Set in the not to distant future, Japan is ruled by a monarchy, but at the same time there are rebels who fight to overthrow the government. In order to get rid of these rebels, the Japanese government hire some assassins from something that is called the House of Takemikazuchi. Princess Yuki, a member of the Takemikazuchi clan, learns that her parents were killed by the leader of the clan and leaves them vowing revenge. But no one is allowed to leave and the clan sends out assassins to kill Yuki. When escaping from the clan, she meets Takashi, a man that becomes her friend and that she develops strong feelings for as time goes by. Hiding away with Takashi, she starts to plot her revenge against her former clan.
The Princess Blade was adapted from the manga with the same name, and is a movie that makes you think a bit about Azumi, although Azumi was made later on. It's not that similar to Azumi, but since both movies features a sword swinging heroine, is set in Japan and has all these martial arts and swordplay elements, it's hard to not compare them at all. Although The Princess Blade is a bit, how can I put it, "cuter" in lack of a better word and doesn't have the same type of violence that Azumi had.
For being a film that is set in the future, it doesn't look very futuristic at all. There are only a small number of different sceneries used in the movie and most of the time is spent in the woods. And be it the year 1537 or 2028, the woods remain to look like just what woods normally look like, future or no future. Once in a while though, there are some CGI made scenes that actually look a bit futuristic. When it comes to action, this movie really delivers and it's true eye candy to watch some of the fights that take place. Also the fights and the actual action feels kinda realistic and does luckily not have that cartoonish feel to it. Unfortunately this movie is not all about action and swordplay.
 
The Princess Blade has a great opening scene which automatically grabs your attention and all seems well and good. Unfortunately as the plot evolves, this movie becomes weaker and weaker as it goes. Once in a while there's some great action scene that saves it for the moment, but then it's back to the weak story that is not very interesting. It tends to slow down way too much at times without really having any greater development of the characters that are Yuki and Takashi. So even if we get to know them a tiny bit, it's very hard to feel anything for any of them.
At times it's like watching a comic book on screen which is a really cool feeling, and if it could've stayed like that all the way it would've been awesome. Unfortunately it goes a different way too many times and you don't know whether you really like it or if it's just too boring. And that is the main problem with this movie, its ups and downs, because one moment there's a lot happening, it looks stunning and has fantastic action. But then the next moment it completely slows down and you find yourself having a hard time to stay interested. Azumi definitely had a better feel to it as well since Yuki here looks a little bit to young, like some Japanese pop-star or something which makes it a little hard to take her seriously.
I think this is one of those typical popcorn flicks that you watch because you have nothing else to do or for the fact that you wanna watch something but without having to think too much. It has some great action, some visually interesting stuff, the acting is decent but the story is weak and the movie just goes nowhere at times. Can't really recommened it but can't say that it's bad either. A very average movie that gets one extra point for some of the visually stunning action sequences.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Shurayuki hime
MOVIE YEAR: 2001
DIRECTOR: Shinsuke Sato
WRITING CREDITS: Kazuo Kamimura, Kazuo Koike
GENRE: Action, Revenge, Sci-Fi, Swordplay, Martial Arts
CAST: Hideaki Ito, Shir˘ Sano, Y˘ko Ch˘sokabe
COUNTRY: Japan
RUNTIME: 93 min
RATING: 6/10
Princess Blade, The Website/IMDB Click here
Princess Blade, The Trailer Click here
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