Disappointing Supposed Classic of the Week: 'Lady Snowblood' (1973)

Random fact of the day: Lady Snowblood's mother wasn't really called Doris. It's just funnier this way.

With a title like Lady Snowblood you’d figure you’re definitely onto a cult classic. I’d heard that it heavily influenced Tarantino’s Kill Bill, but made little note of it at the time beyond registering that it had a fantastically pulp-y title. So when American author Michael Chabon mentioned it over and over in his most recent novel I took it as a second vote of confidence and promptly hunted it down.

Its structure is the twin of Kill Bill’s (what with Tarantino stealing it wholesale): it’s a revenge tale following a striking young woman (Meiko Kaji) who’s after the four people that killed her father and brother, and raped her mother. During her journey she keeps her sword ever at hand, promising bloodletting.

It’s an often beautiful film, but rarely an engaging one. If only Toshiya Fujita (he that directed it) had invested some money in the fight choreography rather then investing it all in the set design. A man runs at Kaji’s Lady Snowblood! She turns! SWISH! Bit of blood. Then death. A man runs at Kaji! SWISH! Bit of blood, etc, etc, repeat ad nauseum. If the story had some nuance, if the dialogue wasn’t just 97-minutes of exposition, if it had one decent fight sequence, then I could understand its cult classic status. Instead it has immaculately designed sets.

As for the lead, Meiko Kaji, she’s certainly striking, but she conveys nothing. She’s supposed to play like a female version of the Man with No Name-type seen in practically every Clint Eastwood western (most notably in the Dollars Trilogy). But the reason he works so well is because we know nothing of his past and where he comes from, making him rather more enigmatic than Kaji; plus: Eastwood had charisma to burn. Kaji is neither enigmatic nor charismatic.

Despite having a plot that’s simplicity itself, Fujita still manages to overcomplicate things, jumping backwards and forwards in time for no reason, and adding little details here and there, convincing you that they’ll pay off down the line; making you believe there’s a masterplan we’re not picking up on. But no. There isn’t. Instead what we get is: SWISH! Instant death. SWISH! More death. 

Overall: 2/10