The Princess Blade

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07/09/2014 The Princess Blade (2003) I had an opportunity to see this film at a Portland (Oregon) Film Center special event. Unfortunately they were having technical difficulties with the Dolby audio and we were given tickets for a showing later that weekend. The early parts of the movie that I saw were very impressive. The action sequences (by noted Kung Fu movie choreographer, Donnie Yen) were good enough to make me rent "Iron Monkey" before going home that night. The movie, "Shurayuki-Hime" or "Princess Blade" (yes, it's a remake) is set some time in the near post apocalyptic future. I loved the flaming begining titles. The emperor has stepped down and the Japanese society has closed itself off from the world. Pandemonium reigns supreme. Yumiko Shaku plays a young sword wielding assassin named Yuki, a modern day Ronin; killing for whoever pays for it. After killing off an escaping member of her gang she meets up with an old man from her past that tells her that her boss had actually killed her mother. She is the last of her Takemikazuchi clan and should leave. Yuki goes back and confronts the boss, confirming that he had killed her mother, fights, and runs away herself when she finds out that what the old man told her was true. In her escape, Yuki hops onto the back of a moving truck driven by a young man who has secrets of his own. He's some kind of hacker living inside of a gas station out in the country with his sister. Soon Yuki and the young man grow closer. They even contemplate running away together, but both of their pasts come back to haunt them. This was a well made movie. The first half was very stylized, but the second half of the movie began to get muddled. I know that I may be ethnocentric and am used to American-made movies, or at least the older Samurai movies of 60s. After the second half of "Princess Blade", I wasn't sure what it wanted to be. Did it want to be a sensitive, romantic "chick flick", an action picture, a Samurai revenge picture, or science fiction movie? They were all over the genre map. Again, I'm probably just culturally conditioned wrong for this movie. Perhaps they simply ran out of money before filming the end of the picture. I liked it enough to recommend it generally. It's very enjoyable with some great action sequences. Somehow, I think that they could have done better had they kept up the momentum. See more 03/16/2013 great but could do with some work See more 06/10/2012 It's an action packed movie with great acrobatic swordplay from beginning to end. See more 04/28/2012 Watched a number of times. Liked the action, kind of put all Jackie Chans' movies to shame. See more 07/20/2011 A cliched revenge story but enjoyable none the less. Pretty decent fight scenes and a good soundrack to boot. Enjoyable enough but not one I would strongly recommend. If you need to watch Japanese girls swinging swords watch 'Azumi' instead of this, after that watch 'Azumi 2' and if you're still not satisfied 'The Princess Blade' may help. See more 06/26/2011 Princess Blade is a no holds barred thrilling action packed movie that spares no expense on special effects. Directed by Shinsuke Sato this is a thrilling look at a young girls struggle to escape the same fate as her mother. It follows Yuki Takemikazuchi, the princess of the Takemikazuchi clan as she discovers the true cause of her mother's death and her fight to escape her blood splattered past as an assassin. The movie doesn't really concentrate on the revenge theme too much, as much as it contrasts the morality of a rebel killing for a cause, and that of an assassin killing for profit. The major plus this movie has going for it is the very impressive swordplay, which does provide the bulk of the excitement, but this doesn't last throughout the movie as the middle becomes rather stale and uninteresting but just as your mind begins to wander someone will arrive on cue for a fight. Overall this movie won't make you think too hard, but the characters are somewhat endearing, if not a little unexplored, and it definitely doesn't fall into typical martial arts movie category. See more Read all reviews

The Princess Blade

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