Lady Snowblood: Blizzard from the Netherworld (1973)

The early ’70s were undeniably a great time for genre films around the world as young new filmmakers pushed the boundaries of violence and exploitation. It was no exception in Japan where yakuza and samurai films became increasingly bloody, particularly with Shintaro Katsu’s faithful first film adaptation of the grim Lone Wolf and Cub manga series in 1972. Japan remains one of few bastions of the extreme in filmmaking where a high tolerance for bloodletting and other unpleasantness remains with filmmakers like Takeshi Miike, Ryuhei Kitamura, and Takeshi Kitano. One of the leading films in Japan to showcase their film industry’s early excesses is Lady Snowblood: Blizzard from the Netherworld. More than any other, it strongly influenced Quentin Tarantino to create Kill Bill. Years later, the film remains an impressively stylized and uncompromising exploration of female empowerment warped by hatred and suppressed emotion.

Just as the late ’60s and early ’70s allowed for expression of new freedoms through a youthful rebellion against the status quo, the late 19th century was an uncertain time for social and political change in Japan on a more fundamental level. The beginning of the Meiji restoration saw a shift of power from the feudal-era Shogunate to the Emperor and the quick rise of the nation as a modern and increasingly corrupt Imperial power gearing up for war. Because of these drastic changes, growing economic uncertainty and a shakeup of the social structure led to spurts of lawlessness. This created a frontier environment that has become the standard backdrop for many gritty jidai geki (chambara films). Lady Snowblood takes place at the end of this period when the government was consolidating its power in preparation for territorial expansion with only a small minority in opposition.

Caught up in this turmoil are a married couple assaulted by four villagers who mistake the husband for an undesirable government official. They cut him down and rape his wife. The wife later hunts down and murders one of the killers in retaliation, but is sent to prison for life before she can find the remaining three. Burning with a desire for revenge, she beds every male guard in sight in order to bear a child who will be able to complete her task. Kashima Shurayuki (Kaji Meiko) comes into the world as her mother passes out of it and is put into the care of a harsh sword master who raises her for the sole purpose of completing her mother’s revenge. As a young adult with snow-white skin, no emotion and deadly skills with a cane sword, Shurayuki seeks out each of the three remaining killers. Along the way, she allies herself with an anti-government writer who helps her take on her final target, a firearms smuggler.

Lady Snowblood is not for the squeamish or for anyone looking for a ‘feel good’ experience. The tone remains bleak throughout. There are no humorous breaks or light-hearted characters. It’s all about one woman on a determined killing spree and the film never loses its stride on romance or anything else for that matter. As the title character, actress Kaji Meiko is mesmerizing in her dispassionate and slightly world-weary portrayal. She was already a fixture on the exploitation film circuit before joining Toho for this production after having starred in a series of prison films for Toei and a biker series before that. Gore hounds should definitely dig the action. Every sword stroke causes blood to erupt like Yosemite’s Old Faithful. Hands and arms fly off and in one particularly gruesome scene, a woman is lopped in half at the mid section as the camera lingers long enough for one half to drain of its fluids. It might sound worse than it really is. The violence is exaggerated by modern filmmaking standards. Meiko wields a cane sword underhanded, like Shintaro Katsu in the Zatoichi series. Unfortunately none of her opponents are remotely equal to her character in skill, but her enemies’ use of kidnapping, hired thugs and guns presents a few worthy challenges. She has a dirty trick of her own in the form of a “Thunder-Sand bomb.” I’ll leave imaginations to play with that one.

In the wake of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, comparisons are impossible to ignore. Lady Snowblood is to Tarantino’s Kill Bill what A Touch of Zen is to Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Just as he used Ringo Lam’s City on Fire as the creative spawning ground for Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino used Lady Snowblood as the creative basis for Kill Bill. Witness the same non-linear narrative with multiple flashbacks to fill out the backstory, the revenge theme, the use of titled “chapters,” the snow-covered battleground, the exaggerated violence, the facial close-ups, the manga/anime sequences, and the use of the song “The Flower of Carnage” which originated in Lady Snowblood. Tarantino also combined Shurayuki and her mother into The Bride and then split Shurayuki into O-Ren Ishi, particularly in relation to their youth. There is a “Bill” of sorts in Lady Snowblood named Tsukamoto Gishiro who presents Shurayuki with the most trouble, although he has no special relationship with her. The other major similarity can be found in Shurayuki’s slaying of a man who might as well be Vernita Green for he leaves behind a daughter who isn’t about to forgive the murder. Not surprisingly, Tarantino completely disregards the social and political context of Lady Snowblood, both important elements that lend director Fujita Toshiya’s film added resonance. While on the topic of comparisons, there is also basis to count Princess Blade, or Shurayuki Hime (2002) as a futuristic remake. In this case, the grim mood, revenge premise and anti-government theme remain the same, but the exploitive content is toned down and a romance is played up.

What makes this film so intriguing beyond its shock value or relevance to Kill Bill is its amplified reflection of an era’s anxiety matched with an intimate view of the film’s moral on violence as perpetually cyclical. Then again, such weighty thoughts on the subject can also be overlooked in favor of simply appreciating an artful and deliciously sadistic swordplay film. It’s really amazing to see just how much ‘cool’ Lady Snowblood exudes. Tarantino may have missed the film’s context, but he certainly tapped into the film’s storytelling and visual flair. Toshiya and his crew pull out all kinds of creative tricks including documentary-style narrative and panning freeze frames, a hip score, and lingering shots that force the viewer to experience the moment. Perhaps this last element is most important for it highlights an example of how most action films in subsequent years have lost their ability or desire even, to draw audiences in by relying on over-edited or slow-moving money shots that look good, but sell themselves or a director’s “skill” rather than the film’s story or characters.

Lady Snowblood is a chambara classic by every standard and a must see for for fans of Kill Bill. It’s darker and denser, but stylishly-streamlined and dripping with sword-slinging vehemence tailor-made for hardcore action fans.