Lady Snowblood
The Frida Cinema's seating is first-come, first-serve. For our Midnight Screenings, please plan on arriving by 11:30pm to ensure ample time for parking, picking up concessions, and securing optimal seats. Screening will begin promptly at midnight.
Director: Toshiya Fujita Run Time: 97 min. Release Year: 1973 Language: Japanese
Starring: Masaaki Daimon, Meiko Kaji, Miyoko Akaza, Shinichi Uchida, Toshio Kurosawa
Our Hallucinations series continues in June with the mash-up of historical drama, exploitation cinema, and art-house in Toshiya Fujita’s revenge tale Lady Snowblood!
Yuki’s family is nearly wiped out before she is born due to the machinations of a band of criminals. These criminals kidnap and brutalize her mother but leave her alive. Later her mother ends up in prison with only revenge to keep her alive. She creates an instrument for this revenge by purposefully getting pregnant. Yuki never knows the love of a family but only killing and revenge.
A cult sensation upon release, Lady Snowblood gained international fame in the decades that followed, particularly after Quentin Tarantino cited it as a major influence on Kill Bill, borrowing both stylistic elements and its iconic theme song (“Shura no Hana,” performed by Kaji herself).