Lady Snowblood and Song of Vengeance

Part of the Hanabi Japanese Film Festival, running Sept. 1 – 13. Limited festival passes available for access to all films.

A special Labor Day double feature; two films for the price of one!

Gory revenge is raised to the level of visual poetry in Toshiya Fujita’s stunning film. Set in late nineteenth-century Japan, the story follows the single-minded path of vengeance taken by a young woman (Meiko Kaji) whose parents were the unfortunate victims of a gang of brutal criminals. Fujita creates a wildly entertaining action film of remarkable craft, an effortless balancing act between beauty and violence.

Meiko Kaji returns in the invigorating sequel. Our furious heroine is captured by the authorities and sentenced to death for the various killings she has committed; however, she is offered a chance of escape—if she carries out dangerous orders for the government. More politically minded than the original and full of exciting plot turns and ingenious action sequences.

Both films will screen back-to-back with a short intermission between the two.

Screened in Japanese with English subtitles.