The Princess Blade (2001)

The Princess Blade (2001)
Japanese title: 修羅雪姫
Translation: Lady Snowblood

 

Starring: Yumiko Shaku, Hideaki Itô, Yôichi Numata, Shirô Sano, Kyûsaku Shimada, Yôko Chôsokabe, Yôko Maki, Naomasa Musaka
Director: Shinsuke Sato
Action Director: Donnie Yen, Kenji Tanigaki

The Princess Blade was filmed during Donnie Yen’s “choreographer” period, in which he spent most of his time behind the camera directing fight scenes than as an actor. The period went from 1999 until 2004, after which the success of both Seven Swords and Sha Po Lang turned him into the Great White Hope of Hong Kong martial arts actors. The “choreographer period” had been preceded by Donnie’s “Indie Director” period, marked by movies like Legend of the Wolf and Ballistic Kiss[1].

Donnie’s first gig in this action director period was in the romance-cum-crime drama Moonlight Express, starring Leslie Cheung. Nobody ever talks about this movie anymore, so I can only imagine that the action was both limited and fairly negligible. The following year, Donnie went to the West for a pair of gigs. One was the choreographer for the German TV series “Der Puma,” starring martial artist Mickey Hardt. The second was on the Hollywood film Highlander: Endgame, for which he staged the fights and played legendary assassin Jin Ke, the same guy he essentially fought two years later in Hero. After going to Japan for this movie, he went back to Hollywood for Guillermo del Toro’s Blade II, once again choreographing the fights and playing a supporting a role as a katana-wielding vampire.

The year 2003 saw Donnie’s stock rise, as he choreographed the well-received action-horror-fantasy The Twins Effect, which earned him his first Hong Kong Film Award for Best Action Direction. He immediately went to work directing the action on the next Twins movie, Protégé de la Rose Noire. Most people these days try to pretend that movie doesn’t exist, which should give you an idea as to its quality. However, if you want to see Donnie’s younger sister in action, then there’s that. He also took an “important” supporting role in The Twins Effect 2 that same year (i.e. 2004), although the action duties were handed over to Corey Yuen this time.

The Princess Blade is based on the same source material, the manga Shurayuki Hime, that inspired the classic chanbara film Lady Snowblood. This film pushes the story into a dystopian future, in which the Meiji restoration never occurred, but Japan had remained closed for a good 500 years, placing the story around A.D. 2103. The Japanese did manage to push their technology forward, although much like the 1990s Japan in real life, this fictional Japan has suffered economic stagflation for long enough that you get the feeling that inertia is just killing the place—much like Mad Max.

The main characters in this film belong to a clan known as the Takemikazuchi. The clan were originally the bodyguards for the royal family, but eventually one of the later kings turned on them. Most of them were hunted and killed. Many had their swords confiscated and/or were physically mutilated so as to prevent them from using martial arts. Those who escaped went underground and became paid assassins, sort of the ninja of their day. One of their number is Yuki (Yumiko Shaku, of Sky High and Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla), whose deceased mother had been the former “princess” of the clan. These days, however, the clan is run by the bass-voiced Byakurai (Kyûsaku Shimada, of Shin Godzilla and Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis).

One day, Yuki is out in the forest to kill a deserter when she runs into Kuka (Yôichi Numata, of Ringu and The Golden Bat), a former servant of her mother’s. Kuka informs her that her mother wasn’t killed in combat, but was actually murdered by Byakurai. When Yuki returns, she confronts her chief about the matter and he responds by trying to kill her. Yuki gets the heck out of dodge and takes refuge in a rundown gas station run by Takashi (Hideaki Itô, of the Onmyoji movies), a former dissident and terrorist, and his mute sister, Aya (Yôko Maki, of The Grudge and The Vanished). After recovering, Yuki takes leave and meets Kuka at the abandoned industrial district for more information about what happened to her mother. Unfortunately, the other Takemikazuchi assassins have figured out that the two would be meeting again. Yuki isn’t go to get away so easily this time…

The only real similarities between this and Lady Snowblood is the general theme about a woman who grew up being trained to kill seeking vengeance against those who killed her parents. Otherwise, they are completely different films, and this goes beyond the sci-fi trappings of this movie’s setting. While Lady Snowblood  had a lot of historical politics in the context of its story, the politics here are relegated to a limited subplot involving Takashi and his former dissident buddies. Cue a cameo by the ubiquitous Shirô Sano, of Godzilla 2000; Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack; and Godzilla: Final Wars.

