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The Princess BladeRating:
Release Date: 18 November, 2003 Retail Price: $19.98 OUR Price: $17.99 You SAVE: $1.99! Cast: |
The Princess Blade Reviews
OH MAN WAS THAT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
500 years have passed. That is what is says at the start. Now maybe these movies are like really common, but I need a story that is at least explainable. But the good news is that the drama is great. The comedy is really funny even though sparingly used. The action is done in a very hong kong type of style. Not what I swas expecting, cuause that is like what I always watch, but good none the less. I could have used a lttle more action, btu man was it spectacular. The wire work is noticeable, but not to make that actors look better, rather to show what happens when you get REAL athletes on wires. The fighting is VERY real throughout the whole film, and even though I like really bloody stuff, I thought this just hit the spot, but went a tad too extreme midway through. Not complaining, just warnign people it is rated R for a reason. But seriosly this movie is a 5/5. The story just needed to be A LOT better. Great acting, just no story. But I remember one scene in particular where the princess is taking on like 7 people all by herself, and the action is just seriously second to none. Add in like 5 other scenes that almost, just almost match that one. Wow what a violently spectacular film. WHEW, now that I got that point across, I can discuss the actual movie. OH BTW, I did see AT LEAST one of donnie's kicks in here, so look closely:)
So the story is about a japanese girl who is part of a team of assasins. I guess that assasins rule the world by killing people who are uprising or something in this. But anyway, the girl in this movie is like the last of her blood line and once she rebels, the other assasins want to kill her. It talks briefly how she is descended form like LONG ago and this is of great importance. But the part that captured me was the dark mood of the movie. the story is not good, but the huuman conflict going on is a very good movie watchign experience for anyone. There is a subplot which turn even darker at teh end. But overall, a wonderful movie. Also the music is great and really helps to capture the mood.
Now I have the adv films dvd and have to disagree with the pervious reviewer and say that the english dub sucks. The japanese track is AWESOME and is full of all types of emotion. If he would haev said it was better than most, I would have agreed, cause it certainly was! Sound is wonderful when the music is playing but the volume is a bit slow when it is not. The picture quality is perfecto and is widescreened. Special features-nothing. Just some anime trailers.
This Lady Snowblood Doesn't Fly
The Princess Blade is a homage to an infinitely better movie, 1973's Lady Snowblood. It's not like they try to hide that fact - it's a homage, not a rip-off. The Japanese name of both films, Shurayuki-hime, is identical, and the two main characters even have the same name, Yuki. In Japanese, "Shura" is a Buddhist term very like "Hell" or "netherworld," a place of violence and carnage. "Yuki" mean "snow" and is a common girl's name. "Hime" means "princess" or "lady." "Shurayuki-hime" is also a play on "Shirayuki-hime," the Japanese name for Snow White. All this according to the movie notes on the Lady Snowblood DVD.
In Lady Snowblood, in Meiji Japan the titular character is the child of a woman whose husband and son are murdered by a band of thugs. After the murders, the wife is raped and tortured by the killers for three days. Surviving that ordeal, she dedicates herself to tracking and killing the people responsible. She offs the first one but is then captured and jailed. Dying in prison in childbirth, she charges - some would say curses - her infant daughter to finish the job when she's old enough. For what it is, this is an extraordinarily well done film. Even with all the extreme violence and second-rate actors overdoing their death throes as they spurt buckets of fake blood we'd expect from a Seventies Japanese samurai flick, there are also moments in Lady Snowblood that are eerily beautiful.
In The Princess Blade, in the that unspecified near-future time so beloved of low-budget sci-fi, Yuki's mother is the leader of a gang of assassins. Betrayed by one of her own, she's also tortured for three days, but in this case doesn't survive the experience. The daughter, unaware of how her mother died - she's only two years old at the time - becomes a member of the gang herself. Not until she's almost 20 does she discover the gang leader is also her mother's murderer. After trying and failing to kill him, she runs for her life and movie proceeds from there.
If I may be allowed to seemingly digress for a moment: I believe that most people - unless they absolutely hate a particular type of movie - will enjoy any film, of any genre, as long as it's well done. Look at all the people not previously fans of anime who loved Ghost In the Shell. The Princess Blade is low-budget, hyper-violent, Japanese chop-socky. It's well enough done that if you're already a fan of such movies, you'll probably enjoy it. However, unlike Lady Snowblood, The Princess Blade is not well enough done to have crossover appeal, i.e. it just won't do it for people not already predisposed to like this sort of film.
If you're a genre fan, I'd say of The Princess Blade, go for it. If not, and you just have an idle interest in watching a good low-budget Japanese flick with a sword-wielding female assassin as the main character, I suggest passing on The Princess Blade and watching Lady Snowblood instead (now available in an absolutely superb DVD transfer, by the way). You'll enjoy the experience immensely more.
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