Nothing is as satisfying on the big screen as
revenge and nobody did it better than Yuki Kashima, a.k.a. Lady Snowblood. The
Angela Mao vehicle Broken Oath is
transparently based on her payback story, which also directly inspired
Tarantino’s Kill Bill. As cool as Mao
is, nobody can touch the original. Newly restored by Janus Films, the legendary
Lady Snowblood (trailer here) streams for a limited time as part of Fandor’s
Criterion Picks, just in time to make the season merry and bright.
At the dawn of the modernizing Meiji Era, a quartet
of criminals killed Kashima’s schoolteacher father and brutalized her mother.
Sayo Kashima takes care of one of her assailants personally, but is subsequently
convicted of his murder. In prison, she gives birth to Lady Snowblood,
mystically passing along her thirst for vengeance through her difficult,
ultimately fatal delivery. Trained by Dōkai, a
severe Buddhist priest to believe she is an Asura demigod of vengeance, Kashima
develops a very particular set of skills.
With the help of Matsuemon’s underground
beggar clan, Lady Snowblood starts tracking her three blood enemies. In the
process, she crosses paths with tabloid journalist and novelist Ryurei Ashio,
who starts telling her story in a popular serialized novel. Like Don Quixote, the
telling of Lady Snowblood’s story becomes self-referentially part of her narrative,
but with more spurting blood.
Lady Snowblood is sort of the Citizen Kane of Chanbara revenge
morality plays. It is exquisitely stylish and relentlessly exploitative. It also
just might be the greatest use of color film since Powell & Pressburger’s The Red Shoes. Cinematographer Masaki
Tamura sure made those reds pop. It is a visual feast that will change how you
think about umbrellas forever. Fujita clearly navigates the film’s tricky
flashback-heavy narrative structure and stages some wildly cinematic fight
sequences.
Meiko Kaji was already approaching cult legend
status as the star of the Stray Cat Rock and
Female Convict 701 series, but Lady Snowblood totally sealed the deal.
She has tons of stone cold femme fatale cred and action chops, but as Kashima,
she also happens to give a dashed subtle and complex performance. As Snowblood,
she is the complete package. She is the one we watch, but Toshio Kurosawa’s
Ashio is also intriguingly complex and appealingly disreputable.
