- Year
- 1973
- Country
- Japan
- Runtime
- 97 min
- Director
- Toshiya Fujita
- Updated
- 9 Aug 2026
- Obscurity
- known (31/100)
- Also known as
- Lady Snowblood: Blizzard from the Netherworld
Lady Snowblood
Where Kill Bill got most of its ideas, including the snow.
A woman is born and raised for the single purpose of avenging her family, and Meiko Kaji plays her as a blade that occasionally wears a kimono. Snow, arterial spray shot in bright unreal red, and a structure told in chapters like the manga it came from.
Tarantino took the snow, the revenge structure, the yellow and the theme song straight into Kill Bill, which has sent a lot of people back to the source. The source is better.
Elegant, cold and very bloody.
Trailer
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Written about
- Meiko Kaji and the art of not blinking
Toei hired her to headline prison quickies. She built the most-copied performance in Japanese genre cinema out of about forty lines of dialogue.
Filed alongside
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Meiko Kaji before Toei, leading a girl gang through Nikkatsu's coolest delinquent picture.
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Suppressed by Toei for decades. Butoh dancing, an island, and total delirium.
▶ watchobscureZero Woman: Red Handcuffs
Toei's red-coated killer cop, and the blueprint for every lone avenging woman after her.
▶ watchcultFemale Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41
Ito's second, and the most formally daring film in the whole category.
▶ watchcultBlind Beast
Masumura, one set, three actors, and an ending that goes much further than expected.
▶ watchcultGirl Boss Guerilla
Norifumi Suzuki at full speed. Reiko Ike is the whole show.