She will hack you down with no mercy!

Here Yuki 'snow' is on the run and wanted for the vengeance she bestowed upon the evil men who murdered and committed crime and did not pay the price.

Deducted points because Yuki is hot, thin and feminine but we see no skin.

At the end of the first Lady Snowblood film, it sure didn't look like there could be a sequel. First, all the bad guys who needed killing were dead and her need for revenge was complete. Second, she sure looked like she was dead or soon would be. Yet here we have Ykui showing up yet again. This time, however, instead of just killing off a few evil vermin, she's apparently been quite busy--with something like 37 killings to her credit. However, when you see her fighting at the beginning of this film you wonder how she could have done this, as the choreography and her skills were not especially impressive. The illusion of her great power was better in the first film--here the sword play looks a bit rough at times--but it's still worth seeing.

This film finds her a wanted woman throughout Japan--and oddly the film is set about a decade or more ahead of the last film, though she looks exactly the same. Tired of fighting, she eventually allows herself to be arrested. She's soon convicted of murder and sent to execution. However, on the way, she's rescued by some unscrupulous officials who want her to do their bidding in exchange for her release. It seems they want her to bring them a certain important document and then kill the man who is hiding it. However, when she hears the intended victim's story, she realizes that the government officials are much like the scum she killed in the last film and she refuses to act. What's next? Will they kill the man, get the document or get Lady Snowblood to work for them or kill her? Tune in and see.

Like the first film, this one has a lot of blood--though not the squirting and spurting geyser-like variety this time (at least not until the very end). Unlike the first one, this one also has some nudity. However, whether either has nudity or not isn't that important in regard to whether or not you let the kids see them--the violence, to me, is much more of a deciding factor.

As for an older audience, the film is worth seeing--just don't expect it to be nearly as original or interesting as the first film. This one just isn't as good in every single way--though for fans of Japanese films, it's still worth seeing. Very adequate.

By the way, in one scene, Yuki throws a knife up into the ceiling--impaling a man's hand in the process. Yet, despite this, moments later you see a close up of the bloody hand and there clearly is no hole or wound of any kind. Now I am NOT suggesting they should have mutilated the guy in order to provide better continuity---just not shown a close up of the hand itself.

The ending of the original "Lady Snowblood" left the fate of Yuki Kashima (Meiko Kaji) somewhat ambiguous. She was shot and severely gut stabbed, and the movie closed with her lying motionless on the ground. Perhaps with an eye toward a sequel, the film makers brought her back in another tale in which she embarks on a journey of vengeance. This time though, the story is set amidst the political turmoil of 1906 Meiji Japan, with Yuki captured and arrested for the murder of thirty seven of her countrymen. The reason for these killings wasn't adequately established except in a mention of murder for hire in the narrative; in the first film she was on a personal mission of revenge for the death of her imprisoned mother.

Something I noticed in the first film but didn't mention in my review of it, was the point that Yuki didn't seem particularly skillful in the demonstration of her swordsmanship. She simply slashed and stabbed her way against opponents in a manner that didn't require any type of exceptional choreography. At any time when she was surrounded by authorities, it seemed to me she should have been overtaken by sheer force of numbers, even if Yuki did manage to wound or kill a couple. Considering that sometimes one of the authorities had a gun made it seem even more incredible, so one has to wonder about the thought process put into the story.

Be that as it may, fans of Japanese martial films will probably accept most of these inconsistencies for the sake of a decently staged action thriller. The political subtext involved was an interesting departure from the first film, with elements of ransom demands and threat of a plague infection thrown in for good measure. The bloodletting is toned down from the original, though fans of such are treated to a requisite amount of the red stuff. As before, Yuki suffers some bullet wounds in closing out the story, but still having the presence of mind to put her benefactor Shusuke (Yoshio Harada) out of his misery upon request. Not to mention the bad guys, only fitting as they had it coming.