In the post-apocalyptic future the former guardians of the emperor have become a clan of assassins. But now their princess has departed from their ranks after finding out that the steward of the clan does not have her best interests in mind. And now she must flee from them all. The assassins, the government, the everyday people.The Princess Blade is based on the manga Lady Snowblood by Kazuo Koike and Kazuo Kamimura, and it is very much style over substance. But it is good style. The opening fight pretty much sets the tone for the entire film. If you're not hooked after it, you can safely turn the TV off or look for something else to watch. The film is barely nothing more than one big katana fight after another, with crazy stunts, back flips, lots of swords doing that drawing sound they never do in real life, cool poses and people getting cut down.Though to be fair, the story isn't all that bad. It just isn't focused on enough. The Princess Yuki (Yumiko Shaku) flees from everything she has ever known and meets Takashi (Hideaki Ito) a rebel against the government, being forced to hide in his home. Both Shaku and Ito are good actors and have genuine chemistry together. It's just that aside from the action scenes, the movie is pretty hard to follow. People have conversations together, but none of the scenes connect with one another and in the end you're not really sure what this all means for the characters and the world they live in.There are also some rather strange touches and details in the story, but I blame the fact that they were adapting a manga series for those. Such details can always seem strange and superfluous if you're not careful about which scenes to add and which to leave out.All in all, The Princess Blade is worth a watch if you'd like to see a kung fu action film that takes place in the post-apocalyptic future. Its story is not terribly exciting, but the action scenes are good enough for you to enjoy the film as a whole.

there are some confusing parts and there questionable parts and it almost seems that this particular move went from the high quality action movies to a cute move with some romance tossed in to keep your attention the story line is OK i would have liked to see them go farther into the past for the 2 main characters past. the soundtrack was unimpressive and it left a lot to be desired but it makes you think and you fall in love with the characters you get into the story so much you might find yourself watching it over and over,and you might say this movie is very poorly made,but its the story that really grabs your attention so i love it none the less

I registered for IMDb just to comment on this movie. I just got done sitting through this movie, and the only thing that impressed me, was that I somehow had the will power to not stop it.I've seen a pretty decent number of action movies and what not, but Princess Blade has some of the worst fights I've ever seen in a movie. Most of the sword fighting involves mindlessly swinging the swords back and fourth and hoping the opponent isn't doing the same. I've seen a good many student films with better action and stronger plots.So now we have a "futuristic" action movie with poor action, and virtually no sign of the future. Most of the movie doesn't even have any action and shows the developing relationship with the Princess and the farmboy/terrorist and his disturbed sister. The movie has multiple plot lines, and none of them really pan out to be worth anything. Part of the problem may have been that I watched the dub, which was quite bad. The entire cast mumbled all their lines so it was hard to follow what was going on. But I got the general idea. (Knowing exactly what was said would not have saved the movie in my eyes)If you've heard about this being a futuristic action/ninja flick, then you've heard wrong. Thats what I thought it was when I heard about it, and now I've lost 90 minutes of my life. Don't let this happen to you. Steer well clear of it.

Princess Blade had some good elements - the main character isn't the typical one-woman wrecking machine (like Uma in Kill Bill for example) and the element of vulnerability that it adds definitely makes the fight scenes better and more suspenseful. She can be injured and hurt - having a main character that isn't necessarily guaranteed an easy win without a scratch is good!The subplot however, with Takashi and his sister is fairly weak. It gives the character some depth, but isn't really utilized in an effective way. The ending feels like the writers are jerking the audience around a bit.I imagine many viewers will be left a bit disappointed as the credits roll. The movie has an "unfinished feel" to it and the ending feels about 15 minutes premature - I would've liked to see a bit more closure. As another reviewer mentioned, they probably left the end open to provide the basis for a sequel, however it's not very satisfying.Worth a rental? Sure. Worth a buy? Not really.