Lady Snowblood (1973) & Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance (1974)

[masterofoneinchpunch]

Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance (1974: Toshiya Fujita):  

This was a disappointment.  Kick Ass 2, Highlander 2 or Black Mask 2 (OK not that far) type of disappointment (yeah I still like Ghostbusters 2 and Arthur 2).  The first film is an important film known for its influence on Kill Bill, but is a strong, fun, bloody movie in its own right. 

Add more politics, less action, less understood character motivation (psychology) and well you have this.  It has the same director, the same lead and yet it feels like it was directed like Akira Kurosawa’s Sanshiro Sugata 2 – without feeling. 

This takes place between 1905 through 1907 and it has some didactic allegory of anti-Meiji era rhetoric.   

Some of the mistakes made here are mind blowing: never following the imprisoned political prisoner’s wife (the marriage angle just comes off as forced; partial spoiler if I say anymore).  The secret document, of course, is just a MacGuffin.  When you infiltrate and/or spy have a story handy. 

The fighting is much worse here.  The only grip she has is the reverse-grip (Zatoichi-style).  Weird how better the fighting was in the first.  Way too much of the circle, send one-at-a-time choreography which leaves the rest “dancing” around to wait for their doom. 

The soundtrack feels 70s and so does the set decoration (which I like quite a bit). 

The biggest plus is that this film looks great.  The cinematography, like the first one, is done well and there are many scenes that are beautiful.  Some of the hand-held gets annoying, but nowhere near today’s shaky-cam standards. 

[De Ming Li]

Yes I too think the second film was underwhelming, though to be very honest even the first film is somewhat overrated though still quite decent.

[ShawAngela]

20 hours ago, masterofoneinchpunch said:

Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance (1974: Toshiya Fujita):  

This was a disappointment.  Kick Ass 2, Highlander 2 or Black Mask 2 (OK not that far) type of disappointment (yeah I still like Ghostbusters 2 and Arthur 2).  The first film is an important film known for its influence on Kill Bill, but is a strong, fun, bloody movie in its own right. 

Add more politics, less action, less understood character motivation (psychology) and well you have this.  It has the same director, the same lead and yet it feels like it was directed like Akira Kurosawa’s Sanshiro Sugata 2 – without feeling. 

This takes place between 1905 through 1907 and it has some didactic allegory of anti-Meiji era rhetoric.   

Some of the mistakes made here are mind blowing: never following the imprisoned political prisoner’s wife (the marriage angle just comes off as forced; partial spoiler if I say anymore).  The secret document, of course, is just a MacGuffin.  When you infiltrate and/or spy have a story handy. 

The fighting is much worse here.  The only grip she has is the reverse-grip (Zatoichi-style).  Weird how better the fighting was in the first.  Way too much of the circle, send one-at-a-time choreography which leaves the rest “dancing” around to wait for their doom. 

The soundtrack feels 70s and so does the set decoration (which I like quite a bit). 

The biggest plus is that this film looks great.  The cinematography, like the first one, is done well and there are many scenes that are beautiful.  Some of the hand-held gets annoying, but nowhere near today’s shaky-cam standards. 

 

1 hour ago, De Ming Li said:

Yes I too think the second film was underwhelming, though to be very honest even the first film is somewhat overrated though still quite decent.

I think that I have mentioned somewhere on this forum that I have been disappointed A LOT by these two movies, that have often been compared to Broken Oath. Frankly, this latter is much, much better, and I'm still trying to sell my two Blu rays discs set of Lady Snowblood !!

[DrNgor]

I finally watched the first one and posted a review to my site. Check out my review below:

https://abeautifulfilm.blogspot.com/2022/07/lady-snowblood-1973.html 

[DrNgor]

On 12/20/2021 at 5:21 PM, masterofoneinchpunch said:

Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance (1974: Toshiya Fujita):  

This was a disappointment.  Kick Ass 2, Highlander 2 or Black Mask 2 (OK not that far) type of disappointment (yeah I still like Ghostbusters 2 and Arthur 2).  The first film is an important film known for its influence on Kill Bill, but is a strong, fun, bloody movie in its own right. 

Add more politics, less action, less understood character motivation (psychology) and well you have this.  It has the same director, the same lead and yet it feels like it was directed like Akira Kurosawa’s Sanshiro Sugata 2 – without feeling.

I just watched this over the weekend. It certainly wasn't as good as the original. The camerawork was great, though.

Full review here: https://abeautifulfilm.blogspot.com/2022/07/lady-snowblood-2-love-song-of-vengeance.html 

[masterofoneinchpunch]

19 hours ago, DrNgor said:

I just watched this over the weekend. It certainly wasn't as good as the original. The camerawork was great, though.

Full review here: https://abeautifulfilm.blogspot.com/2022/07/lady-snowblood-2-love-song-of-vengeance.html 

The cinematography of it was quite good (I took a ton of snapshots that I kept).  It is nowhere near as good as the first.  I will read that soon.

[DarthKato]

Man, I keep forgetting to pick up these movies when I got the money. I think I'll go ahead and pick up the Criterion Collection I saw on Amazon next month(I better go write down a reminder this time. lol)