The late Meiji Era was a good time to be a bourgeoisie
Zaibatsu, unless you happened to provoke Yuki Kashima, a.k.a. Lady Snowblood. Kashima
consummated her vengeance in the first film, but she is still out there
(despite the serious injuries she sustained in the previous climax). Instead of
killing to fulfill her blood pact for payback, she now dispatches running dog
flunkies of the corrupt ruling class that rub her the wrong way. That is all
fine and good, but is nowhere near as satisfying. Even with a moderate case of
sequelitis, the title character remains iconically awesome in Toshiya Fujita’s
freshly restored Lady Snowblood 2: Love
Song of Vengeance (trailer here), which
streams on Fandor as a limited-time Criterion Pick.
The four thugs who killed Kashima’s father and
brutalized her mother are now deader than dead, but that does not mean the cops
are willing to let things slide. After enduring the spectacular opening beatdown,
they finally capture Lady Snowblood and quickly convict her in a kangaroo court.
However, the foppish civil servant Seishiro Kikui offers her a reprieve from
the gallows if she will assassinate anarchist rabble-rouser Ransui Tokunaga. Kashima
agrees because what does she have to lose, but double crosses Kikui as soon as
she takes Tokunaga’s measure.
Briefly, Lady Snowblood takes on the role of
bodyguard, but she is a much better assassin. When Kikui launches a full scale
attack, Kashima barely escapes with her life and Tokunaga’s incriminating documents.
Fortunately, Tokunaga’s estranged brother Shusuke practices medicine in one of
the slum’s no-go zones. Shusuke Tokunaga’s animosity for his brother and
sister-in-law-ex-wife remains unabated, but he isn’t about to turn away Lady
Snowblood, because obviously.
The biggest problem with Love Song of Vengeance is Kashima’s less proactive role. It is not
that she is passive, but she is reactive, deciding who to align with and then
killing off the other side accordingly. It is still beautiful to watch her do
her thing, but it doesn’t resonate in your gut like the original film. Also,
the depiction of the corrupt, war-mongering Meiji government as a stand-in for
Vietnam-era capitalism now looks like a clumsy relic of the past.
On the other hand, Fujita stages two of the
franchise’s best action sequences, both featuring Lady Snowblood (naturally)
hacking and slashing her way through crooked coppers as she walks down narrow
pathways towards the camera. The blood still flows a bright crimson red, liberally
pooling as the result of Kashima’s handiwork. Kikui is also a suitably odious
villain, who even weaponizes the plague virus in his scheme to bring down the
Tokunagas and Kashima.
The camera still loves Meiko Kaji’s Lady
Snowblood, whose action chops are arguably even stronger the second time
around. As Kikui, the preening Shin Kishida absolutely gorges on the scenery. Jûzô
Itami (now better known for directing crossover hits like A Taxing Woman and Tampopo)
also plays Ransui Tokunaga with all proper dignity and even a little edge.
However, the blustery Shusuke Tokunaga inexplicably lurches all over the map to
serve the whims of the narrative.