Lady Snowblood’s Yuki also didn’t have much a character arc in her two movies. She’s has been taught since childhood that the entire reason for her existence is to get revenge, and that’s what she dutifully does. At no point does ever really stop to question her purpose or lot in life, or even ponder the morality of killing people, especially the henchmen of her enemies who had nothing to do with their original sins. Lady Snowblood is resigned to killing and that’s that. Princess Blade’s version of Yuki, as played by Yumiko Shaku (who was a big thing in the early 2000s), is a lot more introspective. While Shaku lacks the beauty and charisma of Meiko Kaji—a tall order to fill, although Shaku has her own following thanks her role as the tortured Akane Yashiro in Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla—her character has a complete arc. From unfeeling killing machine to reluctant warrior to a human being that embraces her emotions, Yuki is definitely a different person at the end than she was at the beginning.

The character development does have a bit of a cost in that the second act slows down a lot. You do start feeling for the characters by the time the third acts sets in and Yuki has to face her past once and for all, but a lot of viewers will probably be getting antsy by the hour mark. Said Phil Mills of Far East Films:

 

“The main problem is the lack of a significant story, as the film seems to play all of its cards early on and we’re left meandering around as the main character contemplates how to deal with her predicament. This ultimately means that the film becomes somewhat dull in places and you’ll regularly find yourself looking at your watch, just praying for something meaningful to occur[2].”

When something meaningful does occur, it is usually a pretty good swordfight courtesy of Donnie Yen and his protégé, Kenji Tanigaki. While Donnie needs no introduction, Mr. Tanigaki has had an impressive career, especially in recent years. Tanigaki joined Donnie’s stunt team around 1998 for Ballistic Kiss and has stuck by the man’s side until this very day. But he has also worked on various non-Donnie films, too. In his native Japan, Tanigaki did the action direction for the Rurouni Kenshin films, the first of which is said to have one of the best sword fights of all time. He won a Taiwan Golden Horse Award for his action in the film Hidden Man. Tanigaki has also worked in Hollywood on G.I. Joe Origins: Snake Eyes.

There are a handful of fights, most of which are in the first act. The movie opens with the Takemikazuchi assassins ambushing some cars on a highway and killing the men inside. Donnie and Kenji go for the stylish, with slow motion aerial attacks, some wire-enhanced acrobatics, and rapid-fire editing (mainly to hide the fact that actress Yumiko Shaku is often doubled by Yuji Shimomoura, another Donnie Yen collaborator). Yuki’s brief fight with Byakurai is mainly notable for its hard-hitting falls and throws.

Even better is the brief fight with the Takemikazuchi assassins in the abandoned factory, which features a lot of dynamic camerawork and one-versus-many sword choreography. In this fight, the result looks like a 1990s Ching Siu-Tung film, or the machete fight at the beginning of Donnie’s own Legend of the Wolf. That fight ends on a very graphic note involving torture and impaling.

The best choreography is saved for the finale, which is an eclectic mix of the sort of bootwork that Donnie Yen is most known for and swordplay that looks more like Western fencing than Japanese kenjutsu. While some may consider that inappropriate for a Japanese movie, the fact that Shaku (and Shimomoura) are fighting off half a dozen men at the same time makes the choreography that much more impressive. There are some nice slow-motion flips, wire-assisted jump kicks, and a neat way to neutralize her opponent’s sword techniques. Although action is infrequent and sometimes a little chaotic, it is good enough that, combined with Yumiko Shaku’s performance, it makes this a must for a single viewing…at the very least.

---

[1] - It technically started in 1995 with the film High Voltage. Donnie apparently did most of the directing after the director walked off the set.

[2] - https://www.fareastfilms.com/?review_post_type=the-princess-blade

This review is part of the "Oh, the Insanity! Oh, the Japanity!" series (click the "banner" below):