A mother gives life so her newborn may take it away in this bloody tale of retribution for a wronged woman.

I know that there will be people out there for whom this particular bandwagon must be a real bone of contention. The aftermath of the Kill Bill furore has brought some little known films to the fore, Lady Snowblood being now the most infamous. The cries of hijacking are practically audible from those whose film collections already proudly contained this particular and previously lesser known tale of revenge. However, if there is goodness to come from all the hype it must surely be that our lady of vengeance has found a wider audience. I’m not really one for bandwagons myself, that’s a ride too cramped for my tastes, but on this occasion it called right passed my door so I thought this time I’d hitch a lift, and what a ride it turned out to be.
Blizzard from the Netherworld is Meiko Kaji’s first outing as Yuki, the child born to avenge her imprisoned mother’s wronged life. “An eye for an eye” she says as she slays her way through those she’s bound in life to seek out and destroy. Born a child of the Netherworld, hers is a life as cold and bleak as the snows in which she was born for that most singular of purposes: revenge. “I’ve immersed my body in the river of vengeance, and thrown away my womanhood many moons ago” the theme song tells us, and that is true enough. She has all the delicate femininity of a lady but none of the life of a woman. Beautiful, serene and bloodthirsty as her title, she dispatches her enemies with the ease of a highly skilled samurai who has been bred to kill.
Lady Snowblood is brought to you by the Toho Film Company, that great bastion of Japanese cinema that gave the world the fine tradition of men in rubber monster suits; Godzilla. It strangely gave us the less quirky and far more serious Lone Wolf and Cub series (best known as the Babycart films), the co-creator of which also created this sword and revenge film which, like Lone Wolf and Cub, started out as Japanese manga. The manga roots are evident here with an animation being just one of the many different styles at play in this eclectic mix. It’s easy to see the influence this curious combination had on Tarantino; the animation, Western elements, strangely funky music that doesn’t seem at all out of place, the chapters, the beautiful snowy battle, and of course, the highly trained lone female assassin hell-bent on vengeance amid the geyser-like bloody violence.
Whilst sometimes kitschy this film is a much more sombre affair than Kill Bill, despite the strong influence it had on Tarantino. Where Tarantino opted for the cartoonish world with highly choreographed fight scenes, Lady Snowblood is quick draw samurai-style. Both films make use of the now fairly long standing martial arts/western link which has gone full circle from Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai in 1954. However, Lady Snowblood deserves far more than curiosity inspired viewing from hardcore Tarantino fans. This beautifully crafted film boasts cinematography and editing as deft as Yuki’s killing skills. Where it can be crimson stained and action packed, it’s just as likely to have stillness and silence. A surprisingly beautiful edition to the ladies on a vengeful mission genre, if you’re going to watch one, make it this one.

A Toho-tally great samurai sword film, every bit as still and tragic as it is bloody and harsh.