Delicately rendered, if full of pretty banal sentiments, the film's softer central section is a necessary counterweight to the other two acts, which are largely shot in an oppressive blue filter.

| Mar 26, 2009

A fine remake of "Lady Snowblood," with Donnie Yen fight choreograpy to boot

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 22, 2005

the film's opening action sequence is the first of several that are likely to have you thumbing the backscan button because they look so damn cool (and are so damn fast).

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 21, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Feb 2, 2004

Action directors take note: This is how it's done.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 5, 2003

Sato seems to be trying to make several different movies at once, and none of them comes through strongly enough to carry the film.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Sep 25, 2003

[Yumiko Shaku] doesn't project the confidence or menace that the role requires. Trying to pass her off as a stone-cold assassin is like casting Britney Spears as Marie Curie -- it just doesn't jibe.

| Original Score: C- | Sep 20, 2003

A brooding atmosphere -- which is critic-speak for 'everybody wears black, and the whole thing was lighted with a single 40-watt bulb' -- permeates this dystopian thriller.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 19, 2003

It has stylish fighting, but the story doesn't live up to the talent of the fight choreographer.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 19, 2003

It's clear that video-game-designer-turned-director Shinsuke Sato knows what he's got: when the action settles down, he wisely hangs the camera on his alluring stars.

| Sep 13, 2003

Its corny streak brings the movie too close to cut-rate Chinese Opera epics than should be allowed.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 22, 2003

Great movie, mediocre script.

Full Review | Aug 22, 2003

The cast, in its quiet, iconic way, is superb.

Full Review | Aug 22, 2003

By turns violent and brooding, it's stronger on style than on substance, but genre fans might find it at least sporadically amusing.

| Original Score: C | Aug 17, 2003

The beautiful, elegant swordfights are filmed clearly and poetically, and even the down-time between battles doesn't drag too badly.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 15, 2003

The Princess Blade would have been better off forgetting the love story and concentrating on the kick-ass action.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 8, 2003

Has all the makings of a cult film.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 8, 2003

A stylish Japanese effort adapted from a popular manga that blends the thematic substance of a Toho Samurai epic with the quicksilver visceral assault of a Shaw Brothers Wuxia swordsman saga.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 8, 2003

The Princess Blade boasts some of the most dazzling fight choreography in recent memory.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 8, 2003

Adventurous viewers will find this unusual genre hybrid an intriguing experience.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 7, 2003