Rating: 
Summary: Sword fights done to perfection, a little slow in between
Review: Looking through these reviews, I'm a little surprised at the negative feedback. The fight scenes in this movie are stunning, beautiful, and choreographed to perfection.
Was it a little slow in the middle while Takashi nurses the Princess Blade (Yuki) back to health? Yes, it was slow; they slowly developed a love story into the plot. The first 40 minutes was non-stop action though, then 30 minutes of slow paced relationship developing mixed into the story, then another 20 minutes of action.
The first 35-40 minutes were done to perfection though. The first assassination, followed by the guy who tried to separate from the House of Takemikazuchi when Yuki hunts him down was amongst the two best sword fight scenes I've seen ever.
Now I must say Yumiko Shaku is no Brigitte Lin or Michelle Yeoh, but the Princess Blade was better then Swordsman II or Butterfly and Sword in terms of sword fighting. Don't forget, Swordsman II is great because of Jet Li, I would not call it one of Brigitte Lin's best performances (not even close to as good as Dragon Inn). But, I digress.
I strongly recommend this movie, at least for a rent. I believe it is worth owning (as I do). It's entertaining, worth watching, and the fight scenes are choreographed to perfection.
Grade: B
Rating:
Summary: very pleased
Review: Much better than most female hero movies. I appreciated the fact that the romance wasn't the main point of the story, in fact it was quite understated. The action scenes were short but well worth it... alot of the ending moves were brilliant and unlike anything i've seen. Any talk of a sequel? How about Princess Blade vs. Kill Bill?
Rating: 
Summary: Visceral Poetry
Review: OK- this film is for all the Japanese swordplay buffs who also read Japanese manga. At times you'll catch yourself thinking, "What the hell is going on?" as the plot moves really fast in the beginning; but there's enough visceral action spread throughout to keep you interested. It's the story of a girl named Yuki who is the head of an assasination family called the House of Takemikazuchi.Without giving too much of the story away,she must run away from the only life she's known and is constantly hunted down by other members of her "family".
She finds temporary refuge with a young insurrectionist named Takashi. The movie was inspired by a comic from Kazuo Koike and Kazuo Kamimura. Kazuo Koike is the spectacular writer of both the "Crying Freeman" and "Lone Wolf and Cub" comic series. If you like "Crying Freeman" you'll be right at home here. The characters and plot are very well done but the real star of the movie is the sword fights!! At one point in your life you reach an age where you lose your sense of "danger" in action flicks. Some guy could be defusing an atom bomb and you would be bored to death...well i was pleasantly surprised to find out that every clang! clang! clang! of katanas striking each other seemed both immediate and dripping with an intense poetry that make most action flicks seem so "sterile" today. You really do sense how dangerous it is to fight with samurai swords and that one accomplishment alone warranted five stars.
Rating:
Summary: A film that's a perfect companion to Azumi!
Review: Princess Blade was a great film about a female assassin trying to forge a better life for herself. I loved the film for it's setting and look into a futuristic vision of a Japan going back to it's samarai like roots. What really struck me about this movie was that it was like a companion piece to another film that I truly love. That other film is Azumi about another female assassin who has an important decision to make. Azumi has to deal with a lot of the same problems that Yuki has to confront. Both lose their mothers and have father figures that prove false to them. I saw Princess Blade first and throughly enjoyed it, but I would also like to recommend getting Azumi. You'll find that it has a lot in common with this film.
Rating:
Summary: One of the better Asian films I have seen lately
Review: Some excellent cinemotography along with some excellent action sequences make for an interesting movie. The only thing is that the pacing is not great. There is a huge amount of action in the first half and then the Princess stumbles upon a soulmate and she finds some measure of happiness and it drags a bit. I think some her relationship with the truck driver/terrorist could have been developed before she goes to meet Kuka, so that that fightwould come after some relationship development. As it is, the movie is action, action, slow, action, slow, slow, slow, action. Better pacing would have made it even better. Still, the action is good and character development is decent.
Rating:
Summary: Beware of the Princess Assasin!
