Lady SnowbloodWhen one contemplates the snow, several qualities come to mind. The cold, the color, and the purity of it. For the young woman named for the snow, Yuki a.k.a. "Lady Snowblood" (Meiko Kaji), these are both emblematic of her persona as the icy avenger as well as anachronisms, as her drive to seek vengeance for her mother's destruction is a fiery passion as she cuts a swath of vermilion carnage through her foes. Her life has had but one purpose, prescribed before she was even conceived: to execute her mother's late revenge against the despicable criminals who destroyed her family, and bear the weight of this vendetta with the fortitude of a demigod.
|
|
Lady Snowblood is a violent action film set at the end of the 19th century, during the earlier part of what is known in Japan as the "Meiji Era"--a period of so-called "restoration" following the arrival of the West onto Japanese shores. The Meiji Restoration and setting are key in understanding the larger themes of Lady Snowblood, and are expounded upon to give context to the reason that the nation was undergoing a crisis of identity and unrest. Some would argue that with the incursion of Western civilization into Japan, the soul of the nation was corrupted, and the concept of a pure nation was forever lost; some might go so far as to describe it as a kind of "cultural rape". That hyperbole aside, the essence here is that this cultural sense of contamination is the undercurrent of Lady Snowblood, and is pointed at during key moments. The "Blood Tax Riots" of 1873--which share much in common with the New York City Draft Riots of 1963--set the stage for how Yuki's father was brutally slain by four corrupt bandits--with the assailants' excuse being that he resembled a draft officer. In their frenzy, they abduct Yuki's mother, Sayo (Miyoko Akaza), the men rape her, and one of them abducts her to be his slave up until she kills him and is sent to prison. Named Yuki for the snow falling over Sayo while giving birth, the girl's name symbolizes purity, and yet she is fated by her mother to be the bearer of her grudge, to be an asura--a demon empowered to serve her mother beyond her death. Yuki was conceived solely for this purpose, constructed of flesh and blood to be effectively a living weapon. But how "pure" can one's life be when one is a killer? It is a paradox that in order for justice to be done, the blood of the guilty must be shed. As an audience, we are sympathetic to Yuki's mission, but there is an emptiness to her quest. Her first target, Takemura Banzō (Noboru Nakaya) is nothing but a sickly drunk and crippled by gambling debt, who hardly seems to care if he lives or dies. And Yuki's quest for vengeance seems to be stymied when she discovers the tombstone of the ringleader of her enemies, and is crestfallen at not getting to realize her ambition. Is purity the absence of taking sinful action? Or is it a single-minded determination, unyielding even if compulsive? Can one be pure when soaked in blood? And even when her ultimate quarry is revealed, one who comes across as the consummate corrupt politician, and is slain in a symbolic execution where in he drags down the flag of Japan with him, one has to wonder if this sense of extreme and uncompromising sacrifice is the way to reclaim that concept of purity. Perhaps, but at what cost is it to reclaim one's honor if it must come at the expense of the next generation?
Lady Snowblood is a chronicle of bloodshed broken up into several chapters, somewhat episodic in presentation although interconnected, with each chapter title accompanied by a vivid poetic flourish of diction--like a haiku written in sanguine. Following Yuki's discovery at the graveyard, she crosses paths with a reporter and amateur novelist named Ryūrei Ashio (Toshio Kurosawa), who is so intrigued by her that after an investigation, he writes a novel about her quest, which not only proves to be a hit, but also lures out one of her targets from hiding. It also stands as a framing device for the film, since it's easy to imagine that the story is one adapted from a story like Yuki's by a man like Ryūrei. Yuki is fundamentally a tragic heroine, since although none can question her dedication to seeing justice done on behalf of her departed family, she never has any agency in the matter. There is never a moment in her mind about whether what she is doing is right, even when she is confronted with the inevitability of killing Takemura, leaving his daughter, Kobue (Yoshiko Nakada), fatherless and also possessed by the need for revenge. It is not that Yuki is incapable or ignorant of the consequences of her actions; but for her, to be pure is to be single-minded in her determination. She has been told that she is instilled with the spirit of the asura, and her conviction cannot waver. But one wonders if her understanding about the phrase she utters when slaying her quarry--"an eye for an eye"--is one she considers to work both ways, and how revenge is like a contagion, infecting more and more as they suffer exposure to it.
Recommended for: Fans of a stylish action film with swords and quests for revenge, with an underlying political message about Japanese history. It is also interesting as Lady Snowblood served as a noteworthy influence on Quentin Tarantino's own katana-fueled tale of a lady samurai seeking vengeance, Kill Bill.
Lady Snowblood is a chronicle of bloodshed broken up into several chapters, somewhat episodic in presentation although interconnected, with each chapter title accompanied by a vivid poetic flourish of diction--like a haiku written in sanguine. Following Yuki's discovery at the graveyard, she crosses paths with a reporter and amateur novelist named Ryūrei Ashio (Toshio Kurosawa), who is so intrigued by her that after an investigation, he writes a novel about her quest, which not only proves to be a hit, but also lures out one of her targets from hiding. It also stands as a framing device for the film, since it's easy to imagine that the story is one adapted from a story like Yuki's by a man like Ryūrei. Yuki is fundamentally a tragic heroine, since although none can question her dedication to seeing justice done on behalf of her departed family, she never has any agency in the matter. There is never a moment in her mind about whether what she is doing is right, even when she is confronted with the inevitability of killing Takemura, leaving his daughter, Kobue (Yoshiko Nakada), fatherless and also possessed by the need for revenge. It is not that Yuki is incapable or ignorant of the consequences of her actions; but for her, to be pure is to be single-minded in her determination. She has been told that she is instilled with the spirit of the asura, and her conviction cannot waver. But one wonders if her understanding about the phrase she utters when slaying her quarry--"an eye for an eye"--is one she considers to work both ways, and how revenge is like a contagion, infecting more and more as they suffer exposure to it.
Recommended for: Fans of a stylish action film with swords and quests for revenge, with an underlying political message about Japanese history. It is also interesting as Lady Snowblood served as a noteworthy influence on Quentin Tarantino's own katana-fueled tale of a lady samurai seeking vengeance, Kill Bill.