Lady Snowblood

After watching this masterpiece, I'm ashamed and angered that I live in a culture which made me discover this film via its entertaining, but shalow, reductionist, emotionless, individualist and ultimately unworthy American bastardisation. The storytelling is of top quality, film's grounding in historical period and its social conditions is so important, characters may seem one-dimensional in their drivenness on the surface, but are complex, torn between widely accepted morality and personal/family principles and devotions. I'm not too familiar with Japanese cinematography so I cannot place my observations into context, but I liked the tempo/pacing, camera-work (usage of fast zooms, bird's perspective shots, skewed angled shots) adds to an original feel, scenery is fantastic and even more impressive knowing it's a low-budget film, music is full of emotion and it guides the viewer. I will definitely watch it again

Tarantino is infamous for borrowing a lot from obscure films, and _Lady Snowblood_'s influence on _Kill Bill_ is abundantly clear. However, calling one a rip-off of the other would be a bridge too far, this has its own distinct tone and directorial style. It's a very straightforward revenge story with just enough character depth to keep things interesting; a classic B-movie that's elevated by its distinct aesthetic and technical wizardry. Loved the action and editing, this filmmaker knows how long a shot needs to linger. It really helps the performances a lot, there's more subtlety here than you might expect. The combined samurai and western influence gives the visual style a very distinct personality, it really makes the set pieces (which are already well staged in their own right) memorable. I don't have any real complaints about it. Sure, it's not the most layered film ever made but unlike a lot of simple genre exercises this didn't bore me once. It pushes to emotion to some challenging places, it's creative, it's fun; watch it. 8/10