Review: The Princess Blade is a decent film, and packs a fair punch into the modern Samurai style film genre.The film centers around a young woman, Yuki, who starts off as an assasin for the House of Takemikazuchi.(a clan of X royal guards turned assasins for money) She turns on her house however, when she discovers that her mother was killed by the House years earlier. Yuki's mother had been a royal figure in a disbanded kingdom, which leaves Yuki as the only remaining aire and the title of Princess. (Thus the reason for the flims name) Yuki soon finds herself hunted by her former comrades, and she must battle them to save herself, as well as get revenge for her mother. At one point Yuki is wounded in one of the skimishes, and is befriended by Takashi, a young man who is in an insurrectional movement to overthrow the goverment that funds the Takemikazuchi. Takashi shares Yuki's peril of having a tragic history, which is revealed during the film. He also has a sister who is in a post tramatic state which causes her to be detached somewhat from reality. Yuki hides out with the two for awhile and begins to discover that she can again find happiness in her life. Eventually however, she is tracked down by the Takemikazuchi, and must fight them in one final showdown. The Princess blade was a good film both in story and in character development. The sword fights are well choregraphed, and the actors performances bring a genuine concern for the characters in the story. Also, there are a lot of similarities to Kill Bill, which was based in part on modern Japanese Smaurai style cinema. The film does have a tragic ending however, and leads me to believe that a sequal was in mind when this film was made.(it may not be the ending the viewer is rooting for) Also, like in many Japanese films, the stroy slows down quite a bit during the middle, which left me begging for a few more sword fights. That being the main reason for a 4 instead of a 5 star rating. The film is not as action packed as Versuses, but it's less gorey, and takes itself much more seriously. The tech aspects include both a Japanese and English dubbed language track,(ADV does a nice job on the dub) trailers of other films and that's about it. Overall I enjoyed THe Princess Blade, and would watch it again. But I doubt it's a movie that I would want to watch frequently. My advice is that renting it will suffice for most people, but hard core fans of Japanese cinema and modern Samurai style films might consider purchasing it. It does have it's moments.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent mix of action and story.
Review: The Princess Blade succeeds where so many kung fu films fail: it doesn't sacrifice the story or acting for the fight scenes. The swordplay in The Princess Blade is pretty incredible. The cinematography allows you to see the fights in detail but still allows the aesthetics of the choreography to be seen. The story, while simple, is easily to follow and allows you understand and care for the characters right off the bat. I've seen many reviewers complain that the middle of the film was slow. In other words, there is a story between the fighting. If you want a good story and excellent fight scenes, The Princess Blade should be next on your "to watch" list.
Rating: 
Summary: SO CLOSE, AND YET SO FAR........
Review: This film could have been so much more than it was. A fantasy film in which a future Japanese police state utilizes assassins who use swords, despite having 21st century technology. The patriarch of the assassins is scary looking, the heroine is very sexy in that school-girl innocent look that Japanese men love (what is it with Japanese men and their desire for very young girls in sailor-suit school uniforms?-a dread of comparison?), and it does have a tangible combination of visual texture and depth. But the actions scenes, despite Donnie Yen's guiding hand, are silly looking and bad to the point of laughable. Granted, he didn't have much to work with, and the actors involved didn't look as bad as spindly and stiff Keanu Reeves or Fat Larry Fishburne in the Matrix franchise, but there was just very little there to hold your attention. Try it if you're bored, but otherwise, you could do better, with something like Equilibrium with Christian Bale; better acting, better fights, and better directing.
Rating: 
Summary: Decent
Review: This film had some very creative action scenes with spare use of SFX. It would have been MUCH more enjoyable with a more capable female lead. I was QUITE annoyed by her constant grunting and being out of breath FOR NO REASON. She needs to take some notes from Sandra Hess, Brigitte Lin, or Maggie Cheung. SOMEbody. The only other negative was the percussion obsessed music over the combat scenes.
I give it three stars for the futuristic feel, tragic love story, and very creative samarai styled action sequences toward the movie's beginning. The lead character is definitely a trooper though and very likeable for her persistence and resilience. I would have given it four if the lead actress was more convincing. I love chicks that kick butt--and she does that part but she sounds like she's about to die all throught he movie and it was just really frickin' annoying.
Rating:
Summary: Wasted potential thy name is Princess Blade.
Review: This modern remake of The Lady Snowblade is very thin. If you want an entertaining movie with quirky characters, lot's of jokes and a deep enthrauling storyline...well look at Versus or Samurai Fiction because I had been looking forward to PB for a while now and it really dissapointed. The movie has some amazing action set pieces for ten minutes in the begining and for ten minutes at the end. The action is thin and so are the characters, the love story was to weak for me and I'm a guy! I really wish it was better because it really could have been. I truly believe the japanese have the leg over the hong kong film industry in there ability to appease American audiences. But still, there are much more entertaining alternatives to this film. Now if you still want to see this despite my warnings, the film is not entirely without it's merits. It is beautifully shot, if not a little drab and depressing, and the action and the acting when it's put to work it works.
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