The Complete Lady Snowblood
BUY AT:
See more details, packaging, or compare
Synopsis
A young woman (Meiko Kaji), trained from childhood as an assassin and hell-bent on revenge for the murders of her father and brother and the rape of her mother, hacks and slashes her way to gory satisfaction in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Japan. Rampant with inventive violence and spectacularly choreographed swordplay, Toshiya Fujita’s pair of influential cult classics Lady Snowblood and Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance are bloody, beautiful extravaganzas composed of one elegant widescreen composition after another. The first Lady Snowblood was a major inspiration for Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill saga, and both of Fujita’s films remain cornerstones of Asian action cinema.
Picture 8/10
The Criterion Collection presents both Lady Snowblood and Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance together on Blu-ray in their release The Complete Lady Snowblood. Both films are presented in their original aspect ratio of of 2.35:1 in new 1080p/24hz high-definition presentations. Both come from new 2K scans of 35mm low-contrast prints struck from the original negativse. The films share the same dual-layer disc.
Arrow had previously released the films together on Blu-ray in the UK back in 2012. I haven’t seen that edition, though heard complaints about the presentation of the blacks, which, judging from various screen captures I’ve seen, come off more milky and gray. That certainly isn’t an issue here, with the blacks looking deeper and inkier, unquestionably more “black,” though this isn’t without its issues. I don’t know how the films are supposed to look admittedly: previous DVD versions and airings on television (at least for the first film) have all looked different in terms of colours, and Criterion’s also looks different. Contrast looks to have been boosted quite a bit, probably leading to the deeper blacks, and some details look to be washed out because of it, particularly in low lit scenes. This also leads to pastier skin tones, Lady Snowblood looking rather pasty herself. But, in all honesty, the look suits the film and I admittedly rather liked how it looked. The contrast also plays nicely against the colours, which pop out all the more, the reds of spurting and/or draining and/or pooling blood specifically, looking very deep and rich, rendered nicely without issues with bleeding.
For both films the transfers themselves are also very clean. Despite two films being stuffed on the same disc with a handful of features the encode for both actually look pretty good, and I didn’t detect the usual issues I’ve come across lately, at least in darker scenes, where blocking patterns are evident. Film grain is present and looks adequately rendered and largely natural. And despite the issues I mentioned previously, where some details get washed out in dark scenes because of the contrast boosting, detail levels are very good throughout in brighter areas. The source for both films can have some minor fluctuations and there can be some softer shots, but generally speaking the image is pretty sharp and I was very pleased with this aspect.
There are also a couple of minor specs scattered about but the source is otherwise in great shape and the clean-up job is impressive. I have a feeling that some might complain about the contrast, and again I don’t know how either film was ever intended to look, but I like how this presentation has turned out.
Audio 6/10
Some dated sound effects can sound a little too sharp and edgy but the monaural 1.0 PCM tracks for both films are otherwise fine enough. Dialogue is clear, music is nicely controlled, and there is an inkling of fidelity and depth to the whole thing. Volume levels are nicely mixed and nothing comes off too harsh. Both tracks are limited a bit by age but I feel we get a decent representation for both films.
Extras 5/10
The menu separates each film into different sub-menus, with each one getting their own special features.
Lady Snowblood's features start with what is probably the disc's biggest treat, a new interview with the author of the Lady Snowblood graphic novels, Kazuo Koike. It’s only 10-minutes long but fairly dense, with Koike talking about the origins of the character and his desire in creating a story around a woman assassin, a subject that usually centers around males. He also talks about the artwork, the films, and shares his opinion on Meiko Kaji, who plays the lead. Mixed in to the interview are still shots of the actual novels so we get a glimpse of the storylines and artwork, which, based on what I see, shows that the film looks to be somewhat close to the source. The interview is very loose and occasionally funny, Koike a fairly lively subject. If the release as a whole lacks one major thing it’s really more information on the original graphic novels but this, in its brief amount of time, does give a decent overview.
Following this is an interview with screenwriter Norio Osada, who adapted the graphic novels for the first film and then wrote the script to the second film. He spends most of his 21-minutes of screen time giving a back story to how the first film came into being and the difficulty in adapting a graphic novel, which was a new challenge for him but one he undoubtedly welcomed. During the last few minutes he talks about the sequel, Love Song of Vengeance and the direction he went on that, breaking more away from the source. Even if it’s not as entertaining as Koike’s it’s still an enlightening overview on the development of the films, with Osada explaining some of his choices, and what it was like working with Toshiya Fujita and actor Meiko Kaji, both of whom were, surprisingly, fairly resistant to the film.
The supplements for this film then close with the film’s theatrical trailer.
Unfortunately the sequel ends up getting the shaft, only receiving a theatrical trailer as a special feature. This is unfortunate as I would have loved more analysis of the sequel, which differs so much from the first film, and I would have loved to get more about that. All we get on that front is the brief mention of the sequel in the Osada interview.
The release finally comes with an insert, one of Criterion’s fold-out road map style ones (though it at least includes a nice looking poster image on one side), featuring an essay by Howard Hampton. Hampton writes about the series’ politics and style, and the shift between the two films. It offers a decent analysis of the films.
We get ultimately get a couple of strong supplements for both films, though again I would have liked a little more about the novels themselves and maybe more analysis, at least of the very different sequel.
Closing
In the end it’s a solid release. The supplements aren’t packed in here, and I was sad to see that the second film basically gets the shaft in terms of special features, but the two interviews found here are both very good and offer an illuminating enough look at the source material and the process of adapting it. Along with the strong looking transfers and the fact we get both films, this release comes as a high recommendation to fans of the films.
BUY AT:
