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Rating: Kill Bill: 2004, Quentin Tarantino.
Lady Snowblood: 1973, Toshiya Fujita.
What do these two films have in common? A lot, not to say almost everything. In fact, Lady Snowblood is the film that primarily inspired Tarantino in the writing and making of Kill Bill. There are countless nods from the Knoxville filmmaker to this yet another masterpiece of oriental cinema, both in terms of the story (the plot of Fujita's film is somewhat reflected in the story of Beatrix Kiddo and somewhat in that of O-ren Ishii) and direction (many ideas have been "copy-pasted" by Tarantino, like the presentation of the people the protagonists of the two films seek revenge on).
What strikes most is the amount of violence and blood present in an hour and a half of film: although very violent films had already been made before 1973, the audience of that era was not yet accustomed, unlike the modern one, to such malice and violence in cinema. In every respect, one can anachronistically define Lady Snowblood as a splatter film (despite this term being coined only in 1978 to describe Zombie by George Romero). But Fujita's strength is that, just as Tarantino will do 30 years later, he manages to go beyond mere violence. Blood and amputations are a "formidable cognitive tool" (to use the words of Sebastiano Timpanaro about Leopardi's illness), a means of reflection on violence, on the legitimacy of revenge: is revenge justified always and anyway? Is the death of the parents enough to justify Yuki's actions, the protagonist? And again, is violence a valid means of revenge? According to what I deduced, Fujita does not seem very favorable to revenge, as it, especially if committed with violence, generates a cycle of violence, as seen at the end of the film, according to the principle of karma: the murderers of the father wronged, to use a pale and gentle euphemism, Yuki's family, who, by killing the murderers, wronged their respective families. SPOILER ALERT!! And indeed, the daughter of one of the assassins will eventually kill Yuki. END SPOILER!!
From a technical point of view, there is not much to say: extremely well-done special effects and a remarkably crafted direction. But the strength of this film is certainly not the technical one. The story and the "philosophy," if we can even call it philosophy, underpinning this film are what make Lady Snowblood an absolute masterpiece not only of revenge movies but of cinema in general.
I would not like to dwell much, so as to pique and prompt those who have not yet seen it to do so. Just know that if you like Kill Bill, you will fall madly in love with Lady Snowblood.
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