Version: Eastern Eye's R4 DVD - Japanese with English subtitles
I picked up 'Princess Blade' having heard that it was a remake of 'Lady Snowblood', but with a different take on the story. Also, it had 9 swords on the cover alone. That was very promising. It eventually turned it out to be remake of 'Lady Snowblood', but with the feel of Jean Claude Van Damme's 'Cyborg'. Nothing to be disappointed about, I enjoyed 'Cyborg' and I enjoyed 'Princess Blade' even more so.
In a future where Japan has seemingly suffered from war, and reverted back to a ruling monarchy without any democratic parliament, the government has hired a clan of assassins, known as the House of Takemikazuchi, to put down a rebellion. Yuki (Yumiko Shaku) is Takemikazuchi royalty, but not yet old enough to take her place as Princess Yuki of the House of Takemikazuchi. Only a few minutes into the movie Yuki discovers that Byakurai (Kyusaku Shimada), the current leader of the House of Takemikazuchi, took his place by murdering Yuki's mother, and so she must leave the group and reap vengeance. Awesome?
It sounds awesome, but not as action-packed as I had assumed. I thought that Yuki would have spent most of the movie reaping vengeance, much like 'Lady Snowblood', or Ryuhei Kitamura's more recent 'Azumi'. Despite the lack of constant reaping of vengeance, I was still able to enjoy this. There are long periods of non-action (most people refer to this as 'drama'), in which the movie explores themes that were also found in 'Lady Snowblood'. Yuki and Takashi are haunted by fates they think are beyond their control, when they always have a choice. If they did not have their love for each other, they would not have their love for each other. Even I have to agree that these themes are more important to the movie than Yuki reaping her vengeance.
I do not believe I just wrote that. There are some nice action scenes in 'Princess Blade', even if it occasionally looked like Yuki and Byakurai were flailing their swords around wildly rather than actually fighting. Hong Kong martial-arts movie legend Donnie Yen was the action-choreographer for this movie, and although he did a pretty good job, I think that in between this and directing 'Protege de la Rose Noire', he may have lost his awesome-touch from his earlier work. It is an enjoyable action movie, but far from being one of the best action movies I've ever seen.
Overall, 'Princess Blade' is an enjoyable movie. I would recommend it to fans of 'Lady Snowblood' and 'Azumi', even though both are better movies - 7/10
I picked up 'Princess Blade' having heard that it was a remake of 'Lady Snowblood', but with a different take on the story. Also, it had 9 swords on the cover alone. That was very promising. It eventually turned it out to be remake of 'Lady Snowblood', but with the feel of Jean Claude Van Damme's 'Cyborg'. Nothing to be disappointed about, I enjoyed 'Cyborg' and I enjoyed 'Princess Blade' even more so.
In a future where Japan has seemingly suffered from war, and reverted back to a ruling monarchy without any democratic parliament, the government has hired a clan of assassins, known as the House of Takemikazuchi, to put down a rebellion. Yuki (Yumiko Shaku) is Takemikazuchi royalty, but not yet old enough to take her place as Princess Yuki of the House of Takemikazuchi. Only a few minutes into the movie Yuki discovers that Byakurai (Kyusaku Shimada), the current leader of the House of Takemikazuchi, took his place by murdering Yuki's mother, and so she must leave the group and reap vengeance. Awesome?
It sounds awesome, but not as action-packed as I had assumed. I thought that Yuki would have spent most of the movie reaping vengeance, much like 'Lady Snowblood', or Ryuhei Kitamura's more recent 'Azumi'. Despite the lack of constant reaping of vengeance, I was still able to enjoy this. There are long periods of non-action (most people refer to this as 'drama'), in which the movie explores themes that were also found in 'Lady Snowblood'. Yuki and Takashi are haunted by fates they think are beyond their control, when they always have a choice. If they did not have their love for each other, they would not have their love for each other. Even I have to agree that these themes are more important to the movie than Yuki reaping her vengeance.
I do not believe I just wrote that. There are some nice action scenes in 'Princess Blade', even if it occasionally looked like Yuki and Byakurai were flailing their swords around wildly rather than actually fighting. Hong Kong martial-arts movie legend Donnie Yen was the action-choreographer for this movie, and although he did a pretty good job, I think that in between this and directing 'Protege de la Rose Noire', he may have lost his awesome-touch from his earlier work. It is an enjoyable action movie, but far from being one of the best action movies I've ever seen.
Overall, 'Princess Blade' is an enjoyable movie. I would recommend it to fans of 'Lady Snowblood' and 'Azumi', even though both are better movies - 7/10
