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Review

Danger After Dark: 3 Stars
With so many action movies today playing everything for laughs, a skillful film like The Princess Blade really stands out from the pack. Director Shinsuke Sato treats his futuristic swordplay tale of betrayal and revenge with a straightforward, somber lack of irony, and the film is all the stronger and more powerful for it. Featuring dazzling action choreography from Hong Kong martial-arts icon Donnie Yen (Iron Monkey), this film is a dynamic updating of the Lady Snowblood saga first told in manga form, and then in two 1973-74 films from director Toshiya Fujita (these two films would later prove to be a huge influence on Tarantino's Kill Bill). While the original films were period pieces, Princess Blade moves the tale of vengeance to a near-future Japan ravaged by social chaos. Yuki (the stunning Yumiko Shaku) fights alongside a group of freelance modern-day samurai, but soon finds her life dominated by thoughts of revenge when she discovers that her group leader was also responsible for the murder of her mother. Working with a refreshingly lean and straightforward narrative approach and breathtaking action set pieces, director Sato has shaped an emotionally engrossing and admirably sincere revenge tragedy that deserves comparison with the 1960s and 70s Japanese genre landmarks.

 -- Travis Crawford