Good concept, poorly executed.

Excellent, a Must See

Am I Missing Something?

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

In the sequel Snowblood seeks vengeance against the Heads of Secret Police unfairly killing anarchists. She meets a doctor while on the run from police but her injury gets her captured anyways. The Secret Police stage a prison break in exchange for her investigating Ransui (anarchist) and obtaining a secret document. Ransui recruits Snowblood on the team once she learns the Secret Police are using a bomb scandal to unjustly round up all anarchist and put them to death. The Police capture Ransui and torture him on Snowblood's whereabouts; Ransui sent her to deliver the documents to his brother, the doctor who saved her earlier.Ransui gets dumped in the slums where his brother lives, infected with a deadly plague. His wife attempts to get retribution but it costs her her life. Little Bro sends Snowblood to ransom the Secret Police for money and rice. The Police instead trap Snowblood into a bedroom as they ride and set the slums on fire.Little Bro, now infected with the plague and entire village burnt down, has nothing to lose and he and Snowblood ride out on the Heads of the Secret Police.

Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance is the very good and often underestimated sequel to the first Lady Snowblood movie released one year prior to this feature. Lady Snowblood turns out to have survived the events of the first film but is hunted down by police forces for her numerous murders. She gets tired of living on the run, stops fighting, gets arrested, tried and sentenced to death. On the day of her execution, the secret police force frees her and offers her to work as spy and assassin for them. Lady Snowblood is supposed to work as maid for an anarchist who has a document that could lead to a turmoil in the fragile country. She is supposed to steal the document, kill the anarchist and prevent a revolution. However, the more time she spends at his house, the more she questions whether she should complete her mission or switch sides. Lady Snowblood soon becomes a key character in the clash between ruthless government officials and desperate anarchists in the beginning of the twentieth century.Just as the first movie, this sequel convinces with a solid dose of realism and social criticism as it shows the rift between rich and poor during Meiji period. Due to its plot, historic setting and characters, this sequel isn't a tale of revenge but rather a political drama with martial arts elements. On one side, this change is quite interesting as this film offers something different from the first film but it also takes away from the first movie's gloomy atmosphere and more personal connection to the main character. The rest is business as usual on a very high level. The film-making is detailed, precise and visually stunning, the fight sequences once again find the right balance between elegance and violence and the acting performances are all excellent. If you liked the first film, it's very likely that you will also appreciate the sequel because it kept most elements that made the first film particularly outstanding and added more historic, political and social components to it.I can highly recommend the recently updated Criterion Collection including both the original Lady Snowblood and this surprisingly solid sequel as well as additional interviews and trailers. It's a shame that there weren't more Lady Snowblood movies because the feminist character is particularly unique and perfectly portrayed by a stunning Kaji Meiko. Martial arts fans and those interested in Japanese culture should be familiar with Lady Snowblood.

Shurayuki-hime is a word-play on Shirayuki-hime (the Japanese name for Snow White) and comes straight from the manga the first film was based on. I don't have anything to add to that. It's just a fun bit of trivia. Anyway, Meiko Kaji returns to her signature role of Lady Snowblood for this sequel (even though the first movie implies she doesn't survive its events), but her character is unfortunately pushed to the side as there are various other characters and sub-plots taking up the runtime. Also, the trademark umbrella sword doesn't appear in the sequel. Lady Snowblood doesn't act fueled by vengeance in this movie, despite its title, but instead gets tangled in a web of Meiji era politics, anarchism, police brutality, and the main villain politician's strange HQ with bright red walls, an aquarium with koi fish, and a stuffed tiger which demonically flashes its eyes in one scene.Unfortunately, the sequel doesn't have Lady Snowblood's awesome title tune from the first movie, but it does offer some neat instrumental music. The tone of the film is much darker and there are fewer violent scenes, but they are more graphic and some of them are just plain unsettling, like the scenes of torture of political prisoners. The story isn't divided into chapters this time around, but the recognizable narration is still there, not to mention the stock footage combined with scenes from the manga. Juzo Itami, director of Tampopo and A Taxing Woman appears as anarchist Ransui Tokunaga.The cinematography is once again, fantastic, and Toshiya Fujita proves himself as a director who knows how to work with colors and framing. The opening sequence taking place on the beach is especially well done.Lady Snowblood 2 isn't as good as the original; mostly because the plot is messier and Meiko Kaji's role isn't as significant and somewhat downplayed. The sequel is also more serious in tone and has more nudity. It's a moderately entertaining movie (outside of the gory scenes) and it's technically well done, if you can overlook stuff like Lady Snowblood being wounded by two gunshots at the end and looking like it isn't even a big deal.

At the end of the first Lady Snowblood film, it sure didn't look like there could be a sequel. First, all the bad guys who needed killing were dead and her need for revenge was complete. Second, she sure looked like she was dead or soon would be. Yet here we have Ykui showing up yet again. This time, however, instead of just killing off a few evil vermin, she's apparently been quite busy--with something like 37 killings to her credit. However, when you see her fighting at the beginning of this film you wonder how she could have done this, as the choreography and her skills were not especially impressive. The illusion of her great power was better in the first film--here the sword play looks a bit rough at times--but it's still worth seeing.This film finds her a wanted woman throughout Japan--and oddly the film is set about a decade or more ahead of the last film, though she looks exactly the same. Tired of fighting, she eventually allows herself to be arrested. She's soon convicted of murder and sent to execution. However, on the way, she's rescued by some unscrupulous officials who want her to do their bidding in exchange for her release. It seems they want her to bring them a certain important document and then kill the man who is hiding it. However, when she hears the intended victim's story, she realizes that the government officials are much like the scum she killed in the last film and she refuses to act. What's next? Will they kill the man, get the document or get Lady Snowblood to work for them or kill her? Tune in and see.Like the first film, this one has a lot of blood--though not the squirting and spurting geyser-like variety this time (at least not until the very end). Unlike the first one, this one also has some nudity. However, whether either has nudity or not isn't that important in regard to whether or not you let the kids see them--the violence, to me, is much more of a deciding factor.As for an older audience, the film is worth seeing--just don't expect it to be nearly as original or interesting as the first film. This one just isn't as good in every single way--though for fans of Japanese films, it's still worth seeing. Very adequate.By the way, in one scene, Yuki throws a knife up into the ceiling--impaling a man's hand in the process. Yet, despite this, moments later you see a close up of the bloody hand and there clearly is no hole or wound of any kind. Now I am NOT suggesting they should have mutilated the guy in order to provide better continuity---just not shown a close up of the hand itself.