Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance (1974)

  'Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance' (Shura-yuki-hime: Urami Renga) is a 1974 Japanese film directed by Toshiya Fujita. It is the sequel to the 1973 film 'Lady Snowblood: Blizzard from the Netherworld'.

  Somehow, Yuki (Meiko Kaji)survives the events of the first film, and massacres several policemen on a beach. She gets arrested and sentenced to death. On her way to the noose, she gets saved by Seishiro, head of the secret police. She is hired as an assassin to obtain a note from a criminal, Ransui. Once in his house, Ransui explains that the note proves the corruption of the secret police. Yuki switches sides, and is now helping to try and get the note to the press.

  Where has the tale of vengeance gone? Without the yearning for revenge, it is basically any other samurai or martial arts film. This is the main problem of the film. The events of the first film are forgotten, and there is no explanation of how she survived. Watching the two films, I have discovered that Yuki is invincible. She seems to have been shot about ten times throughout the two films.

  I thought the first Lady Snowblood was a great film, but this adds nothing to the story. No character development, nothing furthering the overall plot, nothing new or interesting to show us. 'Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance' is the definition of a unnecessary and pointless sequel. It hurts me to say that, as the director is the same, it's taken from the same manga, and Meiko Kaji is still the protagonist. Even the cinematographer has changed to Tatsuo Suzuki, who shot most of Shuji Tereyama's films and 'Funeral Parade of Roses'. But everything is considerably worse... Even the sword-fighting feels flimsy. I guess it is the story which lets everything down the most. The beginning attempted nothing to resolve the ending of the first film, and the ending of this film wasn't powerful enough. What is the point of all the bloodshed, over a single piece of paper, which they didn't even use in the end?

  Sequels in the last few years have been better than the originals ('The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' and 'Star Trek: Into Darkness'), but back then the expectations were lower, and they made a sequel purely for the money, with little attention to the film. They should have left the first one alone. This whole review has brought back memories of the horrendous 'Battle Royale II' the sequel to one of my favourite films, so I must stop, before I cry a bit.

TO CONCLUDE
Adds nothing to the story. The definition of half-assed. The best thing was that the runtime was less than 90 minutes.

SCORE
47