor. Players then place their wagers on whether the sum total of numbers showing on...
. Banzō is caught cheating in a gambling house, but Yuki persuades the yakuza
Yakuza
, also known as , are members of traditional organized crime syndicates in Japan. The Japanese police, and media by request of the police, call them bōryokudan , literally "violence group", while the yakuza call themselves "ninkyō dantai" , "chivalrous organizations". The yakuza are notoriously...
owners to pardon him. Later, she confronts him on a beach and asks him if he remembers raping her mother. He remembers, and begs for forgiveness. She does not comply, and dumps his body into the ocean.
After learning that Tsukamoto Gishirō has died naturally, she visits and desecrates his grave. While walking through the town, she meets a reporter named Ryūrei Ashio (Toshio Kurasawa). He questions her past, and then writes about it in his paper as a supposed fiction. This is used as a lure to get Kitahama Okono to reveal herself. It works, and she sends some of her men armed as police officers to kidnap Ashio. They torture him for Yuki's location, but he refuses to tell them. At the same time, Yuki infiltrates the large estate and kills several of Okono's men. When she enters one of the buildings she is fired upon by Okono, who is holding Ashio at gunpoint on a balcony. Ashio escapes and knocks over a candle, setting the room alight and distracting Okono. Yuki leaps up and slashes Okono, and she falls from the balcony to the floor behind. More of Okono's men enter, and Yuki throws a "thunder-sand bomb" from a small decoration in her hair. She leaps down and eliminates them all. She realizes Okono has escaped the room and stalks through the house in search of her. In one room she finds Okono has hanged herself. In a rage, she slices Okono's hanging corpse in half.
The Final Retribution
Believing she has avenged her family's death, Yuki and Ashio become lovers, but then Ashio learns that Gishirō is still alive and nearby. He reveals that Gishirō is his father. Yuki is surprised, but still intends to kill him. She goes to a masquerade ball and sees Gishirō exit through a hidden door on a wall. She follows, and he attacks her with a sword as she enters another room. She narrowly dodges his attack, and is wounded in the right shoulder. She cuts off his hands and kills him. Ashio enters and they realize that it is not really Gishirō, but an assassin in a mask hired by Gishirō. Ashio smashes a two-way mirror, revealing the real Gishirō escaping to a flight of stairs. Ashio takes the dead man's sword and they follow him, but two sets of stairs lead out of the room. They each take a flight of stairs, and end up on second floor balconies on opposite sides of the ballroom. Ashio took the staircase following Gishirō, and Yuki sees that Ashio is threatening him with a sword as he aims a pistol at her. After a brief mexican standoffMexican standoff
A Mexican standoff is a slang term defined as a stalemate or impasse; a confrontation that neither side can foreseeably win. The term is most often used in lieu of "stalemate" when the confrontational situation is exceptionally dangerous for all parties involved.In popular culture, the Mexican...
, Gishirō shoots Ashio, in the lower chest. Badly wounded, Ashio manages to stop him from shooting Yuki as she swings on a lamp between the balconies. Gishirō gets off a couple of shots at Yuki as she charges him, but they miss and Yuki stabs through Ashio to kill Gishirō. She pulls out her sword and slashes Gishirō again in the face, but he shoots her in the chest. He falls over a railing and onto the ground floor full of guests.
Yuki realizes she has been shot by Gishirō. She stumbles outside into the snow and Kobue suddenly appears again, wielding a small tantō
Tanto
A is one of the traditional Japanese swords that were worn by the samurai class of feudal Japan. The tantō dates to the Heian period, when it was mainly used as a weapon but evolved in design over the years to become more ornate...
sword. She runs up and stabs Yuki, avenging the death of her father, Banzō. Kobue runs out of sight as Yuki stumbles across the snow, then falls. She cries for losing Ashio and thinks of her family as the sun sets. The film ends with Yuki miraculously opening her eyes the next morning.
Cast
- Meiko Kaji as Yuki Kashima, aka Lady Snowblood.
- Ko NishimuraKô Nishimurawas a Japanese actor who appeared in supporting roles in such films as Akira Kurosawa's The Bad Sleep Well and Yojimbo, Kihachi Okamoto's Sword of Doom, Yoshitaro Nomura's Zero Focus, and Kon Ichikawa's The Burmese Harp .-Film:* The Burmese Harp *Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate（1957）*The...
as Priest Dōkai. - Toshio Kurosawa as Ryūrei Ashio.
- Masaaki Daimon as Gō Kashima.
- Miyoko AkazaMiyoko AkazaMiyoko Akaza, is a Japanese actress. She is the wife of Toshiya Fujita.-Filmography:*"Libido" Sei no kigen *"Affair in the Snow" Juhyo no yoromeki *"A Tale of Peonies and Lanterns" Botan-dôrô...
as Sayo Kashima. - Eiji OkadaEiji OkadaEiji Okada was a Japanese film actor. Okada served in the Japanese army during World War II, and was a miner and traveling salesman before becoming an actor....
as Gishirō Tsukamoto.
Manga
The manga on which the film was based was released in 1972 to 1973.The English edition was collected in 4 volumes in 2005 to 2006.
Additional sub-stories where Oyuki is contracted to kill various people depicted in the manga were not translated to the film.
Unlike the tragic ending of the film, the manga ends with Oyuki tossing her umbrella which houses her hidden sword into the sea after completing her task of vengeance.
Sequel and remakes
The film spawned one sequel, Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of VengeanceLady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance
Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance is a 1974 Japanese film directed by Toshiya Fujita and starring Meiko Kaji. It is based on the manga of the same name by writer Kazuo Koike and artist Kazuo.-Story:...
(Shurayukihime: Urami Renga, 1974). In it Yuki is in prison for the crimes she committed in the first movie. The Japanese government offers to free her if she will kill an enemy of the state.
A 2001 science fiction
Science fiction film
Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...
remake
Remake
A remake is a piece of media based primarily on an earlier work of the same medium.-Film:The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source...
, released in the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
as The Princess Blade
The Princess Blade
The Princess Blade is a 2001 Japanese action film directed by Shinsuke Sato. It is a reimagining of the manga Lady Snowblood by Kazuo Koike.- Cast :*Yumiko Shaku as Yuki*Hideaki Ito as Takashi*Shiro Sano as Kidokoro...
, stars Yumiko Shaku
Yumiko Shaku
, born in Tokyo, Japan, is a Japanese actress and model. Her management is Tommy's Artist Company.- TV Dramas :*2011: BOSS...
and features fight choreography by Donnie Yen
Donnie Yen
Donnie Yen is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist, film director and producer, action choreographer, and world wushu tournament medalist...
.
It was a major inspiration for Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
's Kill Bill
Kill Bill
Kill Bill Volume 1 is a 2003 action thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It is the first of two volumes that were theatrically released several months apart, the second volume being Kill Bill Volume 2....
films, which borrows plot, characters (specifically the character of O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu
Lucy Liu
Lucy Alexis Liu is an American actress and film producer. She became known for playing the role of the vicious and ill-mannered Ling Woo in the television series Ally McBeal , and has also appeared in several Hollywood films including Charlie's Angels, Chicago, Kill Bill, and Kung Fu Panda.-Early...
)), visual motifs and settings. In fact, Kill Bill plays like an extended remake of Lady Snowblood. The scene in which The Bride fights O-Ren Ishii uses a snowy landscape that echoes scenes in Lady Snowblood, and the theme song sung by Meiko Kaji (translated by Tarantino as "The Flower of Carnage") is also used in Kill Bill, Vol. 1.