Customer Reviews

The Princess Blade (Special Edition)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The Princess Blade is a decent film, and packs a fair punch into the modern Samurai style film genre.

The film centers around a young woman, Yuki, who starts off as an assasin for the House of Takemikazuchi.(a clan of X royal guards turned assasins for money) She turns on her house however, when she discovers that her mother was killed by the House years earlier. Yuki's mother had been a royal figure in a disbanded kingdom, which leaves Yuki as the only remaining aire and the title of Princess. (Thus the reason for the flims name) Yuki soon finds herself hunted by her former comrades, and she must battle them to save herself, as well as get revenge for her mother.

At one point Yuki is wounded in one of the skimishes, and is befriended by Takashi, a young man who is in an insurrectional movement to overthrow the goverment that funds the Takemikazuchi. Takashi shares Yuki's peril of having a tragic history, which is revealed during the film. He also has a sister who is in a post tramatic state which causes her to be detached somewhat from reality. Yuki hides out with the two for awhile and begins to discover that she can again find happiness in her life. Eventually however, she is tracked down by the Takemikazuchi, and must fight them in one final showdown.

The Princess blade was a good film both in story and in character development. The sword fights are well choregraphed, and the actors performances bring a genuine concern for the characters in the story. Also, there are a lot of similarities to Kill Bill, which was based in part on modern Japanese Smaurai style cinema.

The film does have a tragic ending however, and leads me to believe that a sequal was in mind when this film was made.(it may not be the ending the viewer is rooting for) Also, like in many Japanese films, the stroy slows down quite a bit during the middle, which left me begging for a few more sword fights. That being the main reason for a 4 instead of a 5 star rating. The film is not as action packed as Versuses, but it's less gorey, and takes itself much more seriously.

The tech aspects include both a Japanese and English dubbed language track,(ADV does a nice job on the dub) trailers of other films and that's about it.

Overall I enjoyed THe Princess Blade, and would watch it again. But I doubt it's a movie that I would want to watch frequently. My advice is that renting it will suffice for most people, but hard core fans of Japanese cinema and modern Samurai style films might consider purchasing it. It does have it's moments.

(Sorry for the pun...I couldn't help myself.)
This review is more to describe the quality of this DVD from Amazon.com, than it is of the film content--although, I think some reviewers here have been way too harsh on this film (great bushido action and SFX, good story).
I purchased "The Princess Blade" on ebay and saved a few bucks. What I got was a DVD with no menus in English and absoulutely HORRENDOUS sub-titles. It's like they chose to translate every 10th Japanese sentence and even then, only into English sentence fragments. Despite this, I liked the film enough to order it from Amazon.com.
The new copy (from Amazon) has menus in English, an English soundtrack and subtitles so good you can follow the story and even follow nuances of the story.

The lesson I learned is that not all DVD distributions are created equal.

I bought Princess Blade as a blind buy, and overall I really liked it. I think what really made it feel original to me was the way they showed the futuristic setting. There weren't a lot of dumb costumes or cheesy touches to overemphasize the fact that the characters are in "the future". There was one amazing shot of a super high-speed train speeding by the construction of a huge Orwellian statue of some kind of "supreme leader", and there were a couple of radio broadcasts giving us similar hints of a dystopian future setting, but it was all very subtle. Also, I liked the fact that although it was a futuristic setting, most of the fight scenes took place out in the forest. The action choreography (almost completely consisting of swordfights) is quite well done and not as fantastical as a lot of 90's Hong Kong wire-fu movies---there's very little use of wires or undercranking. The story, casting and acting are quite good, although the film suffers somewhat from an obviously limited budget. Also, although there is some blood, the movie is not excessively gory. Unfortunately, the ADV DVD picture quality is not very good for such a recent movie---it's non-anamorphic, and there are some compression artifacts evident.

Overall though, I thought the swordfight scenes were very good, the performances and story were touching, and the setting was unique and subtle. A very enjoyable, fresh and stylized take on martial arts movies.

