#790: FUJITA, Toshiya: Lady Snowblood (1973)

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FUJITA, Toshiya (Japan)
Lady Snowblood [1973]
Spine #790
Blu-ray

A young woman (Meiko Kaji), trained from childhood as an assassin and hell-bent on revenge for heinous crimes committed against her family, hacks and slashes her way to gory satisfaction in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Japan. Rampant with inventive violence and spectacularly choreographed swordplay, Toshiya Fujita's pair of influential cult classics Lady Snowblood and Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance are bloody, beautiful extravaganzas composed of one elegant widescreen composition after another. The first Lady Snowblood was a major inspiration for Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill saga, and both of Fujita's films remain cornerstones of Asian action cinema.

97 minutes
Color
Monaural
in Japanese
2:35:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2016
Director/Writers


Original story by Kazuo Koike and Kazuo Kamimura.
Screenplay by Norio Osada.
Toshiya Fujita was 41 when he directed Lady Snowbloood.

Other Fujita films in the Collection:

#791: Lady Snowblood: Love Song Of Vengeance (1974)

The Film

A

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Eight-page panel foldout poster featuring an essay by critic Howard Hampton.

Commentary

None.

Interviews

With Koike, the writer of the manga that inspired the films, and screenwriter Osada.

Trailers

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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