I promised myself I wouldn't compare my first viewing of "Lady Snowblood" too much with Quentin Tarantino's widely acclaimed masterpiece "Kill Bill", but the truth is you simply CAN'T think about anything else as I didn't expect the two films to be this similar. After seeing "Lady Snowblood", I now have endless respect for Toshiya Fujita's spectacular exploitation classic and actually a little less admiration for QT, since he blindly copied the entire concept of this film and even took over the ingenious narrative structure. The plot outline of "Lady Snowblood" is incredibly simple, but the film is brought to a much higher quality-level due to the marvelous & stylish subdivision of the story into four chapters. Hence, the basic given of a young woman who dedicates her whole life to take revenge on the criminals who sadistically killed her parents suddenly becomes a hugely compelling and elegant mini-saga that'll keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. The first chapter enlightens us about what happened to Yuki's parents and how she was born to complete the vengeance mission her mother started. Twenty years and an endless series of devastating fighting lessons later, she's ready to violently slay the three remaining bastards that ruined her life before it even started. Every confrontation with one of them marks a new chapter, resulting in an outrageous climax inside a restaurant (also clearly imitated by Tarantino). What an amazingly sensational film experience this is! The sword-fighting sequences are insanely grotesque  with the victims' blood squirting from here to Tokyo  but at the same time, the tone of the film constantly remains melodramatic and even a tad bit poetic. It's very difficult to blend extreme violence with a serious atmosphere, but Toshiya Fujita seemly pulls it off without too much effort. The set pieces and camera-work are sublime, suggesting very profitable production values for such a typical Japanese exploitation flick from the 70's, and the music (againcopied in "Kill Bill") epitomizes the genius of this unique film even more. Meiko Kaji portrays the titular character splendidly, with honest emotions and a convincing charisma. This great actress also starred in the equally notorious exploitation franchise "Female Scorpion". I reckon it's a great honor to serve as the principal influence for a Quentin Tarantino film, but "Lady Snowblood" deserves to be even bigger than "Kill Bill" itself. It's a masterpiece!