The Princess Blade - 修羅雪姬

The Princess Blade (修羅雪姬) is a 2001 film out of Japan starring Yumiko Shaku and Hideaki Ito. The film is an post-apocalyptic adaptation of Lady Snowbird.

Yuki is the remaining member life in her family. Yuki is an assassin that finds out her mother was murdered by the same group she belongs to now. Yuki leaves the group and that's when the fun begins. The assassin group comes after Yuki and Yuki befriends a rebel movement leader Takashi.

Lots of fighting ensues and Yuki comes out on top.

Back in 2002 when I heard about this film, it was because of Donnie Yen's association. Donnie was the fight choreographer on the movie. It was the beginning of the HK choreographers going to Japan and Korea.

The movie was pretty good. I bought it from ebay back in 2002. It had really bad subs and I didn't understand the movie. I re-watched it again from Netflix. I had forgotten almost all of the movie. Don't know if it was time or that the English sub of the 2002 version was just that bad.

Lady Snowblood - 修羅雪姬

Lady Snowblood (修羅雪姬) is a 1973 film out of Japan.

The movie is a revenge assassin movie that influenced The Princess Blade and Kill Bill.

Lady Snowblood is out to avenge the four responsible for the murder of her father and rape of her mother. Trained for revenge and also a skilled pick pocket, Lady Snowblood isn't one you want to mess with.

As revenge movies go, this was pretty good. She got to all 3 of them as the mom killed one of them already before she was born.

The movie inspired Quentin Tarantino in certain parts of Kill Bill. The Princess Blade is said to be a remake on the plot side, but its based in 2076 (200 years after Lady Snowblood) and the revenge is very different.

The movie ran long for me. I think the last story arc was the weakest and should have been shortened. It was good enough for me to want to check the sequel.