her mother's rapists, Tsukamoto Gishirō, had suspiciously died in a ship wreck three years prior when she first attempted to find him. After attacking Gishirō's tombstone in frustration, Yuki finds herself being followed by a reporter named Ryūrei Ashio. She warns him to stay away from her. Ashio learned of Yuki's story from Dōkai who persuaded him to publish it as a means to draw out one of Sayo's tormentors: Kitahama Okono. Okono sends men to kidnap Ashio, threatening him with torture for Yuki's location, but Ashio refuses to tell. Yuki enters Okono's estate and kills several of Okono's men while pursuing Okono. Yuki and Ryūrei find Okono's dying body hanging within a room. Yuki, hearing Okono's dying heartbeat, slices her in half. Ashio tells Yuki that Gishirō is his father, and had faked his death when he learned of Yuki's mission. She finds Gishirō at a masquerade ball and kills a man acting as his decoy. Ashio and Yuki find and follow the real Gishirō, who shoots Ashio. Wounded, Ashio grapples with Gishirō and stops him from shooting Yuki as she swings on a lamp between balconies. Yuki stabs through Ashio into Gishirō's chest. She then cuts Gishirō's throat as he shoots her. He falls over a railing and onto the ground floor full of guests. Yuki, wounded, stumbles outside where she is stabbed by a waiting Kobue, who has been pursuing Yuki all this while in her own quest to avenge her father's murder. Yuki manages to escape, only to collapse on the snow, apparently dead. The following morning, however, she opens her eyes. Cast Meiko Kaji as Yuki Kashima ("Lady Snowblood") Mayumi Maemura as young Yuki Kō Nishimura as Dōkai the priest Toshio Kurosawa as Ryūrei Ashio Masaaki Daimon as Gō Kashima Miyoko Akaza as Sayo Kashima Eiji Okada as Gishirō Tsukamoto Sanae Nakahara as Okono Kitahama Noboru Nakaya as Banzō Takemura Takeo Chii as Shokei Tokuichi Hitoshi Takagi as Matsuemon Akemi Negishi as Tajire no Okiku Yoshiko Nakada as Kobue Takemura Rinichi Yamamoto as Maruyama Production Kikumaru Okuda, a producer from the independent studio Tokyo Eiga, wanted to make a film starring actress and singer Meiko Kaji, known at the time for her role in Toei's successful Female Prisoner Scorpion series. He felt that a film adaptation of the Lady Snowblood manga would be ideal for such a project, and contracted Norio Osada to write the