When I saw the "Princess Blade" on opening day I was more then excited. Having been a long time fan of samurai films, anime, sci-fi and martial arts films this just seemed almost too good to be true. The story is set in a nameless country in a desolate war torn future that acts somewhat like a bridge between George Orwell''s "1984" and feudal Japan. In this isolated country ruled by a facist government rebels are delt with by one of the last remaining houses of nobles, a clan of assassins, that hold loyalty only to money. The last heir to this house is a young girl whom is soon to turn 20 (the age of adulthood in Japan), at which point she must choose between succeding to head of the house or to leave and disolve the house. When she learns that sensei had her mother and father murdered she tries to flee, only to be hunted by her former friends and household. Wounded and alone she finds refuge with a man whom leads a double life as a terrorist against the government.

What ensues is a vibrant display of wild swordplay, dramatic character development, bittersweet romance, tragedy, and the coming to terms with ones' self. In this regaurd the "Princess Blade" nearly hits every mark. My only complaint is with the ending, while poetic I still thought it should have been diffrent. Fine preformances on all parts. And a energetic, if not a tad repetitive, musical score.

If you are expecting the same calibure as Akira Kurosawa than this film will only serve to dissipoint you. While this film may not be Kurosawa, it is none the less, a wild and fun ride with some thought provoking moments (especially in our post 9/11 age).

The Princess Blade succeeds where so many kung fu films fail: it doesn't sacrifice the story or acting for the fight scenes. The swordplay in The Princess Blade is pretty incredible. The cinematography allows you to see the fights in detail but still allows the aesthetics of the choreography to be seen. The story, while simple, is easily to follow and allows you understand and care for the characters right off the bat. I've seen many reviewers complain that the middle of the film was slow. In other words, there is a story between the fighting.

If you want a good story and excellent fight scenes, The Princess Blade should be next on your "to watch" list.

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 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 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 the 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.

The princess blade tells the story of Yuki who is an assasin working for underground rebels called house of Takemikazuchi in a post apocalyptic Japan. I didn't know what specific time this film was supposed to be in but it was in the future, its not what your thinking this film was deffinently low budget as you can tell from the locations but it was nicely shot with a dark stylish atmosphere and the fight choreography was impressive and nice swordplay that was done by Donnie Yen. What I didn't like in this film was that it had many inconsistenceis the story was underdeveloped and some characters seem to have slowed down the pace with too much melodrama otherwise the film wasn't that good it was decent, I thought that Azumi was a much better film so you might want to check that out as well. And another thing that has bothered me with this film is that it all ends abruptly so there might be a sequel coming soon which I thought was dissapointing.

Princess Blade was a great film about a female assassin trying to forge a better life for herself. I loved the film for it's setting and look into a futuristic vision of a Japan going back to it's samarai like roots. What really struck me about this movie was that it was like a companion piece to another film that I truly love. That other film is Azumi about another female assassin who has an important decision to make. Azumi has to deal with a lot of the same problems that Yuki has to confront. Both lose their mothers and have father figures that prove false to them. I saw Princess Blade first and throughly enjoyed it, but I would also like to recommend getting Azumi. You'll find that it has a lot in common with this film.

Tough this movie was pretty good, alongside such awesome epics such as HERO,(with Jet Li), Azumi, and Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon, this movie paled by comparison.

But in and of itself, it is much better then a lot of the more cheesier Asian films being pumped out. The action sequences were very dynamic and exciting to watch, and the set and tone of the futuristic Samurai was different. And different is good!

But the storyline was lacking, and sometimes plodded along way too slow for this American. But overall, I can see what people see and like in this film. But the storyline could have been so much stronger and better. A good basic idea, with good action, but seemingly nothing else.

If you want to see a much faster-paced movie, with bigger budget and better acted, and awesome action sequences - then MUSA, THE WARRIOR is the best!

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.