It's a vengeance film, through and through. Often filled with beautiful cinematography, it circles the lead character, a person born with a purpose. This is better than Tarantino's "Kill Bill", to which he lifted nearly everything from this film. However, this film has the cultural spirit which cannot be read in Kill Bill, which merely reads as a washed-through copy, once you have seen this - albeit in American wrapping. This film has a sequel, which I have not seen.

After watching this masterpiece, I'm ashamed and angered that I live in a culture which made me discover this film via its entertaining, but shalow, reductionist, emotionless, individualist and ultimately unworthy American bastardisation.


The storytelling is of top quality, film's grounding in historical period and its social conditions is so important, characters may seem one-dimensional in their drivenness on the surface, but are complex, torn between widely accepted morality and personal/family principles and devotions.
I'm not too familiar with Japanese cinematography so I cannot place my observations into context, but I liked the tempo/pacing, camera-work (usage of fast zooms, bird's perspective shots, skewed angled shots) adds to an original feel, scenery is fantastic and even more impressive knowing it's a low-budget film, music is full of emotion and it guides the viewer.
I will definitely watch it again

Very bloody revenge, Tarantino must have been inspired by this one for Kill Bill.

Tarantino is infamous for borrowing a lot from obscure films, and _Lady Snowblood_'s influence on _Kill Bill_ is abundantly clear. However, calling one a rip-off of the other would be a bridge too far, this has its own distinct tone and directorial style. It's a very straightforward revenge story with just enough character depth to keep things interesting; a classic B-movie that's elevated by its distinct aesthetic and technical wizardry. Loved the action and editing, this filmmaker knows how long a shot needs to linger. It really helps the performances a lot, there's more subtlety here than you might expect. The combined samurai and western influence gives the visual style a very distinct personality, it really makes the set pieces (which are already well staged in their own right) memorable. I don't have any real complaints about it. Sure, it's not the most layered film ever made but unlike a lot of simple genre exercises this didn't bore me once. It pushes to emotion to some challenging places, it's creative, it's fun; watch it.


8/10

Now I see why this was completely ripped off my a famous filmmaker.
Extremely cool film

Wow. That was phenomenal. One of the best revenge movies I've seen in a long time. Super cool, ultra stylistic, with gorgeous cinematography and a great soundtrack. And all the great comic-book-visual violence you can shake a stick at. I can really see how much Tarantino ripped from this one for Kill Bill.

I sought this movie out after learning it was the inspiration for Kill Bill. A very different movie, to Tarantino's classic but in many ways also similar. This is a "roaring rampage of revenge" done in the quieter Japanese style. The movie has a very solemn tone and takes its themes of vengeance and redemption seriously. Even though the movie was released in the 70's it is a highly watchable and entertaining. The acting, story and cinematography are all very well done keeping to the tone and late 1800s setting.