Ghost Of Tsushima: 10 Samurai Films You NEED To Watch First

The samurai genre has seen its fair-share of subversive cinema that strays from the more traditional auteur filmmaking approach. Soon after, the rise of pinky cinema in Japan during the 1960s injected the genre with its pulpy stories and unabashed risqué material with exploitation films of the 70s following shortly after. Lady Snowblood sits with the latter camp being both a pulpy revenge story and an artistic endeavor subverting the typically male-lead genre.

Lady Snowblood does not hold back from its gritty origin story of the titular protagonist as she seeks revenge on those that killer her family and raped her mother. She endures relentless training at an early age by a priest named Dōkai to see through with her mother's dying wishes. At the age of 20, she becomes a professional assassin roaming Japan with a sword disguised as a parasol.

She enacts her vengeance without remorse and without hesitation; her birth a constant reminder of the trespasses committed against her and her family. One by one she tracks down the 4 perpetrators, not resting until her mission is complete.

Wrapped in blood-spurting gore and an anachronistic plot tightly written around a feminist revenge story, Lady Snowblood delivers in its pulp material while holding artistic integrity. It's gone to influence Tarantino and his film Kill Bill as a love letter to Lady Snowblood and other exploitation samurai films of the era.