Lady Snowblood (1973)

A broken woman serves life in a Meiji-era prison. The men who destroyed her and her family are still out there. She gives birth on the prison floor as snow falls outside, and anoints the child with a single purpose. Revenge.

Raised by a Buddhist priest through years of brutal training, Yuki walks the length of Japan with a sword hidden in the shaft of her umbrella.

Toshiya Fujita shot LADY SNOWBLOOD (1973) cheap, on twenty thousand feet of film, and made it beautiful anyway: chapters with titles, flashbacks folded out of order, manga panels cut into the action, blood arcing across snow.

Meiko Kaji nearly said no. She was done with the Female Prisoner Scorpion films and tired of vengeful women in exploitation pictures.

What won her over? She had previously worked with Fujita and developed a deep creative rapport with him. She had also read the source manga and saw the potential for a different, more artful revenge thriller.

Thirty years later Quentin Tarantino made this film the foundation for Kill Bill. He had his cast watch it between takes, and ended his first volume with Meiko Kaji's own 1973 voice.

The Japanese title, by the way, is a pun. Snow White is Shirayuki-hime. Swap in shura, the realm of carnage and demons, and you get this film. Shurayuki-hime. Princess Carnage-Snow.