Retrospective 2016

Shurayukihime

Lady Snowblood
Fujita Toshiya
Japan 1973
97 min
V'16

Gory revenge is raised to the level of visual poetry in LADY SNOW- BLOOD. A major inspiration for Tarantino’s KILL BILL-saga, this endlessly inventive film, set in late 19th century Japan, charts the single- minded path of vengeance taken by young woman Sayo. Fujita creates a wildly entertaining action film of remarkable craft, an effortless balancing act between beauty and violence. The film plays with time and narrative in remarkably perceptive ways, introducing flashbacks within flashbacks, incorporating a quicksilver novelization of Yuki’s saga in progress using frames from the original manga, and juggling a host of heterodox visual elements. This visual diversity came out of an awareness of trailblazers like Godard, Oshima and Resnais. But this is not a homage. Fujita doesn’t so much borrow as cannily repurpose avant-gardish techniques and devices to his own more streamlined ends. (Howard Hampton)

Credits
  • Kaji Meiko - Kashima Yuki
  • Kurosawa Toshio - Ashio Ryuurei
  • Akaza Miyoko - Kashima Sayo
  • Daimon Masâki - Kashima Gô
  • Kamimura Kazuo
  • Koike Kazuo
  • Tamura Masaki
  • Kamikura Noboru
  • Inoue Osamu
  • Hirao Masâki
  • Satsuya Kazuo
Toho
35 mm
col
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