Post by morrisondylanfan on Sept 27, 2019 3:59:59 GMT
Hi all,after seeing her two other major series,I decided that this was the perfect time to view the third.
Lady Snowblood: Blizzard from the Netherworld (1973) 9
Surpassing the high quality of their SCR set, Arrow present a fantastic transfer,with the picture being pristine and the soundtrack being as sharp as a sword.
Snowed in from the Manga pages of Kazuo Koike, director Toshiya Fujita & cinematographer Masaki Tamura break open the pages with a beautiful watercolour pallet, flourishing in light greens,blues and whites backstrokes creating the impression of being taken off the pages,whilst also acting as a backdrop to the glorious deep red sprays of blood dripping on the pure snow. Linking each of Snowblood’s revenge attacks with on-screen chapter titles and overlapping transition shots,Fujita initiates the blizzard with razor-sharp spinning whip-pans on each cut Snowblood makes, gliding back to the vision of Snowblood leaving the life from her targets to melt away with the snow.
Whilst slicing open action scenes, Fujita and Tamura place revenge on a doom-laden,Melodrama knife-edge. Fluidly striking out in mesmerising jump-cut close-ups eyeing the sorrow Snowblood carries from the killing of her family and the rape of her mum, hit with the stark utter lack of pleasure on her face inflicting revenge,which in the end gets screamed into the snow of a icy final note.
Bringing a air of the supernatural in on the 20 years of training she puts in for revenge, the screenplay by Kazuo Kamimura and Norio Osada brilliantly dice into the motives behind her drive for revenge by weaving a silky, simmering Melodrama between the present and flashbacks into Snowblood’s past, binded by the viciousness inflicted by the tormentors towards her family in the past, which melts over to a ruthlessness to stop Snowblood getting revenge. For a film specially written with her in mind, Meiko Kaji gives a mesmerising turn as Snowblood, bringing out a excellent subtle touch to the avenger in dialogue-free sequences Kaji expresses in her body language the mix of pain and anger as she looks on the floor and sees snowblood.