What makes it different from others?

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

If you like whips...and I mean REALLY like whips, you will LOVE this movie. It has the same villianess as the first Oichi movie and she's even MORE cartoonish. Of course it has the usual swordplay as well.Oichi seems to have a different personality in each movie. In this one, she was a cold bounty hunter to start with; however, she evolves into a rural domestic and even marries before her past, and the lady with the whip, catch up with her.This movie probably had as good an emotional range as the first Oichi movie. She's not quite the killing machine that she became later, but she manages to carve up thirty or so samurai like nova scotia salmon...I'd have to give this movie two stars out of five.